Forum Activity for @tmc-chase

NASCAR National Short Track Series

Stock Car Racing History

I was able to extract this race report about the July 1, 1962 race at Lincoln from The Evening Sun of Hanover PA. Based on car #2, sounds like Paschal won for car owner Cliff Stewart.

Jim Paschal Race Victor At Lincoln

Jim Paschal, High Point. N.C ace tooled his 1962 Pontiac to a new track record for the NASCAR late models at the Lincoln Speedway half-mile oval Saturday night. The racing veteran who has taken over sixth place in the Grand National Top Twenty point standings with 5,988 pushed his No. 2 car into a commanding lead at the start of the 100-lap feature that was run off without a caution flag. Paschal took the dirt oval's 100 laps in 37 minutes and 8 seconds as he averaged 80 m.p.h in setting the course mark.

The North Carolina lead foot took first heat honors as the late models attracted the largest crowd of the season to promoter Hilly Rife's plant. Wes Morgan, Fairfax, Va., and Ron Halquist, Stamford Conn. finished 2-3 in the heat running. Danbury. Conn. pilot Bobby Devine won the second heat with Washingtons Elmo Langley and Charleston. S.C. speedster Curtis Crider finishing in that order. Devine and Langley finished in second and third position in the main event. Nineteen late models were in the pits.

NASCAR National Short Track Series

Stock Car Racing History

DOH - 1961 race WAS July 1, and I noted it as such in my blog post. Typed July 2 (King's birthday) out of habit I guess.

NASCAR National Short Track Series

Stock Car Racing History

Petty won a NASCAR Eastern Late Model division race at Lincoln on July 2, 1961. As I understand it, the ELM division eventually became the Busch North Series and today is known as the K&N East Series. Here is my blog post about that race.

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2015/07/july-1-1961-richard-pettys-lost.html

Seems there was a similar series out west that later was reformed into the Winston West Series under RJR and now the K&N West Series.

Is it possible these two divisions (and maybe others) were under the umbrella of the broader National Short Track Series you noted?

1966 National 500: 15+1

Stock Car Racing History

In 1966, owner Bud Moore and driver Darel Dieringer seemed to have a pretty good thing going. The duo won back-to-back races they entered at Asheville-Weaverville and then at Darlington in the Southern 500.

About a month after Darlington, however, Dieringer wrecked Bud's car at North Wilkesboro. The crew was unable to repair it in time for the next race - the National 500 at Charlotte.

Though Bud's car wasn't going to be at Charlotte, Dieringer planned to be. He hitched a ride with Junior Johnson AND brought crewman Mario Rossi with him.

Darel planned to run car number 16 on Junior's Ford as he had done on Bud's Fords. But Moore was having none of it after apparently feeling he'd been betrayed. The 16 was removed and replaced with 15 ... and a +1 to equal 16.

Junior's car was stout at Charlotte, and Dieringer drove 15+1 to a second place finish behind winner Lee Roy Yarbrough. The twosome paired together again the next week in the American 500 at Rockingham.

Moore moved on. Despite winning the back-to-back races, Dieringer did not return to Bud's team. After after repairing the wrecked Wilkesboro car, Bud kept his team parked the remainder of the season. He returned in February 1967 at Speedweeks with Sam McQuagg in a #15 Mercury.

Now the challenge for RacersReunion. I've seen plenty of photos of Dieringer in Bud's #16. But I'm now want to land a photo of the 15+1 car at Charlotte.

updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

Racing History Minute - October 13, 1963

Stock Car Racing History

The 4th annual National 400 was held at Charlotte Motor Speedway on October 13, 1963.

Marvin Panch won the pole in the Wood Brothers #21 Ford. A Wood Brothers on the pole? At CHARLOTTE? That team knew even then how to set-up a car for a short hustle around the 1.5 mile track. Neil Pearson and later Neil Bonnett earned an embarrassment of riches for the 21 car on pole day for many years beginning about a decade after Pancho started P1.

Fred Lorenzen had been expected to compete for the top starting spot. However, after taking the green for his 4-lap qualifying run, his Holman Moody 28 ran out of gas on the first lap! Consequently, Fast Freddy (who then turned into Furious Freddy or Livid Lorenzen) had to wait another day for his qualifying run.

Bobby Isaac made his one and only start for the legendary Smokey Yunick. He qualified Smokey's #13 Chevy fifth. A crash during the race, however, relegated Isaac to a 31st place DNF.

Petty Enterprises fielded THREE cars in the race. Richard drove #43, Bob Welborn piloted the #41 Plymouth, and Bob James timed 16th in #42. I'd like to learn more about James. He participated in only 11 GN races: one in 1951 and 10 in 1963, the last 4 for the Pettys.

Rex White qualified 12th. But after his car was safely in the show, three of his key crewmen - including Louis and Crawford Clements - were involved in an awful evening car accident.

NASCAR worked with fellow Mercury teams fielded by Bud Moore and Bill Stroppe to have Rex's pit assignment moved next to their stalls. During the race, they helped crew Rex's team earned a 9th place finish.

Panch led lap 1 from his pole start. But the day belonged to Junior Johnson in Ray Fox's Chevy. Junior led 209 of the races's 267 laps. Coincidentally, Johnson and Fox announced before the race the team planned to change to Ford for 1964 after not getting support from Chevrolet.

updated by @tmc-chase: 01/06/17 11:51:02AM

HOF Mmbers

Stock Car Racing History

Here is one from Tony Sizemore's Twitter acct. Pretty funny, Junior Johnson maintained that same pose and facial expression the entire time - except for a couple of chuckles when he told a story.

