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Racing History Minute - September 15, 1957

Stock Car Racing History

Today I blogged about NASCAR's final GN event at The Big Left Turn - Langhorne Speedway. The race was a Sweepstakes GN/convertible combo event.

https://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2015/09/september-15-1957-gwyn-lassos-langhorne.html

Paul Goldsmith won the pole in Smokey Yunick's #3 Ford convertible. Fireball Roberts qualified second in his hard-top sedan. Glen Wood and Lee Petty made up the second row. Bob Welborn rounded out the top 5 starters. The rest of the 48-car field was set with the quickest ragtops starting in the inside, odd-numbered positions and the sedans filling the outside, even-numbered slots.

Fans witnessed a great back and forth battle between Goldsmith and Fireball during the first third of the race. Each led a handful of laps before being passed.

Fireball was finally able to shake Goldsmith as the race neared the 100 lap mark. Two additional challengers then made their way to Roberts' bumper. First, Bill Amick of Portland, Oregon got by Roberts to lead 19 laps. Like Goldsmith, Amick's time up front was short-lived. Roberts re-took the lead, and Amick later lost an engine near the 200-lap mark.

After Fireball led for a 63-lap stint, he began having steering issues. Multi-time NASCAR Short Track Division champ Jim Reed went out front for 44 laps as Roberts fell further behind. Then Reed developed engines issues of his own, and he fell out of the race after only 220 laps.

As the race cleared the two-thirds mark, Gwyn Staley arrived. Staley was driving a Chevrolet convertible for owner Julian Petty and started the race deep in the field in 25th. He led the remaining 85 laps to take the win by a half-second or so ahead of unknown Whitey Norman. Though close at the time for the fans and drivers, a post-race scoring recheck revealed Norman was actually two laps down to Staley.

Johnny Allen came home third. The little bit of remaining drama involved the fourth and fifth place finishers. With four laps to go, Buck Baker eased by Rex White into fourth place. On the last lap, however, Baker's Chevy ran out of gas. He coasted helplessly to the finish, and White was able to pass the fading Baker to reclaim fourth.

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Gwyn Staley	'57 Chevrolet
2	Whitey Norman	'57 Ford
3	Johnny Allen	'57 Plymouth
4	Rex White	'57 Chevrolet
5	Buck Baker	'57 Chevrolet
6	Dave Terrell	'57 Chevrolet
7	Joe Weatherly	'57 Ford
8	Ken Marriott	'57 Plymouth
9	Tommie Elliott	'57 Ford
10	Darel Dieringer	'56 Ford
11	Frankie Schneider	'57 Chevrolet
12	Bob Welborn	'57 Chevrolet
13	Larry Frank	'56 Chevrolet
14	Lee Petty	'57 Oldsmobile
15	Pee Wee Jones	'57 Ford
16	Roger Baldwin	'56 Ford
17	Fireball Roberts	'57 Ford
18	Ted Chamberlain	'56 Chevrolet
19	Don Gray	'56 Chevrolet
20	Bill Benson	'56 Mercury
21	Art Binkley	'56 Plymouth
22	Bill Champion	'56 Ford
23	Possum Jones	'57 Chevrolet
24	Jim Reed	'57 Ford
25	L.D. Austin	'56 Chevrolet
26	Emanuel Zervakis	'57 Chevrolet
27	Huck Spaulding	'56 Dodge
28	Harvey Eakin	'56 Ford
29	Bill Amick	'57 Ford
30	Neil Castles	'56 Ford
31	Speedy Thompson	'57 Chevrolet
32	Tiny Lund	'57 Pontiac
33	Paul Goldsmith	'57 Ford
34	Marvin Panch	'57 Ford
35	Elton Hildreth	'56 Mercury
36	Glen Wood	'57 Ford
37	Dick Klank	'56 Ford
38	Jack Smith	'57 Chevrolet
39	Jerry Benjamin	'56 Ford
40	George Bumgardner	'57 Ford
41	Ken Rush	'56 Mercury
42	Al White	'56 Ford
43	Chuck Hansen	'57 Chevrolet
44	Jim Paschal	'57 Ford
45	Dutch Hoag	'55 Pontiac
46	Bobby Abel	'56 Chevrolet
47	Shep Langdon	'56 Chevrolet
48	Brownie King	'57 Chevrolet

updated by @tmc-chase: 09/15/20 10:14:17AM

Kingsport 300 - September 5, 1970

Stock Car Racing History

Race preview and results report from Kingsport News.

