William - you got my curiosity up. Racing Reference shows Buddy making his first GN/Cup start at Jacksonville, Florida in December 1963. That was the 3rd race of the 1964 schedule and the historic event won by Wendell Scott.
"gray and dreary" - also much like the weather across the English Channel 69 years ago...
Thanks for remembering D-Day, Tim. Below is a link to the National D-Day Memorial located in Bedford, Virginia, near Roanoke. On June 6, 1944, the Bedford community lost more sons per capita on the beaches of Normandy than any community in the United States.
I think her original title was Miss Atlanta Raceway in 1961.
Legends of NASCAR site has a pretty comprehensive list of her various titles at this link below:
http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Linda_Vaughn.htm
But to answer you question, I don't remember the Pontiac title or Illustrated Speedway News.
From the Ray Nichels Story on the Cotton Owens Garage site:
The '61 USAC Stock Car Champion Paul Goldsmith and '61 NASCAR Champion Joe Weatherly are shown during a promotional tour for the record-setting Nichels Engineering Pontiac Teams. Shown in the middle is a teenage Linda Vaughn, Miss Pontiac.
Thanks, Chase... as usual Lee led the most important laps, the last ones! And the Associated Press did take note of his son DICK Petty!
By the way, just in the past couple of weeks, a lady named Heather Moon, researcher & archivist at the Richmond paper has started a weekly photo feature titled "From the Archives." Here's a link to thta feature and her blog bio:
http://archives.blogs.timesdispatch.com/
Heatheris a graduate of Christopher Newport University, University of Maryland,and earned her MLS from Texas Womans University. Originally from Texas, she has lived in Richmond for the past seven years. Heather worked in a public library, as well as a corporate library before coming to the Times-Dispatch. She also worked for a major search engine, and has a background in technology.
This goal of this blog is to find interesting stories and photos in the archives of the Times-Dispatch, and make them available for the public to see. The RTD archives are no longer open to the public, as they once were. We therefore would like to give the public as much access to things that we find there as we can.
If you have suggestions on what subjects we might want to look for in the archives, please pass them on! This blog is for you!
Both the Richmond Times-Dispatch and Richmond News Leader staffed Richmond races with multiple photographers. Maybe she can help. She should have access to both photo archives.
Also, Steve Helber for many years has been chief photographer for the AP Virginia bureau out of Richmond. I still see his name pop up on photos from Martinsville and Richmond. He used to have a crew of sometimes as many as 8 photogs at Richmond races.
One of the best men I ever met in auto racing came from Smoky Mountain Raceway - the late Don Naman. He was so successful at Maryville that Big Bill France talked him into moving to Talladega and becoming its General Mnager. They don't make them like Don anymore. He was a terrific guy whose word was his bond.
He bested Billy Graham, President Nixon, Johnny Cash, closed highways and a capacity crowd at University of Tennessee's Neyland Stadium to sell out Smoky Mountain Raceway that night!!
The Knoxville, Tennessee newspaper ran this article when Don passed in 2011:
Don Naman made name at Smoky Mountain
By Michael Moats sports@knoxnews.com
Posted July 30, 2011
Though it has been over 40 years since Don Naman promoted a racetrack in East Tennessee, his legacy continues. And that legacy has been remembered many times this week as news of Naman's death spread through the racing community.
Naman died on Monday after a bout with cancer. The 76 year old had been battling the disease for a couple of years. He was laid to rest in Alabama where he made his home.
Naman went from stock-car novice to the general manager of Talladega Superspeedway and eventually head of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Naman became the promoter of Smoky Mountain Raceway in Maryville in 1965 and was there through 1969 where the then half-mile speedway saw phenomenal success. The success caught the attention of Bill France Sr. who offered him a position at Talladega as general manager.
It was Naman's time at SMR that has older race fans still talking about his success today. It is the era that fans point to as a model for the track today. Naman was flattered that people still remembered his work and time in East Tennessee.
"It means a lot to me that people up there still remember me and my time there," Naman said in a 2007 interview. "Even though I wasn't there that long, it's good to know we did enough good things there that people still remember us."
It was Naman's handling of a Grand National (now Sprint Cup) event in 1969 that landed him the job at Talladega.
"In 1969, Billy Graham was having a nine-day crusade at Neyland Stadium," Naman recalled. "One of those nights was the same night we had a Grand National race scheduled. NASCAR insisted I cancel the race, but I refused to cancel."
After finding out Johnny Cash and President Richard Nixon would be at the Crusade the same night as the Grand National race, NASCAR continued to make calls to Naman asking if he was canceling. Each time, Naman said the race was still on.
Knowing Alcoa Highway would be congested with traffic because of President Nixon's arrival, Naman, his wife, Joanne, and others sought out alternate routes to the track two days prior to the race. After finding suitable routes from Knoxville to Maryville, Naman began informing fans the race would still be held and advising of alternate routes to the track.
