October 28, 1961: The other South Carolina race

Tim Leeming posted about the October 28, 1961 Grand National race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina here:

http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/28279/racing-history-minute-october-28-1961

But on the same day, the MARC series (later known as ARCA) also raced in South Carolina at Columbia Speedway. Having led the effort to build Charlotte Motor Speedway, Curtis Turner was dumped by the board of directors and was banned by NASCAR in 1961. But he and Tim Flock - also banned "for life" by Bill France - didn't just retire to the porch. They worked with John Marcum to promote MARC races in the south.

While I see nothing in these articles stating specifically so, my hunch tells me Turner scheduled the Columbia race to deliberately go head-to-head with France's GN race in Greenville.

Race preview from Sumter Daily Item

Race preview from Spartanburg Herald .

Race preview from Sumter Daily Item

I haven't yet found a race report article though I did learn Curtis won his own race (not altogether surprising I suppose). The race was scheduled to begin at 8PM on a Saturday night. Its likely to have finished after the press deadline for the Sunday edition papers.

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updated by @tmc-chase: 11/26/20 08:57:24AM

I suspect you're right about Curtis purposely scheduling that MARC race against the NASCAR race in Greenville, SC. The October 29, 1961 event was part of the 1962 MARC points schedule and Curtis did exactly the same thing on April Fool's Day, 1962, promoting a MARC race at the Virginia International Raceway road course near Danville head to head against the NASCAR Grand National race in Richmond.

( TOLEDO, Ohio - March 27, 2011) - The late Curtis Turner made headlines "This Week in ARCA" on April 1, 1962 when the Floyd, Virginia racer drove his Ford to victory lane in the 250-mile event on the Virginia International Raceway road course in Danville, Virginia, thus adding his name to the illustrious list of ARCA Racing Series road course winners.

Turner joined Fred Lorenzen, Nelson Stacy, Jack Bowsher, Bob Schacht, Elmer Musgrave, Ken Schrader, Darrell Waltrip and Justin Allgaier as some of ARCA's road course winners. Turner also won ARCA Racing Series events at Columbia Speedway (Columbia, S.C.) in 1961 and the first ever ARCA race held at Charlotte Motor Speedway in October of 1964. Sadly, Turner died in a plane crash near Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on October 4, 1970 when the single-engine Aero-Commander 500 plane he was piloting crashed shortly after take-off from Dubois-Jefferson Airport en route to Roanoke, Virginia. Clarence King also died in the crash.

Courtesy ARCA

1962 MARC Season

Date	Event	Cars	Winner	Make	Track/Location	Average Speed	Cautions
10-08-61	MARC-01		Ken Reeder	Dodge	Cloverleaf Speedway
10-15-61			Harold Smith	Chevrolet	Baer Field Raceway
10-22-61	MARC-03		Harold Smith	Chevrolet	Lakewood Speedway
10-28-61			Curtis Turner	Ford	Columbia Speedway
11-05-61	MARC-05		Ernie Derr	Pontiac	Birmingham Speedway
3-4	MARC-06		Ernie Derr	Pontiac	Lakewood Speedway
3-16			Dick Hutcherson	Ford	Austin Speedway
3-18	MARC-08		Ernie Derr	Pontiac	Meyers Speedway
3-23	MARC-09	17	Dick Freeman	Ford	Montgomery Fairgrounds Speedway
4-1	American Road 250	18	Curtis Turner	Ford	Virginia Int'l Raceway		1 for ? laps
4-7			Iggy Katona	Ford	Rock Hill Speedway
4-15	MARC-12	20	Roy Wathen	Ford	Fairgrounds Motor Speedway
4-21	MARC-13		Dick Freeman	Chevrolet	Canfield Speedway
4-29	MARC-14		Curtis Turner	Ford	Lakewood Speedway
5-6			Dick Freeman	Ford	Toledo Raceway Park
5-13	MARC-16		Iggy Katona	Ford	Heidelberg Speedway
5-27	MARC-17	19	Jesse Baird	Pontiac	Fairgrounds Motor Speedway
5-30	MARC-18		Harold Smith	Chevrolet	Canfield Speedway
6-3	MARC-19		Bobby Watson	Ford	Salem Speedway
6-10			Dick Freeman	Ford	Dayton Speedway
6-17			Harold Smith	Chevrolet	Nashville Fairgrounds
6-23			Dick Freeman	Ford	Cloverleaf Speedway
6-24	MARC-23		Iggy Katona	Ford	Heidelberg Speedway
6-29	MARC-24		Harold Smith	Ford	Berlin Raceway
6-30			Iggy Katona	Ford	Mt Clements Racetrack
7-14	Metropolitan 200		Jack Shanklin	Ford	Dayton Speedway	82.338 mph
7-28			Paul Parks	Ford	Cloverleaf Speedway
8-4	MARC-28		Paul Parks	Ford	Toledo Speedway
8-5			Paul Parks	Ford	Lancaster Speedway
8-12			Iggy Katona	Ford	Dayton Speedway
8-19			Harold Smith	Chevrolet	Fairgrounds Motor Speedway
8-26			Dick Freeman	Ford	Salem Speedway
9-2			Iggy Katona	Ford	Michigan State Fairgrounds
9-16			Iggy Katona	Ford	Dayton Speedw

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From the ARCA web site:

New Places, New Faces

With a schedule of 34 races, Midwest Association for Race Cars (MARC) continued to spread to new tracks, branching into 12 states in 1962. NASCAR legend Curtis Turner won his second MARC victory in the series' first race at Columbia Speedway in Columbia, S.C. Another notable win included Dick Hutcherson, co-founder of Hutcherson-Pagan Racing MARC event at Texas' Austin Speedway. Iggy Katona continued to dominate the series, winning seven races, as he claimed his fourth championship.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

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