Jack Walker
Talladega LMS - October 25, 1969
Just 5 weeks after the opening of Talladega International Speedway on September 14, 1969 with the Nascar Grand National race, the track was again in action. This time it was a split weekend with the Nascar Late Model Sportsman cars racing on Saturday October 25th, and the ARCA cars running in the Vulcan 500 the next day. The LMS field was open to 50 cars, but only 28 cars were in the event. Could the field have been so short because of all the problems in GN race on Sept. 14th (PDA, tire problems, and Richard Brickhouse’s win) ? Tiny Lund won the pole for the LMS race with a speed of 191.290 mph, which was 8 mph faster than Red Farmer’s second place speed. Lund was driving a Bondy Long Ford, and jumped out to an early lead. The lead changed hands 15 times among 4 drivers (Lund, Farmer, Freddy Fryer, and Haskell Willingham). Tiny Lund lead the last 44 laps to take the win of $8025.00 before a sparse crowd of 6,500 fans.
Race preview from Gadsden Times with contrasting ages of veteran Buck Baker & upstart Haskell Willingham who was driving for Marion Cox. (Click to open larger version in new tab.)