HEIDELBURG 200 August 31, 1970

Stock Car Racing History

From Pittsburgh Press. Race was originally scheduled for Sunday, August 30. Rain postponed it to Monday the 31st.

(Click to read larger version in new tab.)

updated by @tmc-chase: 08/31/17 12:20:43PM

REBEL 150 August 29, 1970

Stock Car Racing History

Ad and race report from Beckley Post-Herald

Racing History Minute - September 9, 1956

Stock Car Racing History

NASCAR brought a national touring series to Chicago's Soldier Field for the third time in September 1956. The convertibles were back for a second time that season for a 500 lapper around Soldier Field's half-mile track.

Though the track was billed as a half-mile venue, I understand the distance around a normal, 100-yard football field is right at a quarter-mile. But never let the facts get in the way of great racing lore.

Tiger Tom Pistone won NASCAR's convertible debut at the track in June 1956. Fireball Roberts won the next event - the one and only GN race at the track - about a month later. Now many of the shoes were ready to race in what would become the house of Halas a third time that season.

Three-time Soldier Field late model champ, Tiger Tom, was ready to race again on his home turf. To repeat, he'd have to fend off big dawgs such as Curtis Turner, Bob Welborn, Joe Weatherly, etc.

Little Joe won the pole, and Glen Wood qualified alongside him. Turner timed third, and local racer and SF winner Dan Oldenberg qualified fourth. Tiger had a poor qualifying run and could only muster a 20th place starting position in a field of 22 cars.

The PA announcer's script for the preview of the race as noted in a book about Soldier Field.

Weatherly got the early jump and led the first 88 laps. His buddy Pops then passed him and led the NEXT 80+ laps. Almost as if the duo had planned it, Joe got back by Turner to lead another segment of ... yep, 83 laps.

As the race crossed its halfway mark, Turner decided to get busy. Perhaps he wanted to wrap up the race quickly so he could hit a joint along Michigan Avenue or Wabash. Either way, Pops led the rest of the way. He stayed on point for the remaining 244 laps to take the win - a one-lap victory over second place Weatherly.

Tiger just had a rotten day. After his poor qualifying run, the race itself was equally bad. Around the halfway mark, Pistone's engine went up in flames. Literally. Fortunately, he was able to stop the car and get out of it without injury or burns.

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Curtis Turner	'56 Ford
2	Joe Weatherly	'56 Ford
3	Bob Welborn	'56 Chevrolet
4	Jimmy Massey	'56 Chevrolet
5	Jimmie Lewallen	'56 Chevrolet
6	Allen Adkins	'56 Dodge
7	Larry Odo	'56 Chevrolet
8	Bill Poor	'56 Chevrolet
9	Bob Beck	'56 Chevrolet
10	Norman Schihl	'56 Ford
11	Don Oldenberg	'55 Buick
12	Possum Jones	'56 Ford
13	Bill Lutz	'56 Ford
14	Glen Wood	'56 Ford
15	Bun Emery	'56 Mercury
16	Tom Pistone	'56 Chevrolet
17	Larry Frank	'56 Chevrolet
18	Mel Larson	'56 Ford
19	Art Binkley	'56 Plymouth
20	Billy Rafter	'56 Dodge
21	Sal Tovella	'56 Plymouth
22	Don Corley	'56 Ford

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

Racing History Minute - September 7, 1958

Stock Car Racing History

The next to last race of the 1958 NASCAR convertible division season was a 150-lap race on the half-mile, dirt Wilson Speedway in Wilson, North Carolina.

I posted a blog about the race today here:

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2015/09/september-7-1958-julian-pettys-bookends.html

Ken Rush in Julian Petty's #44 Chevy, and teammate Bob Welborn qualified on the front row with Rush.

