HAMPTON 100 June 27, 1970

HAMPTON 100

Langley Field Speedway

Hampton, Virginia

Saturday, June 27, 1970

Grand American race #16 of 1970 was held at Langley Field Speedway, a .4 mile paved oval. Qualifying was held in the form of two 10 lap heat races. Buck Baker won the first heat to earn the pole with Jim Paschal winning the second heat nailing down the outside of the front row. Point leader Tiny Lund broke an axle in his heat and would start 18^th.

Tiny, in the Pepsi sponsored Ronnie Hopkins prepared Camaro, went from 18^th to 4^th in the opening laps and remained near the front the rest of the way. He edged out second place finisher Jim Paschal by 6 car lengths at the finish. It was Lunds 13^th win of the year and third in a row. Pole sitter Buck Baker finished 3^rd half a lap behind Paschal the last car on the lead lap. Second in points Ken Rush was fourth 4 laps down with T.C. Hunt 5^th.

Twenty one cars took the green flag but Grand American and Langley Field regular Randy Hutchison was not among them as he was in summer school and did not make the race. One record shows Earle Canavan started 8^th in his Javelin but only completed 3 laps.

Fin Srt Car # Driver Car Laps Reason out

1 18 55 Tiny Lund 69 Camaro 250 Running

2 2 14 Jim Paschal 70 Javelin 250 Running

3 1 87 Buck Baker 70 Firebird 250 Running

4 44 Ken Rush 69 Camaro 246 Running

5 88 T. C. Hunt 68 Camaro Running

Personal note: Wayne Andrews was 3^rd in points going into this race. His records show they took the 68 Cougar to Langley Field that day with the wrong setup and too low a gear. The A-frame on the right front came loose and he ended up finishing 15^th.

Tiny the terror of the GA/GT series

Last week, watching the new television series, "The Astronauts' Wives Club" - I was reminded of a few Saturday afternoon excursions from Richmond to Langley Field Speedway in Hampton, Va. with my pal, Frank. We usually went to South Boston on Saturday, but took in a few Langley shows.

The original NASA space program was housed at Langley Field and to honor the space program - Project Mercury - and the original seven Mercury astronauts, Hampton renamed a main drag Mercury Boulevard . Coming to Langley from Richmond, you turned off on Mercury Boulevard heading to the track.

Almost across from the track's main gate, were very impressive wind tunnels and wind research bubbles, some of the largest and most sophisticated in the world. It was a quite impressive site to see as you got to the track.

I'm not aware of any of the NASCAR teams back in the 60s-70s using those facilities, even though they were directly across the street. For some reason, races weren't being decided by aero push.

Here's a race report story from the Spartanburg Herald-Journal:

Associated Press auto racing writer, Bloys Britt carried news of Tiny's Hampton win at Langley Field in his summary of weekend racing as reported in the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star.