Dave, the things you add to these History Minutes are priceless. I wish I had the talent you have to find those pictures and videos. Wish I had the experiences you had in racing but I really glad you have choosen to share those here. You are really making these Minutes come alive. You and Chase and Dennis. Thank you so much!
Last week, during the broadcast of the Richmond race, Ann and I stepped outside at 8:51 p.m. to witness the International Space Station pass over our house. A couple of young ladies walking their dog stopped to watch with us. Right on schedule, the ISS zoomed overhead in brilliant glory and we watched for almost four minutes until it was out of sight. After coming back in to watch the rest of the race, I remembered back in October, 1957, I would often go outside at night to see if I could spot "Sputnik", the first satellite in space but I never did see it.
What does this have to do with racing history you may be wondering? Nothing, in fact, but I'm using this as an example of the progression of technology in the world, and in racing, as today's history report will show. Today's racing machines are so intricate that technicians with computers work on handling and speed rather than a bespecled guy in a dirty cowboy hat. As for me, give me the bespecled guy in the dirty cowboy hat. After all, I would suspect he now has "the best damn garage" in space somewhere. So, here's the story of "high tech" transmission work, and an example of goodness being rewarded.
On May 4, 1962, the Grand National boys (now Cup) rolled into Southside Speedway in Richmond, Virginia for a 200 lap (66.7 miles) race on the .333 mile paved track. Joe Weatherly was on his way to win the 1962 Championship, but during the course of the season, he would, for one reason of another, be forced to use other rides than the Bud Moore car that was his usual mount. This was one of those occassions because his Bud Moore Pontiac had been so mechanically abused at the Bristol race four days earlied that it was not ready to run. In those days, there were no "back up cars". Knowing Joe was going for the title, Jimmy Pardue offered his Pontiac to Weatherly, but Weatherly opted for a ride in Fred Harb's 1961 Ford after the Pontiac developed a transmission issue in a shakedown run before the race.
Pardue worked on the transmission and returned to the track for a second practice session. Again, the transmission became an issue so, in order to simply start the race, Jimmy found a strong piece of wire and wired the transmission in third gear. He realized he would not be a competitive, but he was there to race so it was a car of using what he had and doing what he had to do to compete. Notquite sure where that technology would fit into NASA's scheme of things, but it did allow Jimmy to start in 12th position in the 16 car field.
Rex White put his'62 Chevy on the pole with Jim Paschal in a Pontiac to his outside. On the green flag,Rex took the lead he would hold for the first 134 laps before engine problems forced the fleet Chevy to the pits for a lengthy stop. Running second at the time of Rex's stop, was Jimmy Pardue in the crippled Pontiac. Being restricted to third gear only was a huge disadvantage, or should have been, but the equalizer may have been the steady pace required to run in third gear all race. Regardless of the reasons, Jimmy Pardue took over the lead on lap 135 and would hold it the rest of the way for his first win in Grand National competition.It was Jimmy's 92nd career Cup Start.
Top five finishers were:
1. Jimmy Pardue, Pardue Pontiac, winning $550.00
2. Jack Smith, Smith Pontiac, winning $480.00
3. Richard Petty, Petty Engineering Plymouth, winning $375.00
4. Joe Weatherly, Fred Harb Ford, winning $290.00
5. Jim Paschal, Cliff Stewart Pontiac, winning $275.00
Sixth through tenth were Emanual Zervakis, Johnny Allen, Wendell Scott, Curtis Crider and Herman Beam.
Rex White, who was forced to finally park his Chevy on lap 142, was 13th, Ned Jarrett 14th, and Larry Thomas 15th.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
I was really shocked at the number of empty seats at the race. My son took me to the night race there on September 9, 2001, and the place was packed to capacity. There wasn't a seat to be had anywhere. Mark lived in Midlothian then so he knew all the backroads to get us home quickly, or so he thought. He did a good job but the traffic was a nightmare of unreal proportions. But then I took the grandsons to the 600 in 2011 and although the place was far from full, getting out of the parking lot was an adventure of unbelieveable proportions. It takes me about an hour and 45 minutes to drive to the speedway on a non race day from Columbia. I actually got the grandsons home at 3:30 a.m. and we left immediately after the race. I was thankful for cell phones that night to keep the daughter in the loop about where we were.
Thanks Dave. All of those personal memories are so special to me.
Thanks to the efforts of a dedicated group of folks, the history and legacy of the Augusta Speedway, located outside Augusta, Georgia, will live on. And that's a good thing for many reasons.
