Research Says...

That NASCAR had a Northwest Series championship back in the 1950s. In fact, it ran for several years. The late Royce Hagerty claimed the 1953 and 1954 titles with Art Watts taking 1957. Indications are the series ran into the 1960s.

There is something of much greater interest, however:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1917&dat=19510718&id=uPktAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xIAFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2141,2074158&hl=en

It appears that NASCAR ran a race in Erie, PA, on July 7, won by Lee Petty. Unfortunately, this is all that is known. This would not be a surprise, however, because Greg Fielden's books have in most all 1951 races (or so I am told) notes indicating that all cars outside the top-10, and sometimes even those inside the top-10, are not in the right order. The positions are just assigned to have a number there. Racing-Reference and Ultimate Racing History in some spots report 20 car fields as fact whilst Greg Fielden and newspaper archives indicate 30-40 cars. The errors are abounding.

This is a fascinating prospect: is it possibly that Lee Petty actually has a lost 55th win? The world will probably never know.

NASCAR Short Track Division race? Pretty sure that series began in 1951.

I'm learning more about promoter Ed Otto bit by bit. One trait he seemed to possess was that he focused more on pre-race press releases vs. post-race results reports. I'm guessing his philosophy was to focus on selling tickets vs. telling folks what happened.

Consequently, I'm not surprised he mentioned Lee's win to help stir up a few more sales for his race. Actually, I'd be willing to bet Otto was also the promoter at Erie.

But you've definitely given me a new research project. I've already searched Pittsburgh's 2 dailies from 1951 as well as the Toledo Blade. Next I'm going after papers from places like Buffalo, Rochester, Jamestown NY, etc.

Indeed the Short Track Division began in 1951. Unfortunately, there is nothing much more about the 1951 season on the web except that Roscoe "Pappy" Hough won the title. I figured you would accept the challenge.

Found the race report - now curious if it was a true GN event.

Based on info we have, Lee raced the following dates near the July 7th race - all in a Plymouth:

• June 24 - Dayton, OH
• July 1 - Grand Rivers, MI
• July 8 - Bainbridge, OH

From July 9, 1951 Jamestown Post Journal

Here's more about "Sportsmen's Field" near Erie: http://oldtimeerie.blogspot.com/2012/08/sportsmens-field-car-races-...

Definitely GN level field here at Erie: Lee, Tim, Dick Linder, Lloyd, Jack White, Bill Rexford (DNS), Jim Fiebelkorn, and Walt Sprague are there. All have GN experience.

Note the wording, however. The Erie race is referred to as a "championship NASCAR stock car feature" and Bainbridge (a known GN race) is referred to as a "Grand National race." I also observe that everybody in this Erie race was running an older model than they were running in GN at that time.

This is all part of a grand mystery shrouding the 1951 season.

http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/11726182/

If you can get through this, it appears there was a second race in 1952, which is referred to as a "Grand National" race.

Also noted that in this link Lee Petty is referenced as the winner of the race at Toronto in 1952...