Sam Ard is a specil individual in the annals of racing history. Such a competitive driver, such a kind gentleman. I'm sort of hoping his record is never broken.
I won't even bring up the subject as to how he best not try that with Danica.
Chase, at the time, that photo may have been considered "cheesie", but with what those drivers do for commercials and endorsements these days, it give cheesiness and entire new definition.
And I can't even program my sprinkler system!!!! About five years ago, Ann and I had an automated sprinkler system installed for the front yard. The control, inside our house, is supposed to set the days, the times, the length, the zone and everything else. The guy installing the systems programmed it for Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, early in the morning, for 30 minutes a zone. While it never worked exactly how it was supposed to, when we lost all power during a storm a couple of years ago and the battery back up failed, I could not figure out how to reprogram it. I read the instruction book over and over, looked at all the little pictures, tried and tried and tried. Could not get it. I called "the man" and he sent an employee to program it. Didn't work right. Called again, came back did it again, didn't work right. Long story short, we have had half a dozen landscape guys with irrigation knowledge here and it still isn't programmed. I've tried to run it manualy and can get zone one to run 10 minutes and that's it. They say "it ain't rocket science". I know they are right because rocket science is easier.
Newsprint must have been very expensive in those days judging by the "inches" these stories got. Thinking back, racing never got much press here in Columbia until The State and The Columbia Record hired such folks as Joe Whitlock and Jim Hunter, both of whom I came to know pretty well. They gave us good coverage. In the present day, we had Jim McLaurin until The State untimely put him out to pasture. McLaurin was excellent.
Thanks, Randy. I appreciate your understanding and support. Always!
First, Dave, thanks for posting that video. I actually saw that in person.
Secondly, Randy, I sincerely apologize if my post caused you any distress in the way it was written. To those who may read the post now and then read Randy's post, I have gone back and edited the original post to accurately present the accident at Martinsville which was referenced. Randy, I sincerely thank you for adding that clarifying information.
When I started these History Minutes, I was hoping that, using information from Greg Fielden's books, newspaper clippings I have, old racing magazines and newspapers and my personal memories, I would present information that would cause others to post their memories or information. That has been the case, thanks to Dave Fulton, Randy Myers, Chase (toomuchcountry) and others.
I have gone back to the Fielden book an re-examined the story for today. Fielden did say that the 8 year old "was gravely injured" and then went on to talk about four injured spectators being taken to the hospital. Information referencing the death IS TOTALLY MY FAULT IN MISINTERPRETING WHAT I READ. I deeply apologize to Randy Myers, Greg Feilden, and anyone else who may have been misled by my post.
A little background is in order before we get into this History Minute Times Two.
Almost from the beginning of NASCAR's Strickly Stock Division racing, manufacturers were aware that fans became attracted to the cars on the track looking just like the cars they drove and the cars on the track winning races gave neighborhood bragging rights to car owners. If you owned a Chevy and Chevy won the latest race, you were on top until the next race. By mid 1955, factories were openly involved in not only promoting racing wins, but also in an all out battle to produce engines with more power, more speed. By 1957, Chevrolet had a team manager who placed Hugh Babb (recently profiled in a Forum Post here) in charge of drivers Buck Baker, Speedy Thompson, Rex White, Jack Smith, and Frankie Schneider.
Ford asked Peter DePaolo, winner of the 1925 Indy 500 to take charge of the blue oval efforts. DePaolo asked Buddy Shuman, also a retired driver, to head up the Ford teams but Shuman died in a hotel fire in Hickory, NC, on November 10, 1956. This led DePaolo to ask John Holman to head up the teams. All of us here know where that went.
Ray Nichels headed the Pontiac efforts and Bill Stroupe would field the Mercury teams. Oldsmobile had Lee Petty operating a two car team with Ralph Earnhardt as the other driver, although the Petty team was more of an independent effort. Ronnie Householder headed the one car Plymouth team. (In 1964 Ronnie would really become famous to we Mopar fans. He told me a story once about qualifying for the 1964 Daytona 500 that always makes me chuckle).
Detroit (short for manufacturers) was interested only in selling the cars. Although Detroit knew that "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" was a reality, they had very little, if any, interest in NASCAR itself. NASCAR was merely a means to an end. Each team had publicity agents by the hundreds who took literally license, liberal license, to make their brand look really good. The "truth-stretching" became so bad, NASCAR made a rule in 1957 requiring "truth in advertising". (Imagine that).