"We had a sellout for that race," Naman said. "We had cars lined up Highway 411 for miles trying to get into the track. It was an amazing experience."
The family has requested that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Victory Junction Gang Camp.
Dennis, don't know about the car in the photo, but the late Cal Johnson of Ashland, Virginia, who passed in 2007, was the father of racer Eddie Johnson and grandfather of racer Chris Johnson.
In 1990 we inducted Cal into the Strawberry Hill Mod Squad, consisting of all drivers who competed in one of the Virginia State Fair NASCAR National Championship Modified events on the dirt at what is now Richmond International Raceway.
Cal was famous for driving while smoking his pipe. On the 1951 recording "Racing at Royall Speedway", Crazy Joe Maphis refers to Cal's pipe. When we inducted Cal into the Strawberry Hill Mod Squad, he told us he'd had a radio installed in his car for the Sunday fall races at the Richmond Fairgrounds so he could listen to the Washington Redskins games - this was back in early 50s.
Below is the article that ran in the Richmond paper when Cal died and below that I've reposted a photo of Cal taken up in Ashland before his death that was originally posted by our RR member John Hurlburt.
By JUDD HANSON
RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER
Thomas Calvin Johnson, whose prominent career in the area racing circuit spanned four decades, died Tuesday. He was 86.
Born Aug. 31, 1921, "Cal" Johnson broke onto the scene in the fall of 1949, when he was offered $25 to race in a five-car exhibition. Mr. Johnson won that race, and his career took off.
Joe Kelly, a former racer and an authority on area racing, recalled meeting Mr. Johnson on March 18, 1950 at the Hank Stanley Memorial Race at Strawberry Hill (current site of Richmond International Raceway). Mr. Johnson drove a modified 1939 Ford Coupe.
By 1953, Mr. Johnson was the champion at Royal Speedway (now Southside Speedway).
Mr. Johnson won 106 Modified races, Kelly said, and his knowledge of a race car's setup played no small role in his success.
"He was so smart," Kelly said. "When everyone else was looking at horsepower, he was looking at the brakes. . . . how to make sure he could get in the turn at the bottom."
Mr. Johnson's racing interest also included go-karts, and he went on to become a three-time world champion in the 1960s.
In 1972, Mr. Johnson won the track championship at what is now Virginia Motor Speedway. "You run what you brung," Kelly said of the track's automobile specifications at the time.
Mr. Johnson's know-how was instrumental in him besting more tricked-up cars in his modified '32 Plymouth.
Mr. Johnson is survived by his wife, Jane, and sons Tommy (wife Charlotte), Ricky, Fred (wife Patty) and Eddie (wife Penny) and a daughter, Cathy Johnson Forsythe (husband Robbie), and stepson Mike Sharp. Eddie Johnson is a former track champion at Southside, Old Dominion and Langley speedways.
Mr. Johnson also had a combined 15 grandchildren and great grandchildren. Two grandchildren also are prominent in racing: Christopher Johnson was this year's Modified Division rookie of the year at Southside, and Lee Johnson was the Virginia State Go-Kart champion.
Funeral arrangements are being handled by Nelson Funeral Home at 412 S. Washington Highway in Ashland. Visitation is Friday from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. The funeral is Saturday at 2 p.m. with burial to follow at Woodland Cemetery in Ashland.
Memorial donations may be made to: Victory Junction Gang Camp, 4500 Adam's Way, Randleman, N.C., 27317.
Here's a link below to all of John's Cal Johnson Photos :Cal Johnson at home in Ashland, Virginia as posted on this site by John Hurlburt.
I think we should expect to see some of Harlow Reynolds' photos soon here at our RR stock car site and over at Shag City USA. This is the week for Harlow and the Wood Brothers to break out their shagging loafers in Stuart, Virginia!
Chase, I note that Frank Vehorn had replaced Jim Foster (who had been Sports Editor) writing racing at the Spartanburg paper. Jim had accepted a job as Racing PR Director for the Dodge Division and would later be hired by Bill France and serve roles as President of Daytona Speedway and Vice Presidet, Marketing & Communications for NASCAR.
Vehorn went on to Greensboro with Landmark Communications, before finally settling for many years in Norfolk with another Landmark publication the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot. For my money, I'd rank Frank in the top-5 racing writers I've ever read or dealt with.
The Spartanburg connection with Daytona remained strong through the years. When Bud Moore put our family up in his lake house oin Lake Bowen outside Spartanburg while we house hunted in 1986, we scheduled our arrival around the week always blocked out by Bud for Jim Foster to come up and use it from Daytona.
A great day for independents. Chase.. regarding the twin 4bbls... this was during the time period of the Ford factory boycott and for a short period of time Bill France allowed the Independents to use two 4bbl carburetors on their Ford 427s while Jacques Passino stayed home with the factory Fords and pouted over the over the Ford SOHC engine. Just two weeks before on May 15 at Richmond, Tom Pistone set the all-time Richmond dirt track qualifying record and Elmo had qualified third with that carburetor setup.
