For today's "Minute" we travel to the west coast, to a 1.4 mile paved track located in Hanford, California. Known as "Marchbanks Speedway", the track was banked enough to allow good racing but the pole winning speed was only 98.370. Bob Ross in a 1960 Ford set that record run but he was out of the race on lap 13 after crashing his fast Ford. Fireball Roberts would start second in the J. D. Braswell 1961 Pontiac. Eddie Gray in his own 1961 Ford started third, Frank Secrist in a '60 Ford fourth and Lloyd Dane in a 1961 Chevrolet rolled off fifth.
Fireball would take the lead on the green flag and ran away with the race. He led every lap, although he looped his Pontiac at one point when Danny Weinberg, running second on lap 113, dove into turn one underneath Roberts but lost control and slid into the wall. Fireball had to loop his car to miss the sliding Ford of Weinberg, but even so he did not lose the lead.
No driver had ever led every lap on what was considered to be a "super speedway" meaning it was more than one mile in length. Fireball accomplished that feat on that afternoon at an average speed of 95.621. In fact, Fireball was so masterful behind the wheel that day that his margin of victory was more than 2 laps in the 178 lap/250 mile race.
Not many of the Grand National drivers running for the title made the trip to the "left" coast, but Rex White did. Rex was defending his 1960 title and came into the event in 9th place but left California in 4th place in the standings. There was no entry from Petty Enterprises as that organization was still recovering from Lee's crash and injuries in Daytona. Traveling to the west coast was too muchfor the stressed Petty Engineering operation.
Finishing order:
1. Fireball Roberts, J. D. Braswell Pontiac, $2,000.00
2. Eddie Gray, Gray Ford, $1,250.00 (2 laps down)
3. Danny Letner, Guy Kimball Ford, $750.00 (3 laps down)
4. Tubby Gonzales, Ford, $600.00 (7 laps down)
5. Eddie Pagan, Bill Clinton Ford (not THAT Clinton) $575.00 (7 laps down)
6. Rex White
7.. Jim Cook
8. Scotty Cain
9. Lloyd Dane
10. Bob Perry
11. Dick Santee
12.Don Noel
13. Dick Cook
14. Frank Secrist
15. Dick Getty
16. Jack Norton
17. Dick Brown
18. Marvin Heinis
19. Mike Saathoff
20.Carl Joiner
21. Dick Carter
22. Ed Negre
23. Danny Weinberg
24. Jim Blomgren
25. Marvin Porter
26. Art Watts
27. Bruce Worrell
28. Banjo Matthews
29.Harlan Richardson
30. Charles Chapman
31. Ron Hornaday
32. Tom Guffy
33. Chuck Web
34. Bob Ross
35. Al Brand
36. Brownie Brown
This was the 25th career win for the Fireball.
PERSONAL NOTE: I have absolutely NO recollection of this race, either hearing about it or reading about it before I discovered it in my source for these Minutes. Greg Fielden presented "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing" several years ago and I acquired all the volumes directly from him (actually his mother answered the phone and took my order and credit card information). I have enjoyed, immensely enjoyed, reading the volumes over the years, several times over and over. Somehow, this particular event totally escaped my reading. Back in 1961 our local newspaper would post very short stories about most any race in the southeast, especially Daytona and Darlington, but I guess California was just too far away for them to worry about. Not only that, but I had never heard of Marchbanks Speedway before discovering this event in this morning's research for the History Minute.
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