In 1957, traffic deaths on the highways were at record levels. The American Automobile Association was convinced that was the direct result of the constant barrage of advertisement about high performance car. NASCAR, aware of its existence depending upon favorable press, adopted a new rule which forbade manufacturers from advertising race results and threatened to withhold manuafacturer points from violators. NASCAR outlawed fuel-injection and superchargers which had been allowed.
Come May 19, 1957, at Martinsville, VA for the 500 lap race and Billy Myers' Mercury was involved in an accident which sent it through the fence into a crowd of spectators, believed to be the result of NASCAR's failure to put out a caution flag in spite of rain falling on the track. An 8 year old boy, Alvin Helsabeck, was gravely injuredand four other spectatorshospitalized for treatmentof various injuries. Although it is reported that these fans were in a restricted area where they should not have been allowed, and had, in fact, been removed from that area previously but returned, that accident made headlines around the world. The Press, usually unaware and uninterested in the sport, took this accident to the maximum negative exposure for auto racing.
With all the adverse publicity, the manufactures bailed as if from a disabled aircraft. Big Bill France issued a statement, most of which is available in Greg Fielden's "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing First Volume" and which is quite well written. He basically told the factories they needed to be involved in the sport but if they chose not to, it was their loss. Typical Big Bill. If anyone is interested in the entire comments and doesn't have access to Greg's book, I'll post those comments in another post. Just let me know.
Ok, now were are on to the date, April 28, 1957. So why did I entitle this Minutes "Times Two"? Because there were TWO Grand National Races on this date in 1957. One was on the .333 mile dirt track in Greensboro,NC, and the other was on the half mile asphalt track in Portland, Oregon.
In Greensboro, Buck Baker started on the pole and led the first 35 laps. Paul Goldsmith, in a Ford, took over and led the next 100 laps before yeilding to Baker. On lap 173, it was Goldsmith back in front where he would stay until lap 250 which completed the race.
Top Five Finishers were:
1. Paul Goldsmith, Smokey Yunick Ford, winning $700.00
2. Jack Smith, Hugh Babb Chevrolet, winning $525.00
3. Buck Back, Hugh Babb Chevrolet, winning $400.00
4. Ralph Moody, DePaolo Ford, winning $430.00
5. Fireball Roberts, DePaolo Ford, winning $270.00
Sixth through tenth were Lee Petty, Johnny Allen, LD. Austin, Clarence DeZaila, and Ralph Earnhardt.
Jim Paschal was 12th, Tiny Lund 13th, Speedy Thompson 14th, Billy Myers 17th, Brownie King 18th, and Marvin Panch 19th and final finisher.
Moving on out west to Oregon, Art Watts started his Ford on the pole of the 50 mile race and was never headed. It was his first Grand National win in his 11th start. The race was caution free and took just over 45 minutes to complete.
Top Five finishers were:
1. Art Watts, AlSchmidhamer Ford, winning $940.00
2. Eddie Pagan, Pagan Ford, winning $635.00
3. George Seegar, Oscar Maples Inc. Ford, winning $480.00
4. Chuck Meekins, James Rush Chevrolet, winning $340.00
5. Jack D. McCoy, Ford, winning $270.00
Sixth through tenth were Bob Keefe, Parnelli Jones, Dick Getty, Jack Oldenhage and Lloyd Dane. Ed Negre finished 14th and would later come east to run the Grand National events with some limited success.
We all know that the factories played games with NASCAR for a number of years (remember the boycotts by Chrysler in 1965 and Ford in 1966) and continue to play games today although NASCAR appears to control all the "marbles" these days. Not so sure what wins on Sunday still sells on Monday, but for an old fan such as I, there is always the memory of driving my Plymouth down the main drag after The King had won a race. Those days will never come again but the memories are great.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future.
Cody! That is a beautiful truck, and, being color blind as I am, color doesn't matter. It is a really nice looking truck. I know you're going to enjoy it and have some fine adventures driving it. I know this sounds trite, but always remember to be careful. This RacersReunion family loves you and we can't have you injured in an accident somewhere.
Really proud of you, Cody. Thanks for sharing that.
Tim
No predictions, but I do see a full moon rising!!! Watch out Danica. You've got David wanting to put you in the wall and Ricky wanting to put you in his arms. David, if Ricky comes up to your inside, it may not be your "Best Buy" to fight for the position.
