William, I always shared your thinking regarding Tommy and Eric Freedlander.
A trivia side note.. the late Kenneth Campbell "signed" Freedlander to a two-year contract to sponsor the September 1986 & 1987 Busch Series race at Richmond... the Freedlander 200.
Promoter Paul Sawyer never failed to remind Kenneth that Freedlander never paid a dime of the money due the Richmond track.
The media also complained when Tommy WASN'T fighting, lol!
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xd9LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=P4sDAAAA...
Anyone who followed NASCAR Late Model Sportsman racing in the 1970s is familiar with "Terrible Tommy" Ellis of Richmond and how his temper kept him in hot water with NASCAR and fellow drivers and car owners. He's the same Tommy Ellis who had to have the lights turned off at Franklin County Speedway and get a Sheriff's escort out of the infield to keep the fans from assaulting him.
He's the same Tommy Ellis who had several run-ins with NASCAR Modified "Most Popular Driver" and Virginia Late Model Sportsman driver, Al Grinnan, including a shoving match with their cars in the Southside Speedway infield.
He's the same Tommy Ellis who rammed the winning car of Langley winner, Bill Dennis on pit road following Dennis' win, earning a lengthy NASCAR suspension.
In the mid-70s, Tommy took exception with the owner of Sonny Hutchins' car, Emanuel Zervakis - The Golden Greek -at Langley Speedway. Ellis hit Zervakis in the face with a metal bar, breaking his nose and earning another lengthy suspension from NASCAR.
Zervakis spent sevaral years bringing lawsuits against Ellis and finally a Virginia judge decreed that Ellis' race earnings should be garnished and paid to Zervakis.
Before the big Winston Tobaccoland 200 at Richmond's Southside Speedway in 1979, Ellis came up with a plan to keep from paying Zervakis any of his winnings in that race. Understanding that NASCAR official race winnings were credited to the starting driver, Ellis arranged for Charlie Ford to start his car, planning to get in the car himself during the first caution.
Much to Ellis' dismay, the entire 200-lap race went caution free and Ford went down several laps and finally left the race without Ellis ever getting in the car. Tommy had outfoxed himself.
Morgan Shepherd ran away with the win in Richmond that night, lapping all cars except Sonny Hutchins.
Thanks to the wondertful Google News Archives , you can read an actual account of this strange race. Did you ever not start as the driver in your car to keep from paying a court judgement? Read here at the link below of what Tommy Ellis did:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fOBLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Z4sDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2129,4025877&dq=southside+speedway&hl=en
Reckon I should be dipping?
I note that all videos I post when using Google Chrome browser do as you describe, PK. It doesn't happen when I'm using Firefox or IE. Wonder why?
Johnny, I'm sure this has been around here before, but it is superb 8mm color film of the April 1951 Occonechee race won by Fonty Flock to the accompaniment of "Down at Occoneechee" playing in the background.
Really special stuff.
Fonty led all 95 laps of the rain shortened event!
NASCAR Grand National race number 5 of 41
April 15, 1951 at Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsboro, NC
150 laps* on a 1.000 mile dirt track (150.0 miles)
Time of race: 1:10:20
Average Speed: 80.889 mph
Pole Speed: 88.287 mph Cautions: 1 for 7 laps
Margin of Victory: 0.75 lap
Attendance: 11,247
Lead changes: 0
Fin St # Driver Sponsor / Owner Car Laps Money Status Led
1 1 14 Fonty Flock Red Devil (Frank Christian) '50 Oldsmobile 95 1,250 running 95
2 7 23 Frank Mundy Perry Smith '51 Studebaker 95 800 running 0
3 2 41.5 Bill Blair Bill Blair '50 Oldsmobile 600 running 0
4 3 91 Tim Flock Black Phantom (Ted Chester) '51 Oldsmobile 500 running 0
5 5 52 Neil Cole John Golabek '50 Oldsmobile 300 running 0
6 17 110 Earl Moss Police Special (J.B. Watkins) '50 Ford 200 0
7 9 92 Herb Thomas Sanford Motors (Herb Thomas) '50 Plymouth 150 0
8 13 71 Jim Paschal Sam Rice '49 Oldsmobile 125 0
9 20 42 Lee Petty Petty Special (Petty Enterprises) '49 Plymouth 100 0
10 15 55 Glenn Dunaway Glenn Dunaway '50 Plymouth 100 0
11 18 2 Ewell Weddle Ewell Weddle '50 Ford 25 0
12 22 50 Bill Joslin Bill Joslin '49 Lincoln 25 0
13 29 72 Weldon Adams Harold Mays '50 Plymouth 25 0
14 4 11 Fireball Roberts Sam Rice '50 Oldsmobile 25 wheel 0
15 31 66 Red Ryder Pappy Hough '49 Ford 25 0
16 26 144 Johnny Grubb Johnny Grubb '50 Plymouth 25 0
17 33 37 Coleman Lawrence Mitchell Motor Co. (Coleman Lawrence) '50 Ford 25 0
18 24 10 Jim Fiebelkorn Jim Fiebelkorn '49 Mercury 25 0
19 19 60 Bill Rexford Julian Buesink '50 Mercury 25 wheels 0
20 12 59 Lloyd Moore Buesink Police Special (Julian Buesink) '49 Ford 25 overheating 0
21 14 4 Joe Jernigan Lambert's Auto (Joe Jernigan) '49 Ford 25 0
22 30 19 Bill Schade Bill Schade '51 Oldsmobile 25 0
23 28 90 Shorty York Russ Loh '50 Plymouth 25 0
24 27 26 Jimmy Thompson Leland Colvin '50 Plymouth 25 0
25 10 1 Walt Sprague Police Special (J.B. Watkins) '49 Ford 25 overheating 0
26 6 62 Pepper Cunningham Pepper Cunningham '51 Hudson 25 wheel 0
27 21 41 Curtis Turner Nash Motor Co. (Nash Motor Co.) '51 Nash 25 overheating 0
28 23 45 Eddie Anderson Nash of Blue Island (Eddie Anderson) '51 Nash 25 overheating 0
29 25 15 Ben Dixon Wesley McBell '50 Lincoln 25 0
30 11 9 Frank Luptow Rocket (Joe Winter) '50 Oldsmobile 18 25 wheel 0
31 16 98 Bill Holland Southern 500 Winner (Hubert Westmoreland) '50 Plymouth 13 10 valve 0
32 8 5 Ray Erickson Ed Hastings '49 Mercury 0 20 0
33 32 79 Ray Pruitt Ray Pruitt '50 Dodge 0 10 0
* Race shortened to 95 laps due to rain.
Appreciate hearing the handling observation of a dirt competitor. Very enlightening, Johnny. Thanks.
Awesome stuff, Johnny. So glad you found it.
Black Widow sweep of positions 1-3, with Buck Baker, Speedy Thompson and Jack Smith in their '57 Chevys!
Same today... a check of '57 Ford registrations vs. '57 Chevys would be tilted heavily in favor of the Chevy, though more '57 Fords were sold.
Everytime we attend the Historic Speedway Group reunion at Occonnechee you can still feel the spirit of these races. The clips you show of the '57 race were incorporated into the 1957 television production of "Death of a Stock Car Racer" with James Whitmore driving the Buck Baker #87.
Back last year, LaVerne Zachary made the following post under our Racing Movies Club listing:
Comment by LAVERNE ZACHARY on February 6, 2012 at 7:40pm
Death of a Stock Car Racer was a 1957 made for television movie staring
James Whitmore as Buck Larson and Vic Morrow as Tommy Linden.It was actually filmed at Occoneechee Orange Speedway but was named Soltan
Stadium in the movie.Very cool!!
LAVERNE ZACHARY
HISTORIC SPEEDWAY GROUP
