BOWMAN GRAY 100
Bowman Gray Stadium
Saturday, April 8, 1972
The second stand alone race for the Grand American Challenge Series in 1972 was the Bowman Gray 100 at the historic Bowman Gray Stadium ¼ mile paved track in Winston-Salem. It was the 3 rd race where drivers could earn championship points.
The event was broadcast live nation-wide, with a 100 mile radius black out, by ABC’s Wide World of Sports hosted by Jim McKay and sportscaster Bill Flemming. Commentary was provided by the editor of National Speed Sport News Chris Economaki. The 40 lap modified race was videotaped.
42 drivers filed entries for 24 starting spots. In addition to the GA drivers GN drivers Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Buddy Baker (in his dad’s Firebird), Lee Roy Yarbrough (in #10 Camaro) and Pete Hamilton (in the #92 Camaro, I think the same one Hylton drove at Daytona) made qualifying runs. Stadium standouts Max Berrier drove Reid Shaws Mustang and Don Miller drove a Camaro. Stick Elliott and Mike Humphries also landed rides for the event. Former GT Champ and stadium regular Ken Rush returned to action as well. Track manager Joe Hawkins expected a large crowd designating it “Ladies Day” with women getting in free but the cold weather hurt the attendance with an estimated gate of 8,000 but the stands did not appear to be half full.
Time trials set the starting grid for three 10 lap heat races. The top seven finishers in each heat moved on the 100 lap feature. The final 3 spots were determined by qualifying times of those finishing outside to top seven in the heat races. David Pearson sat on the pole with a record time of 16.49 sec. in one of H.B. Bailey’s Firebirds and won the first heat. Ken Rush won the second heat and started on the outside front row and Bobby Allison started third by winning the last heat in the Melvin Joseph Mustang.
Racing at the Stadium has always been an up close affair involving contact like the game played inside the bull ring and it became apparent at the drop of the green. Ken Rush started on the outside of the front row but did not make it out of the first corner when contact from H.B. Bailey sent him into the guard rail ending his day. “Bailey just plowed right through me, he was driving like he had lost his mind.” Rush commented later. Third place starter Bobby Allison was also involved but was able to continue after going to the back of the field. When they went back under the green it was Pearson out front soon to be followed by Jim Paschal who had avoided the opening lap crash and moved up from the 9 th place starting position. As the leaders came off turn four to complete lap 40 Randy Bannister was in the outside lane passing slower traffic when his Camaro blew the engine going down the front stretch. Bannister ended up in the turn one fence as the outside lane got jammed up, Pearson could not get to the inside because of traffic but Paschal just behind him found a hole and jumped to the inside and clipped a little grass getting past the crash and taking the lead. Pearson ended up at the tail end of the lead lap cars and Paschal built up a good lead on the restart. By lap 81 Pearson had made his way to second when Lee Roy Yarbrough spun in turn 2 bringing out the yellow for the fourth time allowing Pearson to make up the gap on Paschal. They only ran a few laps under green before turn 2 was again the site of a spinning car, this time it was Pete Hamilton. Hamilton’s Camaro stalled bringing out the 5 th and final caution which set up a duel to the finish between Paschal and Pearson. Paschal kept his Firebird in the groove and never gave Pearson a chance to make a move and they finished bumper to bumper. Gary Myers was third in a Mustang and Max Berrier brought his Mustang home in 4 th on 7 cylinders. Bobby Allison recovered from the first lap mishap to finish 5 th with a lot of wrinkled sheet metal but not before rubbing Tiny Lund the wrong way. Allison had no comment on Lund saying he had one coming. On a lighter note Yarbrough joked “I didn’t know whether to run or pass so I just punted. They should play football here and forget the racing.” Pearson may have enjoyed the race more than Paschal as he commented “I had a ball. I could have won by spinning him out but I did not want to be dirty. I did bump him a time or two to make sure he knew I was there. It was a lot of fun.” Paschal said “I wasn’t too worried about him. It is hard to pass at this place, I figured I could keep him behind me.”
Paschal collected $2,500 of the $16,365 purse.
