Racing History Minute - April 5, 2014

One year ago, today, April 5, 2013,it was a very rainy day here in Columbia. I had nothing much to do that day so I reached to my left and pulled out the first volume of "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing" to read some racing history. I would often turn to those volumes when I had some spare time to go back in time through the race reports contained. I have all five volumes of "Forty Years" along with "Rumblin' Ragtops". Somehow I missed "High Speed at Low Tide".

My collection of these volumes started all those years ago (about 1987) when the first volume was released. One of the many racing periodicals I read at the time had an advertisement for the first book which included a phone number for ordering. I hesitated not one minute when I saw the ad. I called the number at once. A very nice lady answered the phone and proceeded to take my order and, as often happens with me, the conversation went far past just ordering the book. It turned out that the nice lady was the mother of Greg Fielden, the author of the book. She told me my book would arrive within four weeks. Actually, it was only a matter of days before I opened the box containing that first Volume which covered the years 1949-1958.

Over the succeeding years, Volumes Two (1959-1964), Three (1965-1971), Four (1972-1989) and finally "Forty Plus Four 1990-1993. Somewhere in the time frame,
"Rumblin' Ragtops" was released, which chronicled the short-lived NASCAR Convertible Series. EachVolume contains reports on each Grand National Race of each season. As each volume was received, I would read it from cover to cover,remembering many of the races from personal experience, or from listening on the radio but there were so many races of which I had never read, seen, or heard. So many interesting stories gathered in one set of books. Little did I realize then, some 20 yearsor so ago, that I would one day find those books sovaluable in presenting a history of the sport here at RacersReunion.

Greg Fielden, now a resident of Myrtle Beach, at least I think he still resides there, is a native of Charlotte, North Carolina. Most fitting location for someone so involved in racing. It was, however, at Lakeside Speedway inDenver, Colorado, where he saw his first race at age 5. By the time he was a teenager,Greg was living in Washington, D. C. and was so into auto racingthat he spent most of his time actually studying all the publications pertaining to motorsports.Hand in hand with reading each publication, Greg started collecting historical data on racinggoing as far back as 1906.

Greg got "into the business" of writing about motorsports on the local level for "The Myrtle Beach Journal-American".After his start, he went on to write for the"Myrtle Beach Sun News" as well as "Conway, South Carolina Field and Herald".

When he began putting the "Forty Years" together, he was a regular columnist and Field Editor for"Racing News". He was also a contributor to such publications as "National Speed Sport News","Grand National Scene", "Southern Motorsports Journal" as well as writer for the "Salute to Champions" which was an 18 page bonus in thesouvenir program for the 1987 Atlanta Journal500.

Greg was, at the time of the release ofhis first volume of "Forty Years" a statistician and historian for CBS television's Daytona 500 telecasts. Greg was also involved with World Sports Enterprises, Ohlmeyer Communications Co., Performance Racing Network, and CART-Indy Car Radio Network.

*** Thanks to the publisher, Galfield Press, for the biographical information as provided in "about the author" in the first volume.***

Shortly before this past Christmas, Ann (my wife) and I were shopping when I discovered a big red book entitled "NASCAR, The Complete History". I picked it up, of course, and started flipping through page after page of historic photos and racing information. Then, I happened to notice the author was Greg Fielden. I immediately knew what I wanted Ann to get me for Christmas, but I was concerned about how much this volume would cost because it was thick, heavy, full of photos, many in color, and bound in a cover that spoke about $99.99 at a minimum. When I finally located the price, I almost dropped the book. This beautiful red book could be mine for less than the cost of 3 gallons of gas. Ann bought it for my Christmas present and although I tried to talk her into letting me review it before she wrapped it, that discussion got me nowhere. When the family Christmas festivities were done Christmas day, I settled into my recliner and spent several hours looking at all the historic pictures and reading the racing notes contained in that red book.

The history of the sport of stock car racing is very important to me. I grew up around the sport, first as a fan, then a driver, then a series of working at the local track in any capacity, a track announcer, live radio broadcasts of the local racing, working with a television network to produce a special on stock car racing. Thanks to my Uncle Bobby who got me started, and then my mother and father who came to enjoy a sport they first thought they would hate, I was in the infield at races at almost every major event from 1957 through 1993. It was 1952 when I attended the first race of my life at the local short track and the love for the local level racing continued through the years.

I am sometimes asked how many races I have attended in my life. The short answer is "thousands" because there is no accurate way to recount all the events. I am very privileged to have been right in the middle of events from Darlington to Daytona to Charlotte, to Atlanta, to Talladega and so many more. I have been privileged to sit and listen to almost every driver to have ever turned a steering wheel in Grand National racing over the years. I have personal memories of Fireball Roberts, Lee Petty, Tim Flock, Wendell Scott, Joe Weatherly, and so many, many more, that come to mind from time to time as I reflect on this past 62 years.

I am most honored to be a part of RacersReunion in the effort to accurately and respectfully present the history of stock car racing. I am privileged to be able to attend events held each year by The Augusta International Raceway Preservation Society and the Historic Speedway Group. The AIRPS seeks to remember the racing heritage of the Augusta, Georgia area. The Historic Speedway Group holds an event each fall in Hillsboro, North Carolina that is unequalled in presenting the history of the sport with many of the early day heroes in attendance, not to mention the huge number of historic race cars.

