Jack Walker
Bowman-Gray Results, July 21,1962
Perk Brown from Spray, NC won the Carolina 400 at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC on Saturday night July 21st, 1962. The race was a 100 mile distance on the 1/4 mile paved track. There were 50 cars entered for time trials on Friday night where the first 15 positions were locked in for the Carolina 400. Perk Brown won the pole with a time of 17.04 seconds. On Saturday night Brown took home $1000 for the win out of the $4700 race purse. This was also Brown's 5th victory of the 1962 season at Bowman-Gray, and he also lead the Modified points race.
thanks for posting
Stephen,Tonight on the Racing Through History radio show I'll be going over a Modified-Sportsman race from Bristol in 1963. Check us out right here on RacersReunion from 7:00 - 9:00.Jack
From July 20, 1962 edition of The Dispatch
3 of the 4 "Eastern Bandits" showed for this Bowman-Gray Stadium NASCAR Modified-Sportsman race on July 21, 1962 - Red Foote , "Steady Eddie" Flemke and Dennis Zimmerman , who would go on to drive sprint cars and become Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year. Only Rene Charland was missing. Foote would soon relocate from Southington, Connecticut to the modified hotbed of Richmond, Virginia. All of the Eastern Bandits prepared their cars at Junie Donlavey's Richmond shop during their southern forays. Here's a photo of 2nd place Bowman-Gray finisher Red Foote with the Junie Donlavey #90 Perkins Pure Oil Special NASCAR modified also driven to many wins by Runt Harris and Sonny Hutchins.
15th place finisher Clarence Pickerell was the proprietor of the famed Clarence's Steak House, just down the road from Martinsville Speedway and a longtime sponsor of NASCAR Modifieds, often driven by Ferrum, Virginia's Paul Radford. The photo below shows 26th place finisher Radford with one of his Clarence's Steak House rides.
Winner Perk Brown hailed from Spray, NC and 15th place finisher, Carl Burris from Leaksville, NC. Both were one-time competitors at the old Draper, NC Speedway - Draper also being the home of racers Jimmy Griffin and Monk Tate. None of those 3 communities exist under those names today. At the height of the hippie drug tripping era, in 1967, Leaksville, Spray and Draper merged to form the new city of Eden, NC.