Starting 11th was Richard Petty in his family team's #42 1957 Oldsmobile. The race was only his second convertible start and seventh NASCAR start overall.

On the 12th lap, Rush lost the car coming out of turn four and rolled his convertible down the frontstretch. He remarkably suffered only a bruised shoulder and arm and returned to race the next week. Though I'm sure his wreck brought the crowd to their feet, Rush left Wilson with a 23rd and dead last finish.

All was not lost for Julian as an owner though. Welborn did what he'd been doing pretty much all season: winning. Though I haven't found any detail about lap leaders, Welborn did lead the lap that mattered most - the last one. With Welborn's win, Julian went home with bookend finishes - cars that finished first and last in the race.

Petty finished fifth - his first top 5 in NASCAR competition. Coincidentally, Richard's first top 5 in a Grand National race was also at Wilson Speedway. He finished third at Wilson in March 1959.

One confusing point about the race is its distance. Some materials I've referenced indicate the race was 150 laps and 75 miles. The wire service report I found in several newspapers, however, states the race was 200 laps and 100 miles. Either way, the constant between them all is Welborn again took the top prize in a 1958 convertible race.

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Bob Welborn	'57 Chevrolet
2	Tootle Estes	'57 Ford
3	Brownie King	'57 Chevrolet
4	George Dunn	'57 Mercury
5	Richard Petty	'57 Oldsmobile
6	Doug Yates	'57 Chevrolet
7	Bob Walden	'57 Ford
8	Whitey Norman	'57 Chevrolet
9	Larry Frank	'57 Chevrolet
10	Bill Morton	'57 Ford
11	L.D. Austin	'56 Chevrolet
12	Roy Tyner	'58 Plymouth
13	Elmo Langley	'57 Chevrolet
14	Bill Poor	'56 Chevrolet
15	Harvey Hege	'57 Ford
16	Neil Castles	'56 Ford
17	Shep Langdon	'56 Ford
18	Dick Walters	'56 Ford
19	Barney Shore	'57 Chevrolet
20	Johnny Gardner	'56 Ford
21	Vernon West	'56 Dodge
22	Fred Harb	'57 Mercury
23	Ken Rush	'57 Chevrolet

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

Racing History Minute - September 5, 1957

Stock Car Racing History

September 2, 1957 was one of the darker days in NASCAR history. Bobby Myers was killed and Fonty Flock was critically injured during the Southern 500. [ Tim Leeming's RHM ]

Yet, the racers did what racers somehow always manage to do following a tragedy: they soldiered onward to the next race.

Three days after Darlington, the GN drivers arrived in Syracuse NY for a 100-mile race at the New York State Fairgrounds.

Today, I posted a blog about the race:

http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2015/09/september-5-1957-gwyn-staley-scores.html

I'll excerpt part of it here.

Gwyn Staley won the pole in Julian Petty's #38 1957 Chevrolet. Short-track ace Jim Reed qualified alongside him. Twenty-two other cars trailed behind the two front-row starters.

Staley took control of the race early. He led the first 62 laps from his top starting spot though Reed hounded him lap after lap. As the race neared its two-thirds mark, Reed decided it was time to go to the front. He made the pass and led the next 10 laps. In a true That's Racin' moment, Reed then blew a tire, pounded the guardrail and saw his chances for a win disappear. His crew changed the tire and did what they could to make repairs to the car. When the checkers fell, however, Reed found himself in 12th place, 26 laps behind the winner.

With Reed out of the picture, Staley re-took the lead and ran a moderate pace to get the win. Lee Petty in a 1957 Oldsmobile finished second, one lap down to his brother's car.

