Yesterday, I posted about a race on the west coast. Today, I cross three time zones to post about an east coast race - and a Northeast race to boot.
The Grand National drivers arrived in upstate New York for a 200-lap, 100-mile race on the 1/2 mile fairgrounds track in Hamburg, New York. A week earlier, Dick Linder earned his first career GN win in Dayton, Ohio. A week later, the teams would travel to Darlington for the inaugural Southern 500.
A big story line coming into the race was the scheduled appearances by Louise Smith and Sara Christian. Both arrived and both qualified. The race would be the last of 8 career Strictly Stock / GN starts for Christian. A third woman driver, Ann Chester, was also in the field. Chester of Buffalo made her second and final GN start with her other one coming at Vernon NY in June 1950.
The race was a big 'un. In his typical fashion, Ed Otto advertised that as many as 45 cars might run in the event. On the low end, 35 cars might race. As it turned out, only 33 cars qualified. But for only the 2nd season of NASCAR GN racing - and at an upstate NY track - and a week before the highly anticipated race at Darlington, a 33 car count was pretty good it seems to me.
Dick Linder kept his momentum going from Dayton by winning the pole at Hamburg. Curtis Turner timed second, and Fireball Roberts qualified third. Other big names included in the field included Lee Petty, Bill Rexford, Frank Mundy, and northeast midget racing legend Pappy Hough.
Curtis was the early rabbit. He grabbed the lead on the first lap. As he often did, he wanted to be the lap bully. He led the first 74 laps before Linder let him know his Dayton win and Hamburg pole weren't flukes.
Linder led the next 79 laps to get the race to just past the three-quarters mark. Fireball passed Linder - perhaps during a pit stop sequence - and led 9 laps. But then Linder re-took the lead and led the remaining 38 laps for his second consecutive victory.
Fireball finished 2nd and was the only other car on the lead lap. Curtis finished third, one lap down. Jack White, the 1949 Hamburg winner, finished 5th.
Lee Petty finished a disappointing 27th. The finish was an anomaly for Papa Lee who had 2 top 10s coming into Hamburg and then five top 10s after the race to close out the year - including a win in the final race of the season.
The race at Hamburg was the second and final one for NASCAR's new series with the first one being part of the initial 1949 Strictly Stock schedule.
Linder raced the majority of the GN races in 1950, about a quarter of them in 1951, and then one each in 1953 and 1956. He tried his hand at running Indy roadsters in the late 1950s. Tragically, he was killed in an accident at Trenton Speedway in 1959. In a cruel twist of fate, Linder spun his car to avoid hitting Don Branson who had spun in front of him. He lost control of his car, sailed through the fence, and suffered a broken neck in a rollover.
From FindAGrave.com
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Dick Linder | '50 Oldsmobile |
| 2 | Fireball Roberts | '49 Oldsmobile |
| 3 | Curtis Turner | '50 Oldsmobile |
| 4 | Lloyd Moore | '50 Lincoln |
| 5 | Jack White | '50 Mercury |
| 6 | Bill Rexford | '50 Oldsmobile |
| 7 | Frank Mundy | '50 Oldsmobile |
| 8 | Ted Chamberlain | '50 Plymouth |
| 9 | Pappy Hough | '50 Ford |
| 10 | Bill Blair | '50 Mercury |
| 11 | Frankie Schneider | |
| 12 | John Borden | '50 Ford |
| 13 | Dick Jerrett | '49 Oldsmobile |
| 14 | Sara Christian | '50 Ford |
| 15 | Harland Holmes | '49 Ford |
| 16 | Chuck Mahoney | '50 Mercury |
| 17 | F. Weichman | |
| 18 | Red Ryder | '49 Oldsmobile |
| 19 | Lyle Scott | '49 Lincoln |
| 20 | Morris Lamb | |
| 21 | Ann Chester | '47 Plymouth |
| 22 | Louise Smith | '50 Nash |
| 23 | Ken Warmington | '49 Ford |
| 24 | Art Lamey | '49 Plymouth |
| 25 | Gayle Warren | '49 Oldsmobile |
| 26 | Jimmy Florian | '50 Ford |
| 27 | Lee Petty | '49 Plymouth |
| 28 | Lee Hough | '50 Ford |
| 29 | George Hartley | '50 Ford |
| 30 | Dick Burns | '49 Mercury |
| 31 | Bob Dickson | '49 Lincoln |
| 32 | Paul Parks | '50 Plymouth |
| 33 | Hugh Darragh | '49 Ford |
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 08/27/19 02:08:12PM