Wilkes 400
Stock Car Racing History
WILKES 400
North Wilkesboro Speedway
North Wilkesboro, NC
Sunday, November 21, 1971
Race #17 of the 1971 for the Grand American Challenge Series was the sixth combination event that included Grand National cars and Grand American cars and was held at the historic 5/8 mile paved oval in Wilkes County. It was the last race of 1971. Tiny Lund came into the event with a narrow point lead over Buck Baker and ended the day with his 3 rd Grand American/Grand Touring Championship. The combination events were the result of a lack of Grand National cars at short tracks and promoters not wanting to schedule Grand American events because they were not profitable enough. Of the six combination events held in 1971 two were won by Bobby Allison (one in a GA car and one in a GN car), two were won by Richard Petty and two by Tiny Lund. Some thought the GA cars would have an unfair advantage as they were lighter and could run farther on a tank of fuel but NASCAR took that possibility away when they mandated pit stops at Hickory. The fact that the GA cars had to run their normal (smaller) tires and could only have two men over the wall on a pit stop took away any possible advantage. The only up side for the GA cars were that they were lighter and more agile than the GN cars but in a door slamming battle the GN cars were hard to move. The end result was a tie, three wins for the GA cars and three for the GN cars.
Going into the previous race at Macon Lund had a 4 point lead on Baker and Baker had 10 points on Wayne Andrews in third. All three had a shot at the title. Lund stretched his lead a little by finishing second at Macon with Baker 18 th with heating problems. Andrews suffered ignition problems late and finished 13 th which but him and Baker neck to neck for second in the points heading into North Wilkesboro. Lund claimed the championship with the win at Wilkesboro and Baker finished 6 th to earn second in the points as Andrews was not allowed to race and had to settle for third in points. The first scheduled date for the North Wilkesboro race was Sept. 19 th but it was rained out. That was also the date for the USAC sanctioned Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono which Andrews had entered along with NASCAR regulars Jim Paschal, George Wiltshire, Bobby Wawak and Bobby Mausgrover. When Andrews showed up at North Wilkesboro after 2 rain delays NASCAR would not let him through the gate.
Only 7 GA cars were in the field of 30. Lund won with Baker 6 th , Frank Sessoms 8 th , Joe Dean Huss 14 th , Bob Williams 20 th , Jimmy Vaughn 23 rd and Randy Hutchison 27 th . Ron Trout, Tom Pistone, Glenn Brewer and David Boggs had posted entries for the original date in GA cars but only Pistone’s car was listed in the final results with Jimmy Vaughn behind the wheel.
Tim Leeming has posted this event before so I will only attach the article below and make these few notes. I thought it was great when many writers called the GA drivers “field fillers” and they won half the combination races. Charlie Glotzbach put Jr, Johnson’s Chevy on the pole with the first qualifying lap ever turned in less than 21 seconds. Richard Petty started on the outside pole and finished third which made it the 16 th time in the last 16 races he had finished in the top 3. This would be Wendell Scott’s last race at North Wilkesboro. The race results list 31 drivers but only 30 took the green. Walter Ballard got the alternate spot when James Cox failed to make the grid. He started on the back row and finished 13 th gaining the most spots from his starting position of any driver in the field.
Tiny Lund was named the Most Popular Driver in the Grand American Challenge Series with Bobby Allison getting that honor in the Grand National division, Ray Elder in the Western Grand National division and Red Farmer in Late Model Sportsman.
1971 Grand American Final Point Standings
Driver Points St W T5 T10
1 Tiny Lund 1000 17 6 12 13
2 Buck Baker 984 17 2 6 7
3 Wayne Andrews 880 16 0 6 9
4 Jimmy Vaughn 880 14 0 6 7
5 Bob Williams 873 13 0 0 3
6 David Boggs 868 14 0 1 5
7 Ernie Shaw 826 13 0 0 1
8 Al Straub 779 12 0 3 5
9 Bobby Brewer 731 10 0 0 4
10 Bobby Fleming 632 11 0 1 5
11 Jimmy Capps 601 9 0 2 5
12 Baxter Price 601 6 0 0 4
13 Randy Hutchison 575 11 0 0 2
14 Tommy Andrews 537 11 0 2 5
15 H. B. Bailey 512 9 1 2 2
16 Jim Paschal 491 10 0 2 4
17 Ron Trout 471 4 0 0 1
18 Joe Dean Huss 329 6 0 0 1
19 James Ramey 299 6 0 2 2
20 Glenn Brewer 298 6 0 0 2
21 Tommy Lechlider 285 5 0 0 1
22 Pee Wee Wentz 274 4 0 0 0
23 Steve McWhite 248 6 0 0 2
24 Bobby Wilson 236 2 0 0 0
25 C. B. Gwyn 231 4 0 0 1
26 Stan Starr 229 6 0 0 0
27 Gene Parsons 201 3 0 0 2
28 Billy Hagan 194 4 0 0 0
29 Stan Starr, Jr. 183 3 0 0 2
30 E. J. Trivette 183 3 0 1 1
31 Jimmy Hailey 179 6 0 0 0
32 Gary Myers 172 5 0 2 3
33 Randy Bannister 151 3 0 0 0
34 Coy Blue 147 4 0 0 0
35 Richard Childress 138 2 0 0 1
11 Grand American Challenge Series events of which 3 were NASCAR/ARCA races. 6 events were NASCAR races that combined the Grand National and Grand American cars.
updated by @dennis-andrews: 01/18/20 05:20:38AM