HOF Mmbers

Stock Car Racing History

Here are a couple I took. I'm sure there are better ones out there. We had good seats - but still not good enough to get unobstructed view. The PA speaker blocked out Terry Labonte and Rex White.

And my zoom in to capture Dale Inman and Leonard Wood was a bit more than my iPhone lens could handle.

Later Sunday, however, I was able to get a better shot of Inman and Leonard - plus a couple of other guys from the past who had pretty good racing careers!

A few memories from 2016 Southern 500

Current NASCAR

I returned home this afternoon from only my second race at Darlington Raceway. This year's visit was infinitely more enjoyable and memorable than my first visit in NOVEMBER 2004. At the time, that race was branded as the last Southern 500. It didn't feel like the Darlington I'd heard and read about - at all. It was cool and dreary, and we made a quick day trip from High Point NC to the track.

This year was far different. One, the race was back for the second year on Labor Day weekend. No, it wasn't on Labor Day. No, it wasn't run in the heat of the day. But at the risk of stating the obvious to all those who watched it, the race had more of a feel of a by-gone era.

In no certain order, here are a few of my memories. My photos haven't fully uploaded yet. I may return and add those later.

• Meeting Leonard, Len, Eddie and Delano Wood - AND Richard Petty all at the same place. All were gathered at the Woods' transporter. I told Delano I was a Petty Lifer but with so much respect for his family, the 21 team, their drivers, etc. He smiled, put his hand on my shoulder, and said softly "Wanna know the truth? We love the Pettys too."
• Meeting Dale Inman again - and again avoiding a painful arm twist.
• Recognizing Waddell Wilson as he stood alone taking in some of the sights. We talked Buddy Baker, Lennie Pond, Jake Elder, Herb Nab, Harry Ranier, working weekends and holidays, operating a team with 4 full-time employees, etc. My buddy didn't recognize Waddell. I did from having attended a couple of RacersReunion related events.
• I spotted a guy wearing a great shirt - Marion Cox 50 Racing "Never On Sunday". I had just mentioned Joe Frasson's awful wreck in Cox's 50 in the 1979 Daytona LMS race the day before. As we talked some more, things clicked a bit more. I asked him if he was Mike Cox from RacersReunion. Though I missed his first name, he said he was Mike's younger brother - the "baby of the bunch". He proudly shared several pics of his dad's 50 he had saved on his phone.
• We met a woman wearing an original Burt & Hal's Skoal Bandit satin jacket (though the temps were starting to climb). After a couple of pics and comments, she introduced us to Harry Gant's grandson. He and Harry were at the track for the weekend. Though Harry was elsewhere, his grandson said Harry was still doing well and as strong as ever.
• We spotted two guys wearing Hawaiian Tropic 1 crew uniforms. I couldn't match them with a team. We chatted them up a bit and learned they were just fans. They'd scored the old Hoss Ellington uniforms and planned to surprise Donnie Allison with them.
• We attended the 2nd annual legends breakfast. The panel included Junior Johnson, Ned and Dale Jarrett, Dale Inman, Leonard Wood, Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough (who was seated between Allison and Jaws - which we found funny), Rusty Wallace, Mark Martin, Jerry Cook, Rex White, Jack Ingram, and Terry Labonte.
• After meeting Kyle Petty at the RPM transporter, we started to walk elsewhere. I then spotted a couple of fellas wearing Hill Racing 47 shirts - an obvious nod to Bruce Hill. I asked if the shirts were original. One of them said "No way. I HAVE an original, but I wouldn't wear it out like this." He was grateful to the 47 team of A.J. Allmendinger for providing the shirts and hosting several of Hill's former crewmen at the track. A class act I thought. One of the guys was pushing someone in a wheelchair. Without knowing the details, it appeared the guy may have suffered a stroke. He could point and nod his head, but he couldn't form many words. His assistant with the 47 shirt then told me the guy in the chair was Raymond Kelly - who had crew chief'd for Hill. I was blown away. I remembered Raymond's name, but I hadn't thought of it in years. I spent an extra few minutes kneeling by his wheelchair as they told a few stories about Raymond's racing career. His hot pass had been signed by Dale Inman, and they were looking for the King. One thing I'd forgotten until looking it up later was that Raymond had been the crew chief for Kyle Petty in his first five Cup starts in 1979. I started to part ways, and Raymond tapped me on the hand to stay an extra moment. He went through his phone contacts showing me names that frankly I didn't recognize. But his bud with him told me they were various names of crewmen he'd worked with over the years that were still around. A very cool encounter - among my faves of Sunday.
• The security folks did a nice job of monitoring the garage bays. You could get close the stalls to take pics - but don't cross the yellow line! They were polite but direct about keeping folks away. I was hanging out behind the 43 stall snapping a few pics of the team replacing the vinyl wrap on the right rear after a good slap during Saturday's practice sessions. I've gotten to know one of the crew guys a little bit. He spotted me and waved me into the garage. I smirked as I walked by the rent-a-cop & hung out about 10 minutes at the front of the car as the crew continued the adjustments for the race. For those of you here who have worked and/or driven cars or were otherwise part of the racing business, that may not seem like a big deal. But as a 50+ year-old, I felt like a 10 year-old kid & beamed at the invitation to get that close to "my car".

updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM

BUDDY SHUMAN MEMORIAL August 28, 1971

Stock Car Racing History

Race preview and report from Spartanburg Herald

Passing of Cliff Stewart

Stock Car Racing History

1976: David Pearson racing Darrell Bryant in Stewart's Hot Rod Barns Chevrolet