Not a big "Days of Thunder" fan here. Tom Cruise has always made me sick on my stomach to look at and his constant "macho mouth" just really turns me off. However, as for real days of thunder, we've had that right here in Columbia for 21 of the past 29 days along with about 15 inches of rain. Robert Duvall was the only reason to watch that movie though. Just my opinion.
Randy, what an absolutely wonderful memory that trophy must bring to your mind. Is that the one you showed me when you were in Columbia a couple of years ago? Thanks for adding to this Minute. I love what we are building here and I hope others are going to find it enjoyable and helpful. Thank you for your contribution.
Jim, your memories add so much to this series. Thank you for jumping in and giving us the personal, up front reports. I love it.
Wow, Chase, you worked overtime on this holiday! Great stuff. Love the write up and really love the pictures. What a historic record we are putting together here thanks to such additions as you make. Let's keep it going. I'm on board through April 4, 2014 unless something happens to end it. Thank you for what you do.
Charles, I sincerely appreciate your support. I am having a ball with these History Minutes and I'm learning things I never knew. But the real thanks needs to go to Chase and Dave. Those two can find, an post, things that really make the series special. I plan to keep it up for a year so that will run us through April 4, 2014. Are you up for that??? I hope so. Thanks, Charles.
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY AMERICA! To friends and members in other parts of the world, may you have a really awesome day as well.
No, we are NOT going to Daytona today for the 250 or the 400. Those records are readily available for anyone to view in many different places, both on line and otherwise. We are, however, going to a NASCAR sanctioned 250 milerace on one of the earliest (Darlington excluded) superspeedways in NASCAR. The one mile asphalt track was known as Raleigh Speedway, located in Raleigh, NC, of course.
A crowd of 13,600 folks celebrated their holiday at the track where 36 drivers would start the race with Lee Petty in his Dodge on the pole. Speedy Thompson would start second, Herb Thomas third, Paul Goldsmith fourth and Johnny Allen fifth. Interestingly, Herb Thomas started his own Chevrolet rather than a Carl Kiekhaefer Chrysler in which he had enjoyed success. The rumors were flying that Thomas was about to leave the Kiekhaefer stable, a move questioned by the railbirds "in the know".
When the green flag dropped, most fans expected the speedy Petty to storm into the lead but he dropped back quickly. On lap nine, Lee was out of the race with no oil pressure in his Dodge. He was credited with 36th and last place in the final run down. Frank Mundy would lead laps 1-13 in a Kiekhaefer Dodge and then relinquish that lead to Fireball Roberts, who had not won a Grand National race since Hillsborough in 1950. Fireball would lead until lap 65 when Buck Baker took over. Roberts was back in front on lap 88 and would stay there until lap 161 when Speedy Thompson got a turn out front. Roberts moved back out front on lap 175 and would lead the rest of the way for the win.
Immediately upon completion of the race, Cark Kiekhaefer, whose Speedy Thompson ride finished second, protested the Robert's car alleging the flywheel in the Robert's machine did not meet weight requirements of the rule book. Personally, I have no idea how anyone could make such an assumption not having actually seen the flywheel, but I guess Mr. Kiekhaefer was well versed in such matters. From all I have read about the man, he did not take losing very well. In any event, the track had no scales to weigh the flywheel but Kiekhaefer was insistant that he was right. Track management and a NASCAR official arranged to have the flywheel weighed at a local fish market on scales normally used to weigh the catch of the day. The fish scale showed the flywheel to be within the required limits so Fireball's win stood No report on whether or not Kiekhaefer thought there was anything "fishy" about the weigh-in..
There was only one caution flag to slow the race and the average speed for the 250 miles was 79.822 mph. Margin of victory over second place was two laps, ten seconds.
Top five finishers were:
1. Fireball Roberts, DePaolo Ford, winning $3,000.00
2. Speedy Thompson, Kiefhaefer Dodge, winning $2,000.00
3. Frank Mundy, Kiefhaefer Dodge, winning $1,275.00
4. Herb Thomas, Thomas Chevrolet, winning $925.00
5. Tim Flock, Mauri Rose Engineering Chevrolet, winning $750.00
Sixth through tenth were Paul Goldsmith, Marvin Panch, Bill Walker, Rex White and Jack Smith. Oh, and one side note on Rex White; his car number on that day was "X".
Buck Baker was 11th, Jim Paschal 12th, Emanuel Zervakis 13th with Johnny Allen 22nd, and Gywn Staley 23rd. Billy Myers finished 26th, Ralph Moody 28th and Dick Beatty 33rd.
Buck Baker, also driving for Kiekhaefer and finishing 11th, left the Raleigh event with a 296 point lead over Herb Thomas after 30 races of the 1956 season.
