Is anyone here familiar with all the different makes and series' of collector type cards of the early era of NASCAR and stock car racing? I know a few like Maxx made a series about the early drivers but I don't know much else and I would like to start collecting them.
Which companies made them? Is there a website for traders/collectors that list them all?
Good observations, Bill. I agree about the time of year and the time period for the way the crowd is dressed. Many look like they just left church service.
Thanks for posting those, Dave. Here's a larger copy of the second photo -
I've seen some color shots of Johnny's cars and they were always either yellow and black or yellow and blue.
There were probably many, many guys with the #7 in the early stock car days...Lloyd Seay, Buck Baker, and probably dozens of unknowns, so the chances the car in Jim's photo is Johnny Roberts is slim but possible.
Jim, I agree about it probably being in a mountainous area. I think it's probably an early track somewhere in the foothills of the Appalachians...possibly Pulaski County Speedway, Pilot Mountain Speedway, or the early Mount Airy Speedway. The photos of Pulaski had a similar hill the track was carved into that people stood on to watch the race.
There's some great photos in this slide show on vaautoracing.org - http://www.vaautoracing.org/Gallery1.html
It really is fun trying to figure these photos out!
Jim, very cool photo. It very well could be Green Hill Speedway, but there's just not enough landmarksto say for sure.
My gut instinct is that it isn't Green Hill. In the article about the opening it discribes steps cut into the dirt hill with cinder blocks set out for people to sit on, and you can kind of seethose stepsin the poor quality newspaper photo of Green Hill I posted. Also, Green Hill was opened in 1955. I think your photo is much earlier. It became the thing to do to cut out the back window around 1951-52. The car in your photo doesn't have that and looks typical of the cars prior to that modification. Then again, not everyone cut their window out.And the writing on the rear quarter panel looks typical to the late 40's - early 50's writing of who owned and built the car.
It appears the car number is actually 7 with an added 1painted on for this race which would indicate the car is from out of the area or out of state and another car from the area got the #7. The only #7 from the early days in the southeast with the stylishlooking font like that that I can think of off the top of my head is Johnny Roberts from Baltimore, Maryland.
Where did you find this photo?
August 14, 1955 race results -
Most who know stock car history know about Mount Airy Speedway, one of the first post-war stock car tracksof NC and VA that became known for where the legendary Curtis Turner began his epic racing career. But did you know that the sleepy little town of Mayberry had another stock car track?
On Monday July 4, 1955, ownersJimmy Robertson and the Strickland brothers, along with promoter A.D. Wagoner opened the brand new Green Hill Speedway, a 1/4 mile banked dirt track three miles north of Mount Airy on Green Hill Road. The race was NASCAR sanctioned for the Sportman and Hobby divisions and many of the local greats such as Glen Wood, Johnny Dodson, Ted Swaim, and Billy & Bobby Myers were there for the inaugural race. Fans sat on cinder blocks set on dirt stairs carved out of the hill surrounding part of the track.
An estimated 3500 spectators got to see the heat races completed but the rains came and washed out what probably would have been an exciting featurebattle for a slice of the $1285 purse.
Does anyone know how long Green Hill Speedway lasted? Please post any info you know.
Click on the article to enlarge -
Dennis, I'm glad you got some useful info from the articles. I do the same thing looking for familiar names in articles for area tracks and I'm always amazed how many I see. Some of those guys really got around. I'll be interested to see your research on Bennett Speedway.
I'm trying to identify as many of the cars and drivers inthis film footage - and right now I'm trying to identify Ned Jarrett's car. There are very few photos of Ned and his cars prior to his Grand National career, but the few I did find show his cars always with the number 38. Can anyone help me with photos or info on what Ned drove in the early days? Did he always drive #38?
Here is what I've come across so far, with some still shots of what I think may be Ned Jarrett in the #38 at Peace Haven Speedwayin 1954.
From Wikipedia -
Ned drove in his first race in 1952 at Hickory MotorSpeedway in North Carolina. He drove a Sportsman Ford that he co-owned with his brother-in-law, and finished tenth. This did not go over well with his father. His father told him he could work on cars but not drive them. Once, his brother-in-law was sick for a race and asked Ned to fill in for him. Ned used his brother-in-law's name and came in second in that race. That worked out so smoothly that Ned drove in a few more races under an assumed name, but was finally caught by his father after winning a race. His father told him if he was going to drive to at least use his own name.
Jarrett raced in his first national race at the 1953 Southern 500 at Darlington Speedway . He was out after 10 laps after the engine leaked oil.
Jarrett was the 1955 track champion at Hickory Motor Speedway .
Jarrett came in second driving in the Sportsman series (now Nationwide Series) in 1956, and won the 1957 and 1958 championships.
From a NASCAR Hall Of Fame documentary on the Speed Channel -
A couple of pristine show cars -
Peace Haven race results from 1954 -
Peace Haven race results from 1955 -
Still frames from 1954 Peace Haven film footage...is this Ned Jarrett?