The track was a half-mile relatively high banked asphalt track which played host to a number of Grand National (now Cup) races back in the sixties, and was a weekly playground of a number of well known drivers. Many members of RacersReunion raced that track and when the Augusta International Raceway Preservation Society has its event each year, a fan can hear the stories first hand.
Today we will travel back in time to May 3, 1968. My family and I were in attendance at this race, and, as I recall, it was a warm, if not HOT May afternoon, and that before global warming. Twenty-three cars showed up to compete, including a late entry by LeeRoy Yarbrough.
Bobby Isaac would put the red K&K Insurance Dodge Charger on the pole with LeeRoy Yarbrough to his outside. Tiger Tom Pistone started third in his Mercury and Richard Petty fourth in his Plymouth. As soon as the green flag dropped, it was clear the race would be between Bobby and Richard and Bobby moved the Dodge in front. For the first 86 laps, it was a bumper-to-bumper duel between the red Dodge and blue Plymouth and although Richard would pull abreast from time to time, Bobby would continue to lead at the line through lap 130 when he pitted. Petty had parked his Plymouth on lap 84 when the axel broke.
When Petty departed on lap 84, there was a three way battle between Bobby Isaac, Buddy Baker and Tiger Tom Pistone. Buddy and Tom became so engaged in their private battle that it allowed Bobby to pull ahead. Tiger had led laps 131-138 as the result of Bobby's pit stop, but after cycling through, Bobby was back in the lead. Bobby would lead from lap 139 through the end at lap 250, which constituted 125 miles. LeeRoy Yarbrough, although starting second, fell out of the race on lap 158 with rear gear failure but he was nevera serious threat to Isaac.
That was not the only Grand National Race my family attended at that fine facility in Augusta. Somewhere around the Lair is a clip from home movies when we were there for a 1965 event. I vividly recall there was not a bad seat anywhere in that grandstand. You could see every inch of the track and had a good view of the pits no matter where you sat. Our family would always sit at the end of the stands going into turn two.
Top five finishers were:
1. Bobby Isaac, K&K Insurance Dodge, winning $1,100.00
2. Buddy Baker, Ray Fox Dodge, winning $700.00
3. Tiger Tom Pistone, Pistone Mercury, winning $600.00
4. James Hylton, Hylton Dodge, winning $500.00
5. Buck Baker, Baker Oldsmobile, winning $425.00
Sixth through tenth were Clyde Lynn, Frank Warren, Wendell Scott, Jabe Thomas and Bob Moore. Other finishers of note were Elmo Langley 12th, Neil Castles 13th, John Sears 14th, J.D. McDuffie 16th, Roy Tyner 17th, Richard Petty 18th, and Henley Gray 19th.
On a personal note here, Augusta was the second track I raced when I started in 1969. It was a Saturday night affair and, thanks to a generous guy named Herbert Corley, I was given a trailer to tow to Augusta. I'll tell the story of my relationship with Herbert Corley one day but suffice it now to say that he built winning race cars for a number of well known short track drivers back in the day. He was a very good man.
Anyway, on that particular Saturday night, I started the feature on the outside second row. Coming off turn two, the first two guys somehow went to the low side and were running side-by-side leaving enough room at the top for me to try it coming off two. Pushing the accelerator all the way to the floor, my Plymouth responded as we went flashing by into the lead! Second feature race and leading. Man, I was already planning my contract negotiations with Petty Enterprises for a ride in the second Petty car. But, alas, after "allowing" me to lead seven laps, the hot dog in the Chevy who had started on the pole nudged past me coming off turn four and it was me trying to catch him the rest of the way. I did finish second, probably 20 yards behind that Chevy. Don't remember who was driving but it wouldn't surprise me to find out it was the Mallonee fellow.
Hope you folks don't mind these personal memories added to the racing history, but because my life is so wrapped in the history, sometimes I just have the tell the stories. If I get enough complaints, I may stop with the personal, but it will take an awful lot of complaints.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
Sorry, Chase. I got so hung up thinking of Don I miscalled you! Please forgive.
Dave, my Uncle Bobby and I would sit on the front porch of my grandparent's house and listen to the Southern 500. 1952 is the first I recall but Bobby says I was in the rocking chair beside him from the first one. I just can't remember that. Starting 1957, I was there to see it for myself, but the radio broadcasts came back into vogue while listening on the headsets and watching the race. Great memories.
