On this date in 1955, only 15 cars would show up to compete in a 100 mile/200 lap event on the half-mile dirt track known as Southern States Fairgrounds in Charlotte, NC. Four days prior to this event, the boys had raced in San Mateo, California so that may have been a reason for the lower car count in, of all places, Charlotte, NC.
Tim Flock would qualify his Mercury Outboards Chrysler on the pole with Gwyn Staley in a Chevrolet to his right. This was the 13th pole of the season for Flock out of the 31 races to date. Third place qualifier was Jim Paschal in an Oldsmobile, fourth place was Billy Carden in a Buick with fifth going to Jimmie Lewallen in an Oldsmobile. Pole speed was 57.849 mph.
Tim Flock took the lead on the green flag and held on to that position until lap 52,when Flock had a lengthy pit stop and Jim Paschal moved around him and took over postion one which he would hold until the end of the event before a crowd of 5,600. The track had become very "rutted" and was in awful condition before the half way point, causing several cars to experience one problem or another which eliminated them from competition. In fact, only 7 cars finished the race.
Top Five finishers were:
1. Jim Paschal, Helzafire Oldsmobile, winning $1,100.00
2. Gwyn Staley, Westmoreland Chevrolet, winning $700.00
3. Buck Baker, Mercury Outboards Chrysler, winning $475.00
4. Bob Welborn, Chevrolet, winning $365.00
5. Tim Flock, Mercury Outboard Chrysler, winning $310.00
Remaining positions, sixth through fifteenth were Buddy Shuman, Eddie Skinner, Junior Johnson, John Lindsay, Lee Petty, Richard Brownlee , Jimmie Lewallen, Billy Carden, Blackie Pitt and Dink Widenhouse.
Personal note on this one. Dink Widenhouse, who went out of this race on lap 24 when his own Oldsmobile lost a piston, is one of the main reasons I grew up around racing. Lee Petty was my Uncle Bobby's favorite Grand National Driver, but Dink was Bobby's favorite in the weekly races at Columbia Speedway and other tracks we attended. Uncle Bobby believe Dink was absolutely the best dirt track driver around so I learned to pull for Dink as well since I depended on Uncle Bobby to take me to the races.
A couple of years ago, at Memory Lane Museum in Mooresville, at one of the events Dink supports, I was telling him about my uncle and how much he had pulled for Dink back in the day. As I was telling him about my uncle, Dink never took his eyes off my eyes. When I finished the story, Dink autographed a very special card for my uncle. When I got back to Columbia, I took Uncle Bobby the card. I will never, ever forget him sitting in his wheelchair and looking at the picture of that old race car with Dink standing beside it and reading what Dink had written. For at least three minutes Uncle Bobby stared at that card and it was almost as if he was standing in the trunk of his car, which we often did, in turn four at Columbia Speedway, watching Dink battle it out with the likes of Ralph Earnhardt and others. So, my personal thanks goes out to Dink Widenhouse for the guy he IS and the race driver he WAS. Special memories Dink, special 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.
updated by @tim-leeming: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
