This "Minute" should be one of special interest to Coastal Jack Walker and Bobby "Bopper" Williamson, both of the Tuesday Night Goat Rodeo fame, as it involves Coastal Speedway in Mytle Beach, SC. Both of those gentlemen have talked about that track several times. Even more applicable to the Tuesday night show here on RacersReunion, we had, as a guest sometime back, Johnny Allen who related many stories about his involvement in the sport and especially to his association with A. M. Crawford and the infamous Plymouth he drove.
Johnny Allen surprised the other drivers and the fans in attendance by putting that Plymouth on the pole with a speed of 58.139 miles per hour on the half-mile dirt track. Fireball Roberts would start second in a Ford, Gwyn Staley in a Julian Petty Chevrolet would qualify third, Lee Petty fourth, and Jack Smith fifth.
Johnny Allen's feat of winning the pole was quickly deflated as he was the first to depart the race on lap ten when the fan assembly on the Plymouth failed. Only four other cars would fail to finish in the 15 car field.
Less than 24 hours before this race at Coastal Speedway, Curtis Turner prevailed over Gwyn Staley in a Convertible race in Charlotte. The race at Charlotte was a hard fought battle with Curtis Turner "pushing" Staley out of the grove on the last lap to race him to the flag in a side-by-side finish which saw Curtis win by less than three feet. The odd thing here is that Curtis did NOT compete at Coastal as he was "boycotting" NASCAR, refusing to pay a$50.00 fine assessed for "rough housing" at Hickory Speedway. Turner said he would not race again in NASCAR until the fine was waived. Turner did pay the fine and was reinstated but not for this race.
Gwyn Staley would put his Chevy out front by a lap this time and take the win at an average speed of 50.782 mph. He did not, however, receive any points for the race as the car he was driving was a convertible on which Julian Petty had bolted on a hardtop but there was no rear window which made him ineligible for points.
Top five finishers were:
1. Gwyn Staley, Julian Petty Chevrolet, winning $1,000.00
2.Eddie Pagan, Pagan Ford, winning $625.00 **
3.Fireball Roberts, Roberts Ford, winning $400.00
4. Buck Baker, Baker Chevrolet, winning $295.00
5. L. D. Austin, Austin Chevrolet, winning $255.00
Sixth through tenth were Lee Petty, Clarence DeZailla, Jack Smith, Roy Tyner, and Bill Benson. The remaining five finishers were Brownie King, Speedy Thompson, Marvin Panch, Ken Rush and Johnny Allen.
** EddiePagan was a successful WestCoast driver who came to South Carolina to run the Southern 500 a week after thisrace atCoastal. Eddie would finish 15th in The Darlington Labor Day event a weekafter this race.
Honor the past, embrace the present, dream for the future
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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
