Racing History Minute - March 26, 1955

There remains, out of sight from highway 321 running through Cayce, SC, a half-mile race track, now asphalt, but once the dirt track of champions. The Historic Columbia Speedway holds a place in NASCAR history known by many, but over looked by most. One of the "small" parts of the NASCAR history from that track is that, on this date in 1955, A Chevrolet automobile won for the FIRST time in Grand National competition. It came about as follows.

Fonty Flock had left the Frank Christian team, which field Oldsmobiles, in 1954. Fonty decided to return to the team in 1955, Frank agreed to take him back, and Frank switched from Oldsmobiles to Chevrolets. For the sixth race of the 1955 season, the Chevrolet under the Christian racing banner made its debut.

Records from this race as sketchy, at best, due mainly to the destruction of the scoring stand which wiped out the timing device. The spectacular four car wreck happened on lap 132 of the 200 lap event when Joel Million, Billy Myers, Jim McClain and Gober Sosebee came together fighting for the same spot, and the Oldsmobile driven by Sosebee literally went through the scoring stand totally destroying it. None of the four drivers were injured and it is not reported in my source (Greg Fielden's "Forty Years of Stock Car Racing") whether or not any scorers were injured.

This we do know; Tim Flock, Fonty's brother, started on the pole in a Carl Kiekhaefer Chrysler and led the first 134 laps. Fonty took over on lap 135 and led the remaining laps to gain the win. Because of the loss of the scoring stand, there is no official time records for the event. A "crowd" of only 2,900 fans showed up for the 100 mile/200 lap race.

Finishing order:

1. Fonty Flock, Frank Christian Chevrolet, $1,000.00

2. Don White, Oldsmobile, $650.00

3. Dick Rathmann, Blue Crown Hudson, $450.00

4. Buck Baker, Griffin Motors Oldsmobile, $350.00

5. Tim Flock, Carl Kiekhaefer Chrysler

6. Lee Petty

7. Junior Johnson

8. Jim Paschal

9. Ralph Liguori

10. Herb Thomas

11. Blackie Pitt

12. Dink Widenhouse

13. Joe Eubanks

14. Eddie Skinner

15. Gene Simpson

16. Mack Hanbury

17. Gober Sosebee

18. Joel Million

19.Billy Myers

20. Jim McClain

21. Glenn Blackman

22. Jimmie Lewallen

PERSONAL NOTE: I have absolutely no memory of this race although I would have most likely have been in the infield. If my Uncle Bobby was still with us, I could go visit him today and I'm sure he could give me an almost lap by lap recollection of events.

Besides losing my Uncle Bobby on October 29th of last year, my biggest regret as to him is that I did not record the conversations he and I share over the last two years of his life. Every time I would go visit, which was often as he didn't live that far from me, the conversation would get around to racing within the first 10 minutes of what always turned into a 2 to 4 hour visit. Until the day he passed away, his mind was as clear as could be and his memory for racing events was uncanny. Of all the trips and races I thought I remembered, he filled me in on many more. I had vague memories of traveling to tracks outside of Columbia, but I found out, during those conversations, that when I was just a kid, I had visited North Wilkesboro, Martinsville, to name two of the more well known NASCAR tracks. But the list of short tracks around South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia that we visited would fill a ghost track book. Few tracks, if any, were missed as Bobby went wherever they raced and I was his tag along shadow. It seems that now it's the bigger events I attended with Bobby that I recall and although there are vague images of cars racing around semi-lighted dirt tracks all around, I can't give specifics as to the tracks or many of the drivers.

Thanks, Uncle Bobby. What a life you gave this old man back in the day.

Brief wire copy race report as published in the Spartanburg Herald. I'm trying to find a pipeline through my local library to Columbia's The State newspaper archives on microfilm. Would be nice to have access to that city's paper for hopefully more in-depth coverage.

Here is a trivia question one could use to win a brew or two from others.

Q: What race was the first Grand National / Cup win for Chevrolet?

A: March 26, 1955 at Columbia Speedway.

From the debut of NASCAR's Strictly Stock series in 1949 through the first five races of the 1955 GN season, a Chevy had not captured a checkered flag. But Fonty put the bowtie into victory lane for the first time in NASCAR's 'premier' series in that 1955 Columbia race.

This race was originally scheduled for Saturday, March 19. It was postponed to the following Saturday, March 26, because of the weather.

But the promoter re-promoted the race in the paper the next week in an effort to sell more tickets.

I found another clipping that didn't provide any additional details about the accident that wiped out the scorers' stand. But it did mention the fact of how cold it was at race time.

And I found this "Win on Sund.. Saturday , Sell on Monday" Chevy ad interesting. A wire service copy race report was simply inserted into the ad.

Bump