Racers young and old revisiting former beach course
By Andrew Gant, Staff writer send an email to andrew.gant@news-jrnl.com
February 15, 2012 12:05 AM
Racing memorabilia hanging on the wall at Racing's North Turn restaurant in Ponce Inlet shows the old beach course.
If You Go
FRIDAY
WHAT: Trevor Bayne's trip from the old beach racetrack to Daytona International Speedway
WHEN: 11:15 a.m. Friday
WHERE: State Road A1A, south of the Dunlawton Bridge, to International Speedway Boulevard
SATURDAY
WHAT: Historic beach-racing parade and memorial unveiling
WHEN: 10 a.m. Saturday
WHERE: Parade starts at the Beach Street approach in Ponce Inlet, and ends with an unveiling at Racing's North Turn restaurant
PONCE INLET -- Trevor Bayne, the 2011 Daytona 500 champion, may not know racing on the sand except as a history lesson. But just about every day, Russ Truelove sits down for lunch a few car lengths away from the stretch of beach where he rolled his stock car six times back in 1956.
Race fans will get a chance to experience the old and the new this week. On Friday morning at 11:15, Bayne -- who at 20 was the youngest 500 winner ever -- will take his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford out for a spin to officially open the stock-car portion of Speedweeks 2012, and the public's invited to watch. Bayne will start on A1A south of Dunlawton, head north on A1A then turn west on International Speedway Boulevard to the track.
Then, on Saturday at 10 a.m., the 87-year-old Truelove and other drivers who trace their racing roots back to the beach will bring out their classic cars for an A1A parade along the Speedway's predecessor -- the 4.1-mile beach-road course where the Grand National Race ran from 1948 to 1958. Truelove still has that No. 226 Mercury Monterey -- the body was wrecked, but the frame survived the 1956 crash -- parked at his condo nearby. And his old helmet, one of the few safety measures drivers had at the time, still makes its way into most of his photos with the car.
"Most of our visitors coming from out of town here have no idea where they used to race," said the 87-year-old former driver, who walked away from the rough wreck at that race and into a hospital for the night. Today, he routinely passes out cards with old race photos around the oceanfront restaurant Racing's North Turn, trying to spread the historical significance of that beach just outside the window.
He'll have some help with that this weekend. The Saturday morning parade will end at the restaurant, where city and county officials will unveil a new tribute to the forgotten track -- which, until now, has stayed fairly inconspicuous. The drivers will fire up their old cars and motorcycles at the south turn (the Beach Street approach in Ponce Inlet), roll up A1A and park on display outside the restaurant.
"This is where racing started, so having these markers here is really nice," said Racing's North Turn owner Rhonda Glasnak, whose restaurant has been the area's de facto beach racing memorial for years.
Volusia County and Ponce Inlet both paid for the new memorials, which include historic markers along with checkered-flag pavement and gates at both ends of the circuit. Truelove's face is on the south turn marker -- his name isn't on it, but ask around and you'll find out it's him -- with the face of Ray Chaike, another driver in that 1956 race, at the north turn.
Saturday's historic parade will include more of the area's early racers in their historic cars. A few among them:
Ray Fox, 95, the master mechanic whose cars -- along with rival Smokey Yunick's -- dominated the earliest races at Daytona International Speedway.
Glen Wood, who started Wood Brothers Racing with his brother in 1950 and won five Daytona 500s since, including last year with Trevor Bayne.
Vicki Wood, who set NASCAR's one-way beach speed record of about 150 mph in 1960.
Marvin Panch, winner of the 1961 Daytona 500 at the wheel of a Yunick Pontiac.
Organizers with the town of Ponce Inlet said they might have a surprise guest joining in Saturday, but couldn't say who.
NASCAR sanctioned races on the beach from 1948 to 1958, although cars and motorcycles raced there before and after that time. Racers first began testing the limits of speed on the shore in Ormond Beach in the early 1900s, but the races gradually moved south as the beaches became more developed.
In Ponce Inlet, the cars raced north on the beach, made a left at the north turn and headed south on A1A to make the loop. The ruts in the hard-packed sand meant wrecks like Truelove's were a common risk.
He remembers his crash well -- and they live on in series of photos printed in a 1956 issue of Life magazine -- but the exact number of flips isn't part of that memory.
"I wasn't counting," Truelove said of the wild ride. "Someone else did that."
--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
updated by @dave-fulton: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM