Sorry Danica, Move Over Janet... Ladies Were Making Stock Car Racing Headlines This Week in 1950

With her finish last weekend at Kansas, the Charlotte track can certainly do some promoting around Danica Patrick... just like Humpy Wheeler did around Janet Guthrie back in the 70s heading into the World 600.

While Humpy Wheeler and the late Big Bill France were master promoters, I'd maintain they had nothing on the late Sam Nunis when it came using the press to fill the stands and using pretty female faces to get on the front sports pages. Sam was the guy who filled Trenton and Lakewood in Atlanta and staged the first race at the current Richmond venue - my hometown track - in 1946, with Chris Economaki in the ticket booth.

It was 64 years ago this week, in May of 1950, that Nunis used an old "professional" wrestling staple and coaxed female driver Sara Christian out of "retirement" as a headliner for his big Reading, Pennsylvania Fairgrounds "Combination" stock car races on May 21, 1950, featuring both Modified and Strictly Stock events pitting men against the ladies.

The races would also feature Louise Smith and Fireball Roberts .

Nowhere will you see the name NASCAR or the name Bill France. As much as today's spinners of history in Daytona and Charlotte would have you believe that Big Bill France and NASCAR invented stock car racing, some of us still like to dig and show that even in 1950, headlines were being made and major stock car races run without the NASCAR imprint.

Using limited advertising... a few small newspaper ads and the requisite posters, Nunis let the Reading Eagle newspaper do his work to pack the Fairgrounds with 10,000 fans on Sunday, May 21, 1950 to see the ladies take on the men.

Nunis dragged Sara Christian right down to the sports editor's office where she told how she hadn't raced since the previous fall and would never again race on the unsafe Lakewood oval in Atlanta that had killed so many drivers. But her friend, promoter Sam Nunis, had convinced her and hubby Frank that she should come north and show the fans there that the women could beat the men.

With the sports editor's front sports page column, Nunis was "off to the races!"

Nunis then prompted the headline story of Fireball Roberts not wanting to be around blondes at the track. The conclusion was Roberts would be ok at Reading because none of the lady drivers were blondes. On and on it went. Nunis was a promoter, unlike these track operators today who open the gates and expect the grandstands to magically fill.

So, as you hear the hoopla this week and next about Danica and remember the press around Janet at Charlotte in the 70s, look down below to 1950 and see how a master promoter headlined the women (they won races back then, too) to fill the stands. I particularly had an image painted when Sara Christain described holding the wheel at Heidelberg for 200 laps.

One thing hasn't changed since 1950. The tracks still run against each other. Williams Grove was running a AAA Big Car race against Nunis and his stock cars on May 21 and Dorney Park was running midgets on Saturday night.

All of these clips come from the Reading Eagle newspaper beginning Wednesday, May 17, 1950 and concluding with race coverage on Monday, May 22, 1950.

When we're done, everyone who thinks Humpy Wheeler or Bill France or NASCAR invented women in stock car racing please raise your hands.

Wednesday, May 17, 1950

Thursday, May 18, 1950

Thursday's Reading paper also carried news that Pennsylvania hero, Tommy Hinnershitz had captured the Big Car race Wednesday night down south at the Greensboro, North Carolina Fairgrounds:

Friday, May 19, 1950 :

Saturday, May 20, 1950 :

Sunday, May 21, 1950 - Race Day :

Monday, May 20, 1950 - Coverage of "Combination" Stock Car Races:

Bill France's future fair haired boy, Fireball Roberts captured Event 3, a ten lap Modified go, but New Jersey drivers Wally Campbell and Bobby Courtwright were the big winners. Sara Christian made her own headlines with impressive drives.

Over at Williams Grove, it was again Tommy Hinnershitz taking home the bacon.

So, as you watch, read and listen to all the NASCAR and media hoopla coming out of Charlotte this week and all the stories about women drivers, just remember that ole Sam Nunis did that, too... and without the help of NASCAR or Bill France, and he did it 64 years ago!.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM

great story. loved it...thanks

Hi David - As I have tried to express in a couple of messages that I hope have reached you, I very much enjoyed and quite appreciated your awareness and accuracy about featuring female drivers back in the Fifties as one of the long list of promotional gimmicks my dad, legendary promoter Sam Nunis, employed in promoting racing starting back in the early 1940's and continung through the 1950's, 60's and early 70's. It was quite a treat to find someone who really does knows something about the old days. As Chris Economaki described him in his own 2006 autobiography,"Sam Nunis was one of the most interesting, powerful and influential characters in racing history." Starting as a driver in 1926, then a track announcer in the 1930's before becoming one of the most pre-eminent promoters of all time starting in the early 1940's, Dad as far as I know was the only "barnstorming"promoter who traveled from state to state for years under his "Sam Nunis Speedways" bannerbringing race shows totracks up and down the East Coast, the middle states and the Midwest including the Dakotas etc. He was hugely instrumental in re-popularizing racing in 1946 after the four yearhiatus during World War II and later responsible for a number of innovations that remained for decades.Big cars (the old term for Indy style cars), midgets, modifed and late model stocks, you name it. Name any well known driver from the Forties through the end of the Sixties, from Indy greats to modified driversand they had all run in a Nunis event at one time or another. It is a long, rich and colorful legacy. I am grateful to see someone reference that. My Dad would have been pleased he is not forgotten...he cared about racing and he also cared about getting his"ink" (old term for getting press).I am happy to be a new member here. Thanks again for a fine story.

Vicki, it is so wonderful to have you on the site. Your Dad is well remembered by many on this site, if not personally, by the wonderful reputation he has in racing. Glad to have you here to share some personal memories.

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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.

Vicki, thank you so much for your notation. I worked quite a bit with Chris Economaki and he even wrote an unsolicited letter of recommendation for me back in the 80s after calling to tell me of a particular job opening in the industry. One of my favorite stories he told was of being turned over in a ticket booth at the Richmond Fairgrounds by some upset fans at a big car event your father was promoting.

I feel like we have racing royalty here on our site with your membership. Our young member, Cody Dinsmore , in Georgia, has written quite extensively about events promoted by your father at Lakewood in Atlanta. He volunteers extensively at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame. Hope you and he can hook up and share some stories.

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"