Today's post again take us to Nashville Speedway at the fairgrounds for the June 28, 1975 Spirit of 76 200.
Race preview extracted from the June 28 edition of The Tennessean:
L.D. Ottinger has this uneasy feeling he’s being followed. Throughout the racing season, every time the Newport, Tenn. driver glanced in his rear-view mirror, somebody has been on his bumper.
Ottinger, as leader of the national Late Model Sportsman point race, just seems to naturally attract a crowd. And tonight’s Spirit of 76 200-lapper at Nashville Speedway likely won’t be any different.
A collection of the country’s top LMS drivers will be chasing the scrappy little toehead around every turn of the challenging five-eighths-mile oval. The Late Model Sportsman national point race will get underway at 8 p.m., preceded by a 50-Iap Tennessee Speed Sport limited sportsman race at 7.
The 200-lap race has attracted the finest LMS drivers around, in and out of the point race. Ottinger leads with a total of 4,301, followed by Tiny Lund (4,083), Morgan Shepard (3,766), Butch Lindley (3,410), Harry Gant (2,206), Jack Ingram (1,944), Joe Thurman (1,814), and Ray Hendrix (1,696). (TMC: Yes "Hendrix" per the paper vs. Hendrick or even Hendricks.)
Neil Bonnett, Huntsville, Ala. driver who has set and re-set the five-eighths-mile track record in recent weeks, remains uncertain as a driver in the race. The 28-year-old Bonnett, whose identical 20.40 laps in last Saturday’s qualifying stand as the current record, drives a Bobby Allison-prepared Chevrolet. Allison is racing the car tonight in Maryland, and Bonnett said he was not sure whether he would be able to return it to Nashville in time for the race. An alternative may be a second car, identical to the one driven by Allison, which was being prepared this week.
Yesterday Bonnett expressed hope that he would get to drive here but remained uncertain. Another top driver is Alton Jones of Pleasant Grove, Ala. He won the last 200-lapper here, the May 31 Falls City 200. Jones’ win was protested by Ottinger, who charged that his wheels were too large under NASCAR specifications for his model car. NASCAR officials settled the protest in Jones’ favor.
Waltrip, another 28-year-old who has made his mark on the Grand National Circuit in the past three years, will be attempting to bring a run of ill luck to a halt. In last week’s two 100-lap races, Waltrip blew an engine in qualifying which took him out of one race, then encountered car trouble while leading the second at the halfway point and was forced to drop out.
In the Falls City 200, Waltrip had qualified and was running a practice lap when he lost control on the fourth turn and struck the wall, wrecking the back end of his car and taking himself out of the race.
The winner of tonight’s race will pocket $2,250, second place $1,150 and third $1,000, in addition to the national points.
Race report from June 29 edition of The Tennessean:
Harry Gant of Taylorsville, N.C., outran an impressive field of big-name Late Model Sportsman drivers last night at Nashville Speedway to capture the Spirit of 76 200 lap feature race.
Only one driver, Butch Lindley of Greenville, S.C., finished in the same lap as Gant, and he almost one-half lap behind. Finishing third, one lap down, was defending national point champion Jack Ingram of Asheville, N.C., with track-record holder Neil Bonnett of Hueytown, Ala., fourth.
Gant, starting in the number three pole position with a qualifying time of 20.53 outran other top-name drivers such as Darrell Waltrip, L.D. Ottinger, and Alton Jones. Pole sitter Lindley, who had led all qualifiers with a 20.43, just .03 seconds off Bonnett’s track record set last week, had led the race until the 84th lap when Ingram took over.
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Lindley presented with his trophy for winning the pole. |
The race settled down to a three-car affair between Ingram, Gant and Lindley, in that order, until the 130th lap. It was at that point that Gant nudged in front for the first time, then suddenly exploded ahead to open up almost a half-lap lead.
Gant lost the big lead when a caution flag on the 165th lap allowed Ingram and Lindley to tailgate again. When the green flag fell again, however, Gant quickly sped back out to a comfortable lead which he held to the finish.
Waltrip, 28-year-old Grand National driver from Franklin, Tenn., continued to encounter the bad luck that has plagued him here in recent weeks. Waltrip, winningest driver on the five-eighths-mile track with 50 victories, failed to finish his fourth straight race.
Waltrip’s troubles began when he came out of a pit stop on the 31st lap, having gone in in seventh place. As he made his exit, however, a pit crew member failed to get his gas tank cap back on. Waltrip was black flagged by director Bill Donoho for the next several laps but refused to come in. The Waltrip car consequently was not scored from laps 44-58. When Waltrip finally did stop and discovered he was 14 laps down, he declined to re-enter the race.
An estimated crowd of 11,000 turned out for the national championship point race.
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| 1 | Harry Gant |
| 2 | Butch Lindley |
| 3 | Jack Ingram |
| 4 | Neil Bonnett |
| 5 | L.D.Ottinger |
| 6 | Flookie Buford |
| 7 | Alton Jones |
| 8 | Tiny Lund |
| 9 | Morgan Shepherd |
| 10 | Doris Vaughn |
| 11 | A.C York |
| 12 | Bill King |
| 13 | Jim Berry |
| 14 | James Climer |
| 15 | Jerry Sisco |
| 16 | Wayne Cower |
| 17 | Gary Myers |
| 18 | P.B.Crowell III |
| 19 | Ray Skillman |
| 20 | John Brown |
| 21 | Don Guignard |
| 22 | Bob Burcham |
| 23 | Darrell Waltrip |
| 24 | Clarence Kissinger |
| 25 | Mark Crofford |
| 26 | Jimmy Means |
| 27 | Don Anthony |
| 28 | Chet Williams |
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 01/18/20 05:20:38AM