Fin	Driver	Car
1	Gwyn Staley	'57 Chevrolet
2	Lee Petty	'57 Oldsmobile
3	Bill Walker	'57 Ford
4	Dean Layfield	'56 Ford
5	Fireball Roberts	'57 Ford
6	Lennie Page	'56 Ford
7	Bill Benson	'56 Mercury
8	Buzz Woodward	'56 Ford
9	Ted Chamberlain	'56 Plymouth
10	Dick Walters	'56 Plymouth
11	Ray Campbell	'56 Ford
12	Jim Reed	'57 Ford
13	Ed Jackson	'56 Dodge
14	Jake Jacobs	'56 Plymouth
15	Al Stearns	'56 Chevrolet
16	Ted Houser	'56 Chevrolet
17	Jack Smith	'57 Chevrolet
18	Fred Knapp	'56 Chevrolet
19	Peck Peckham	'56 Chevrolet
20	Bob Duell	'57 Ford
21	Joe Saunders	'56 Ford
22	Art Anderson	'56 Chevrolet
23	Emory Mahan	'56 Chevrolet
24	Billy Rafter	'56 Plymouth

updated by @tmc-chase: 02/22/17 01:25:08PM

Racing History Minute - August 27, 1950

Stock Car Racing History

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

updated by @tmc-chase: 08/27/19 02:08:12PM

Racing History Minute - August 26, 1956

Stock Car Racing History

I'm headed west Friday for a few days in Portland, Oregon. Lovely part of the country - though Oregon isn't exactly a hot bed of NASCAR history. Or is it?

http://racing-reference.info/driverlist?st=OR

On August 26, 1956, NASCAR hosted a 250-lap Grand National race on Portland Speedway's paved half-mile track. The race was actually the second one at Portland that season. The drivers also raced at Portland two months earlier on June 24th. John Kieper won that race - his one and only GN triumph.

Preview from August 22 The Oregon Statesman of Salem.

Some of the big dogs were promoted as participating in the race. I'm not sure what happened - perhaps the show money didn't show. Herb Thomas raced. And Buck Baker was SUPPOSED to race - but there is no indication that he did.

From the Salem paper.

Kieper picked up where he left off two months earlier by winning the pole. Clyde Palmer started 2nd, and Eddie Pagan - who raced a handful of times in the east - qualified third.

I haven't been able to find a race report, and Greg Fielden's Forty Years of Stock Car Racing doesn't have many details either. What IS known is that Royce Hagerty and Clyde Palmer were racing near one another late in the race. The checkered flag fell and Hagerty took a bit of a surprise win. The win wasn't so much a surprise that he took the checkers as much as it seemed the race wasn't over. A check of the scoring records revealed the race was ended four laps early .

Race officials chose, however, not to restart the race but to end it "as is". Hagerty in his #15 Dodge was allowed to keep the win, and Palmer finished 2nd. They were the only two cars on the lead lap.

As Alex FL Racing Fan noted, Hagerty passed away on July 2, 2015. At his death, he was the oldest living NASCAR GN winner.

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/forum/topics/and-a-bit-of-history-lost

From Gary Larson on Pinterest .

Hopefully, the race was a pretty good one. I'm visualizing fast straights and hard braking as the cars powered left through the corners. I do so because most folks in Oregon tend to break left. Well, politically that is.

Fin	#	Driver	Car
1	15N	Royce Hagerty	'56 Dodge
2	1	Clyde Palmer	'56 Ford
3	11	Curley Barker	'56 Chevrolet
4	56	Chuck Meekins	'56 Chevrolet
5	45	Eddie Pagan	'56 Ford
6	50N	Harold Beal	'56 Ford
7	52N	Herb Thomas	'56 Chevrolet
8	88N	Lloyd Dane	'56 Oldsmobile
9	98N	John Kieper	'55 Oldsmobile
10	21	Scotty Cain	'56 Ford
11	27N	Len Sutton	'56 Ford
12	21N	Pete Diviney	'56 Ford
13	41N	Chub Williams	'55 Dodge
14	56N	Art Watts	'56 Mercury
15	77N	Gordon Haines	'56 Dodge
16	66N	Lou Sherman	'56 Mercury
17	6	Harold Hardesty	'54 Oldsmobile
18	71N	Bill Hyde	'56 Dodge
19	75N	Wally Gervais	'56 Oldsmobile

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

A THROWBACK TO 1981 any body remember that year?? At Darlington no less

Stock Car Racing History

Shoot, Billy is even a Twitter celeb!