Fin. St. Driver # Car Laps Status
1 9 Jim Paschal 14 ’71 Firebird 100 Running
2 1 David Pearson 96 ’71 Firebird 100 Running
3 8 Gary Myers 41 ’70 Mustang 100 Running
4 23 Max Berrier 15 ’72 Mustang 100 Running
5 3 Bobby Allison 49 ’70 Mustang 100 Running
6 15 Stick Elliott 57 ’72 Camaro 100 Running
7 4 H. B. Bailey 36 ’71 Firebird 100 Running
8 10 Bobby Watson 11 ’70 Camaro 100 Running
9 22 JaPete Hamilton 92 ’72 Camaro 99 Running
10 20 Mike Humphries 94 ’72 Camaro 99 Running
11 21 Don Miller 99 ’70 Camaro 99 Running
12 17 Pee Wee Wentz 5 ’69 Camaro 99 Running
13 16 T. C. Hunt 88 ’69 Camaro 99 Running
14 7 Buddy Baker 87 ’71 Firebird 99 Running
15 13 Tommy Andrews 21 ’69 Mustang 99 Running
16 5 Jimmy Vaughn 7 ‘69 Camaro 98 Running
17 11 Lee Roy Yarbrough 10 ’69 Camaro 97 Running
18 24 Randy Hutchison 1 ’69 Camaro 96 Running
19 18 Finley Henderson 19 ’69 Camaro 82 Running
20 6 Tiny Lund 55 ’72 Firebird 64 Flat tire
21 14 Randy Bannister 26 ’69 Camaro 37 Engine
22 12 Wayne Andrews 97 ’70 Mustang 30 DNF
23 19 Jeff Haar 67 ’69 Camaro 30 Heating
24 2 Ken Rush 44 ’69 Camaro 0 Wreck
The national exposure brought out some big names but it also cost some GA regulars some points. Al Straub, Bob Williams and Ernie Shaw did not make the field and Glenn Brewer put Finley Henderson in his car.
Personal Note: There were 5 cautions for 29 laps but not all incidents resulted in a yellow flag. Wayne Andrews spun off the bumper of Buddy Baker. The car came to rest on the grass on the inside of the racing surface. The car stalled with a flat tire and would not re-fire. Wayne was a spectator until the next caution putting him so far behind it was not worth continuing.
Randy Bannister watches track clean-up around his race car as Jim Paschal goes by under caution. It was this event that gave Paschal the opening to get by Pearson.
Point Standings after Bowman Gray
- Wayne Andrews 372.25
- Bobby Allison 183.75
- AL Straub 246
- Max Berrier 243.25
- Glenn Brewer 219.75
- Bob Williams 209.50
- David Boggs 208.25
- Ernie Shaw 204.25
- Jeff Haar 198.25
- H.B. Bailey 181.75
- Tiny Lund 180.50
- Joie Chitwood Jr. 175.25
- Jimmy Capps 173.25
- Stick Elliott 168
- Paul Tyler 164.75
- Baxter Price 160.75
- James Hylton 156.25
- Herb Adams 153
- Pee Wee Wentz 144.75
- Jerry Hufflin 142
- Mike Humphries 141
- Jim Hailey 140
- Gary Myers 130.75
- Bill Chevalier 123.50
- Buck Baker 115
- Vic Elford 107
- Randy Bannister 99
- Roy Stamey 91.25
- David Boggs 83
- Jim Paschal 75
- Charlie Blanton 70.75
- Bob Jusola 68.75
- Bobby Watson 68
- Pete Hamilton 66.75
- Don Miller 64.75
- T.C. Hunt 67.75
- Tommy Andrews 60.75
- Jimmy Vaughn 59.50
- Dave Dayton 52
- Tom Lilly 39.25
* Points calculated using written description of 1972 points system for both Daytona races (assuming all drivers were awarded points for their finishing position) and results that included points for the Bowman Gray race. Note that posted result that listed points awarded for the BG race listed no points for David Pearson, Stick Elliott, Mike Humphries, Buddy Baker, Lee Roy Yarbrough, Randy Hutchison, Finley Henderson, Tiny Lund and Ken Rush. They were not listed as a post entry so I don’t know why they got no points.
updated by @dennis-andrews: 01/18/20 05:20:38AM