This is going to be very enjoyable for me, Don. Darlington is my special track. I am looking forward to reading every word. Now,"back to the eye".
I'll never figure out the Hamilton-Baker issue either. Just one of those circumstances that makes no sense to me. I guess that's why I never made the "big bucks".
"The Turtle" was quite a character. I truly don't know if he even knew how to laugh. He was, I think, the most serious minded driver around. I remember a conversation I had with him one and it was as serious as a funeral eulogy. But he was quite colorful for the sport.
The first time I went to Hickory, NC, 1963 or '64, it was a sleepy little town with a race track. The next time I went to Hickory in the mid Seventies (several times) it was a slightly larger sleepy town. The last time I went to Hickory, in the mid 90s, it was a larger town and not quite as sleepy. Through it all Hickory Race Track, Hickory Motor Speedway, or whatever the name, was there. A .4 mile dirt track, like most in the early days of NASCAR, which became a fast and competitive asphalt track as "progress" updated the sport.
Today we are returning to the days of the dirt track, May 2, 1959, when 21 cars showed up for a 100 mile/250 lapsrace on the dirt track. As is the norm, excitement at Hickory is a given. This time it started in practice when Junior Johnson rolled his 1957 Ford. The car landed back on its wheels and Junior drove it into the pits, climbed out, surveyed the damage and commented only that "it just skinned it up a little". Junior went out and qualified that Ford on the pole! Those '57 Fords were tough!
Starting on Junior's right was Lee Petty in a 1957 Oldsmobile. As was his style, when the green flag waved, Junior bolted into the lead he would hold until lap 26 when Speedy Thompson nosed to the inside off turn four and took the lead. Joe Weatherly and Buck Baker had followed Speedy through the door he opened inside Junior and the three of them, Joe, Buck, and Speedy, would battle nose to tail and side by side . Joe Weatherly is credited with leading laps 51-100, Buck Baker with laps 101-124. On lap 125, Speedy Thompson muscled his way back into the lead, and although he couldn't pull away from his pursuers, he held the lead through lap 237.
By lap 237, Junior Johnson had moved his "skinned up" Ford into second place, but he was having no luck running down the quick Chevy of Thompson. With 13 laps remaining, Thompson lost oil pressure in the Chevy and had to park it. This put Junior in the lead by two laps over Joe Weatherly and Junior motored his way to the checkers. My reference doesn't say whether or not Junior backed off when Speedy fell out, but recalling the Junior of those days, it is unlikely he slowed his pace any.
A crowd of 5,000 watched Junior complete the 250 laps in 1 hour, 36, minutes and 31 seconds as the race was slowed by four caution flags, none for serious incidents.
Top five finishers were:
1. Junior Johnson, Paul Spaulding Ford, winning $800.00
2. Joe Weatherly, Delta Auto Sales Ford T-Bird, winninb $525.00
3. Lee Petty, Petty Engineering Plymouth, winning $350.00
4. Ken Rush, Chevroler, winning $250.00
5. Cotton Owens, W.H. Watson Pontiac, winning $225.00
Sixth through tenth were Speedy Thompson (although no running at the finish), Shep Langdon, L.D. Austin, Ned Jarrett, and Herman Beam. Many of you may remember Herman Beam as the driver who came with an immaculately prepared race car which he drove cautiously each race to finish in the money. In this particular race, although he finished 10th, he was 36 laps down. A personal memory of Herman Beam is from Myrtle Beach Speedway, July, 1963. He had hired Cale Yarborough to drive his Ford in the race that afternoon. Cale brought the number 19 red and white Ford to the pits after a slight altercation denting the fender. I actually watched Herman take a white handkerchief out of his pocket and rub away the dirt to inspect the scrape. Google Herman Beam and read all about his NASCAR exploits. He is quite a story.
Other finishers of note were Jim Reed 13th, G.C. Spencer 14th, Buck Back 15th, Jimmy Pardue 19th and Rex White 21st.
So, these days I would image Hickory is a larger town, maybe even known as a city now, made famous, in part, by Ned Jarrett living there, put forever enshrined in the history of NASCAR racing. Even as I sit here now, I can envision what it must have been like to watch those pioneers battle it out on that track.When you run 250 laps on a track slightly smaller than a half mile, and dirt to boot, you know you have raced. When you compete against Buck, Joe, Speedy, Rex, Junior you have an event to remember. Probably, somewhere out in the vastness of space, there is a dust molecule floating around that was kicked up by the tires of those race cars. If that molecule could only tell us the story!
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
