October 20, 1957 - Billy Myers and Bob Welborn are winners

TMC Chase
@tmc-chase
11 years ago
4,073 posts

At Wilson Speedway in North Carolina on October 20, 1957, Billy Myers and Possum Jones raced to a controversial finish. In the end, Billy Myers in his #88 Petty Engineering Oldsmobile was declared the winner with Possum scored in second.

Bob Welborn's 4th place finish earned him enough points to secure the 1957 championship despite the convertible division having one race remaining in the season a week later at Columbia.

Gwyn Staley started seventh and finished eighth in a Chevy convertible owned by Julian Petty (Lee's brother, Richard's uncle).

I nearly missed out on posting about this race on its anniversary. Greg Fielden's book Rumblin' Ragtops and racing-reference.info both had the date of the race as October 30th. Fortunately, I found about the discrepancy this morning while looking for info to support Tim Leeming's October 20th post.

Read on for more:

https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/10/october-20-1957-billy-myers-wins-wilson.html

Fin Driver Sponsor / Owner Car
1 Billy Myers Petty Engineering '57 Oldsmobile
2 Possum Jones Bob Welborn '57 Chevrolet
3 Paul Goldsmith Slim Rominger '57 Ford
4 Bob Welborn Bob Welborn '57 Chevrolet
5 Glen Wood Wood Brothers '57 Ford
6 Joe Weatherly Holman-Moody '57 Ford
7 Emanuel Zervakis Junie Donlavey '57 Chevrolet
8 Gwyn Staley J. H. Petty '57 Chevrolet
9 Larry Frank Lonnie Fish '57 Chevrolet
10 Whitey Norman Whitey Norman '56 Ford
11 Roger Baldwin Roger Baldwin '56 Ford
12 Neil Castles '56 Ford
13 Ken Rush J. S. Rice '57 Ford
14 Clarence DeZalia Clarence DeZalia '56 Mercury
15 Bill Poor Bill Poor '56 Chevrolet
16 Darel Dieringer John Whitford '57 Ford
17 Fred Harb Fred Harb '57 Mercury
18 Bill Champion Bill Champion '56 Ford
19 Don Gray Lonnie Fish '56 Chevrolet



--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

updated by @tmc-chase: 10/20/20 08:04:20AM
Dave Fulton
@dave-fulton
11 years ago
9,137 posts

Possum Jones was another of the good old fashioned nicknames we used to have in racing.

Motorsports writer, Thomas Pope wrote a good column some years back lamenting the loss of colorful nicknames and caheges in sponsors in racing:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=DcJQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=WdAMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4303,5675857&dq=possum+jones+wilson+nc&hl=en




--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
Dave Fulton
@dave-fulton
11 years ago
9,137 posts

Scoring at Wilson wasn't any better when the circuit returned in 1958:




--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
TMC Chase
@tmc-chase
11 years ago
4,073 posts

About 4 years ago before I really got into blogging about Petty wins, I cobbled together a post of some of my favorite racer names - some nicknames and some given to them by their mamas. Possum topped my list.

https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-favorite-racer-names.html




--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.

updated by @tmc-chase: 10/20/20 09:03:50AM
TMC Chase
@tmc-chase
6 years ago
4,073 posts

Billy Bob Bump




--
Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.