PANTHER 300 July 16, 1970

PANTHER 300

Catamount Stadium

Milton, Vermont

Thursday, July 16, 1970

Grand American race #20 of 1970 was held at Catamount Stadium, a 1/3 mile paved oval. It was the second of a 5 event STP Northern Tour. Starting line ups were determined by qualifying heats with the starting order of the heats determined by season point standings. The race was delayed for one hour because of rain.

Jim Paschal and Warren Prout had their American Performance Center Javelins running well with Darrell Bryant turning the wrenches and Bill Blair Jr. building the engines. Paschal won the qualifying heat to earn the pole position and led the first 167 laps before team mate Max Berrier went into the lead for one lap with Paschal reclaiming the lead for the next 45 laps. Berrier would lead lap 240 before Paschal moved back out front to claim his second victory of the year. Berrier was a close second for the second race in a row with Wayne Andrews coming from 15^th to finish third. New Englander Phil Spiak started 3^rd and finished 6^th. Point leader Tiny Lund went out with a blown engine and finished 23^rd which allowed 5^th place finisher Ken Rush to claim the point lead.

Paschal earned $1,400 of the $9,705 purse. Of note on the purses for the Tour events was how the funds were distributed. The payout did not drop off as fast as you went down the order. No finisher got less than $200.

Twenty eight cars took the green and 18 were running at the finish. There were 4 cautions for 28 laps.

Fin Srt Car # Driver Car Laps Reason out

1 1 14 Jim Paschal 70 Javelin 300 Running

2 2 16 Max Berrier 70 Javelin 300 Running

3 15 15 Wayne Andrews 70 Cougar 300 Running

4 9 87 Buck Baker 70 Firebird 296 Running

5 5 44 Ken Rush 69 Camaro 291 Running

6 3 40 Phil Spiak 69 Camaro 289 Running

7 17 8 Phil Wills 69 Camaro 286 Running

8 6 86 David Boggs 69 Firebird 281 Running

9 14 17 Ernie Shaw 68 Mustang 279 Running

10 18 0 Tom Tiller 68 Camaro 279 Running

11 8 3 Doug Aldridge 69 Camaro 275 Running

12 4 7 Jimmy Vaughn 69 Camaro 273 Running

13 24 61 Tommy Lechlider 68 Camaro 263 Running

14 21 24 Ron Bascomb 68 Camaro 262 Running

15 25 89 Tom Cox 68 Camaro 255 Running

16 23 9 Stan Starr 68 Camaro 253 Running

17 28 39 Earl Briggs 69 Camaro 248 Running

18 22 19 Bobby Brewer 68 Camaro 245 Running

19 7 88 T. C. Hunt 69 Camaro 234 Engine

20 20 27 Jerry Hufflin 68 Camaro 153 Rear end

21 10 41 Gary Myers 69 Mustang 95 Push rod

22 11 33 Joe Dean Huss 69 Camaro 62 Broke pulley

23 13 55 Tiny Lund 70 Camaro 58 Engine

24 27 92 Paul Tyler 69 Firebird 45 Heating

25 19 13 Jack Du Brul 69 Javelin 22 Engine

26 26 26 Richard Childress 68 Camaro 20 Ignition

27 12 31 Earl Canavan 69 Javelin 19 Engine

28 16 82 Bill Chevalier 68 Mustang 1 Heating

Thanks Dennis , still waiting for your book to come out ! I really enjoy these

The Montreal Gazette ran a preview story, citing the event as the nearest NASCAR GA race to Montreal. They confused 300 laps on the third-mile with 300 miles:

A brief Associated Press recap below appeared in the Toledo Blade:

great report Dennis...thanks for all you do....

Thanks, Dave. One comment in the Montreal Gazette is different that the reports I have seen. This says that the fastest cars start in the back of the qualifying heats. The source I have says they were started by order of season point standings. I'll ask dad if he remembers how they did it or maybe some of our RR members who were there will remember.

Thanks Johnny, The book is being written right here on RR one race at a time by all the contributors.

Dad said he thought they drew for position in the heat races.

Bump