Doing my best to fill in for Tim Leeming today...
Today's racing history minute takes us to Lancaster Speedway in Lancaster, South Carolina. Lancaster is about 5 miles south of the NC-SC border, about a half-hour from the metropolis of Rock Hill SC, and about 45 minutes south of Charlotte. Lancaster's half-mile, dirt track hosted only two Grand National races - both in 1957.
Buck Baker won the pole for the 200-lap, 100-mile race with Fireball Roberts to his outside. Jack Smith and Speedy Thompson made up row two. Thompson won the second GN race at Lancaster on July 30, 1957.
As with many races of the 1950s era - particularly the bull-ring, short-track races scattered about the country - good records were not maintained by NASCAR of lap leaders. The only documented lap leader was for the race winner at lap 200: 7th place starter Paul Goldsmith in Smokey Yunick's #3 Ford.
According to Greg Fielden in his Forty Years of Stock Car Racing - Vol. 1:
Paul Goldsmith ran down Buck Baker late in the race and won the 100-mile event at Lancaster Speedway. It was the third win of the year for the Ford driving speedster.
Goldsmith's 61.622 MPH triumph came just as there much speculation of a massive pull-out by factory racing teams. Auto manufacturers were considering a 100 percent retreat following the Martinsville tragedy on May 19, and a more recent short track, Modified race at Clarion, PA in which two children, age 8 and 12, were killed by a flying wheel from a race car.
The top 5 finishers were:
1. Paul Goldsmith, Ford, 200, $700
2. Buck Baker, Chevrolet, 200, $525
3. Lee Petty, Oldsmobile, 199, $400
4. Marvin Panch, Ford, 198, $330
5. Speedy Thompson, Chevrolet, 198, $270
Jack Smith was 6th , and Fireball finished 14th. Other notables included Jim Paschal (7th), Dick Beaty (8th), Tiny Lund (12th), Cotton Owens (13th), Billy Myers (15th) and Jimmie Lewallen (17th and last).
Fielden's account of the race mentioned tragic accidents at Martinsville and Clarion PA. The Martinsville accident was recently discussed in a RR forum post here . And here is an article about the unfortunate accident at Clarion:
Source: Beaver Valley Times
And as predicted, the auto manufacturers withdrew from racing less than a week after the Lancaster race. Source: Milwaukee Sentinel
Despite the news, Big Bill France remained bullish on the future of auto racing.
Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal
Lancaster Speedway continues operations today. Here is a bit of history of Lancaster from the track's website :
The Lancaster Speedway was built in 1954, by a group of local businessmen, headed by the late Herman "Hump" Poovey. It was constructed on land that was owned by Mr. Poovey. It was very successful and even featured NASCAR sanctioned races in 1957, which were won by Paul Goldsmith and Speedy Thompson. From 1958 until 1963 however, the track fell upon some hard times, changing owners and management several times. In 1963, cousins Ross and Charles "Snooks" Cauthen bought the track and put it back into regular operation. By 1968 there was another change as local businessman Coble Funderburk took over operations at the speedway. During his tenure, Funderburk made several improvements to the facility including a new concrete wall on the front straightaway between the track and the grandstands. A joint point championship, with Starlite Speedway in Monroe NC, was started in 1969. Racing was good and the crowds were large but another change was soon coming. In 1975, local salvage yard owner, Jim Mahaffey took over as the owner-promoter of the speedway. One of the changes made was to drop the top division of race cars, the powerful V8 Late Model Sportsman class. This was done to cut the cost of operating the speedway on a weekly basis and many people said that it would result in the end of the speedway. Time proved just the opposite to be true and the speedway flourished under Mahaffey and an all six cylinder racing program. Jim didnt stop there though. He made many improvements to the facilities. Over the years he replaced the lighting system, replaced the wooden grandstands with concrete slabs, and started extending the concrete wall, started by Funderburk, to extend all the way around the speedway and replacing the wooden and metal fences. Most fans agree the time that Jim Mahaffey was operating the speedway was a great era for fans and drivers alike.
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 06/01/17 09:32:13AM