The Raleigh Speedway is a part of history now, as are the NASCAR races of the Fourth of July. As July 4, 1776, is an important day in American History, so, once, was the Fourth of July important to NASCAR racing. Now the Cup series runs on the Saturday "closest to the Fourth" and while that is a good alternative, I, for one, enjoyed the spectacle of the 400 from Daytona as a part of the celebration of the Birthday of America.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
Thanks, Devin, and same to you. However, a wish for a rain-free day here in Columbia, at least in turn four, appear very unlikely.
Your thunder is safe from this corner Chase. I'm going another direction with the "Minute" today. Have a great Fourth.
Chase, those are excellent additions to the Minute. Thank you so much for adding to my meager reporting.
Cody, Talladega was indeed, first destined for Spartanburg as the story goes and as the postings Chase has put up verify. But I'll give you one point not many people know. About 1965, Big Bill was looking at about 600 acres of land off Highway 215 in Columbia, about 2 miles from Interstate 20 and 5 miles from I-26. The property was within walking distance (about 3/4 of a mile from where I lived and had grown up. Dr. Kerr, who was pominent in the area here met with Big Bill to look at the property and I actually, quite by accident, stumbled on the two of them parked beside the highway. Of course I had to get out and talk. They didn't say much but Dr. Kerr told me later it was about another Daytona Speedway going in there. About a year later, when nothing had been done, I ran into Dr. Kerr again and asked him what happened. Back in those days, the entity known as "The Columbia Bible College", now known as "Columbia International University" was located less than a mile from the proposed site so they circled the wagons with all their Southern Baptist Senators and Representatives and made sure the track wouldn't go there. It was then Spartanburg was considered, but you can read from Chase's postings how that went.
There is a lot more to the story about Columbia, but I'm not about to put it in print. There are some things I should talk about and that is one of those things. Sort of glad Alabama got the track.
Thanks for reading and commenting Cody and thanks Chase for making the post special.
I had a couple of choices for today's Minute, but I chose the 100 mile race at Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds in Spartanburg, SC, because of the special meaning of that track to some of our members. Also, as we have addressed on this site before, Spartanburg, SC was very important in the earliest days of NASCAR through the end of the Bud Moore and Cotton Owens eras. That comment does not even include David Pearson in the equation. Spartanburg could have been, and possibly should have been, the Mooresville and Talladega of NASCAR. Well, we are not about woulda-coulda-shoulda here, but about history so let's go back to a July day in 1954.
The race started with Hershel McGriff on the pole in a Frank Christian Oldsmobile. Hershel had come to the east from Oregon when Fonty Flock abandoned the Christian ride AND his NASCAR affiliation to run in the SAFE Circuit which was a direct competitor of NASCAR. The big Olds would experience tire problems and Hershel fell to 10th place in the final run down. Of the twenty-one starters in the race, on five failed to complete the distance.
The checkered flag went down an hour and 41 minutes after the green dropped. It is interesting that the pole winning speed was 58.129 mph and the average speed for the race was 59.181 mph according to my source (Greg Fielden's "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing") so that would seem to indicate there were no caution flags and that record also indicates every car that did not finish had mechanical failure of some kind rather than wrecked. As I recall the Spartanburg track from my visits there in the 60s, it was the type of dirt track that gets faster as the track "irons out", so that may have accounted for the increase in speed.
Herb Thomas won the race, the second straight win of the season and his 27th overall Grand National (now Cup) win.
Top five finishers were:
1. Herb Thomas, Smokey Yunick Hudson, winning $1,000.00
2. Jimmie Lewallen, Joe Blair Mercury, winning $650.00
3. Lee Petty, Petty Engineering Chrysler, winning $450.00
4. Buck Baker, Ernest Woods Oldsmobile, winning $350.00
5. Joe Eubanks, Oates Motor Company Hudson, winning $250.00
Sixth through tenth were Jim Paschal, Dick Rathmann, Clyde Minter, Arden Mounts and Hershel McGriff.
Bill Blair, Sr., whose son, Bill, Jr. is an active member of RacersReunion events, finished in 15th place although he fell out of the race on the 173rd lap with clutch issues in his Hudson. Speedy Thompson was credited with 21st and last position in his Oldsmobile after a failed fuel pump put him out of the race on lap 6.
The importance of Spartanburg, SC, to NASCAR history ranks right there with Daytona Beach. That area of South Carolina produced pioneers of the sport and many are chronicled by Perry Allen Wood in his two books "Silent Speedways of the Carolina" and "Declaration of Independents", both excellent historic records and good reads.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future
Be sure to check out the History Minute tomorrow, July 4th. You may be surprised by what you find. If you do miss us, have a safe and Happy Fourth of July.