I have had the honor of being with Bill Blair, Jr. as he works on a project called "Our Racing Heroes" through which the organization seeks to honor so many of the pioneers of the sport that are often overlooked in any discussion of the early days. Without those pioneers, there would be nothing today. It's that simple. Bill believes, as do I, that proper presentation of the history is an absolute necessity if the youngsters of today are to appreciate from where we came. I am 100% behind his efforts.

And RacersReunion! What can I say about this wonderful site? Well, first up, it is much more than another internet "site". This site is filled with many people, of both sexes and all ages, who are interested in the sport and overall the history of the sport. Many of those you see here regularly, I have met in person, shook their hands and, in some cases, actually hugged them. A finer group of people cannot be found than those who hang out here. It is always a pleasure to get together in person, whether it be at Augusta, Hillsboro, or events in Mooresville at Memory Lane Museum or The North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame. I am getting more and more excited as the time draws near to the upcoming events. I hope to be able to attend the event at J.B. Day's place in June of this year. Previous years the family vacation to Edisto always began on the Sunday when J.B. held his get-together, but this year we aren't going to Edisto.

The Racing History Minutes have been fun for me. However, without the contributions of TMC Chase and Dave Fulton, the Minutes would have been mere words. TMC Chase and Dave, along with a few others, have provided historic photos, videos and newspaper and magazine articles to present a more complete picture than just what I wrote. Without those contributions, we would have missed so much. So thank you all, especially TMC Chase and Dave, for your contributions and support. To all the readers and commenters on each History Minute, thank you for taking time to read and/or comment. And, thank you, Jeff Gilder, for giving us a platform to share these Racing History Minutes. Without a doubt, many, many thanks to Greg Fielden for what he has done. As I worked with his volumes this year, I would often think of how many endless hours he must have spent putting this all together. Greg deserves a pat on the back from every fan of historic stock car racing! Thank you Greg.

Finally, as close as I can determine, we have provided approximately 325 Racing History Minutes since April 5, 2013. If you are so inclined, you may want to go back through the archives here and pick out some favorite races and see what has been posted about those races. You may be surprised at the pictures and videos that appear with those Minutes.

I am already plotting what next I will undertake to keep the site jumping! My thoughts, at this time, is to start soon, with a year by year synopsis of the seasons, once again relying on the wonderful work of Greg Fielden to provide the information. Although some have criticized the addition of my "Personal Notes" to some of the Minutes, I will continue to use that platform to express memories I have related to the sport. After all, I lived it in one capacity of another.

Again, thank you all for your support during this past year. Remember, as I always say,

Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.

T

Tim, we have sure enjoyed the History Minutes series, especially your personal notes. We are fortunate that a few souls like Greg Fielden have preserved the history of stock car racing to share with us.

Looking forward to your next surprise for us!

Thanks Tim. Really enjoyed your Racing History Minute and look forward to what you will do next.

Thanks, Dave, not only for the comment, but also for everything you did to make those "Minutes" colorful, more insightful, and educating. The very small part I played in putting up those posts were enjoyable to me, but you and Chase really made them rock! Thank you so very much.

Buddy, thank you for your kind comments. I am pleased that you and I share a lot in common as our presence on this website proves! As for the "personal notes" issue, I couldn't believe the first negative comment I received calling me out for posting personal comments on an event I had attended. The negatives were rare, and always addressed to me via the e-mail, although I think one or two may have actually made the Forum post. Even so, it's folks like you that support what I do here, with the help of others, that allows me to "thump my nose" at those who want to be negative. I have learned in this life that there are those who THINK they know everything, are experts on every thing,and use the most illogical references to support their claims to greatness. Thank you again for your support of the site. We will soon be off and running on a new adventure into racing history.

Thank you Dennis and thank you also for your contributions to the "Minutes". I would personally love to see more of YOUR Minutes in regard to your father's career. I attended several of those "Grand American" races back in the day and saw your father run that Cougar the way only a great driver could.

It's been a fun ride the last year reading through the various posts. In many cases, it was easy to find articles, pictures, programs, etc. But for most, it was a bit of a challenge. It's well established I'm a Petty lifer, but I really enjoy all NASCAR history. I learned a tremendous amount with each post, and I've shared many of the posts here with others outside RR mainly via Twitter. I know a few folks who have signed up here likely because of following a tweeted link to one of the posts.

Thanks again to all those who have shared photos here over the relatively short history of this site. The collection here is generally where I searched first in an effort to tie an individual photo or two to a narrative to bring context to both. It's also why it's really important to tag those photos so all of us can quickly and accurately search for a race setting that interests each of us.

I don't have stats on how many members RR has - or what the participation level is. I have a gut feel based on scanning through site updates on the front page. But I hope others will continue to write about various races, heroes, more GN/Cup, other stock car divisons/series such as LMS, ARCA, USAC stockers, short trackers, convertibles, etc. Tim has gone to a scad of races, but we've likely all attended our share. Keep the Big Mo' rolling with those stories!

Baseball has probably done the best job of documenting its history. The NFL, NBA and NHL probably are clustered together well behind baseball. But NASCAR has done an average job - at best - of chronicling its history, particularly with its non-GN/Cup series. Sites like this are a great forum to cobble together multiple stories and sources - including personal experiences - to rebuild some of the lost history.