SOUTH BOSTON GT 100

South Boston, Va. Aug. 2, 1969

The Grand Touring cars returned to the South Boston Speedway for the second time in 1969 for the 20 ^th race of the year and was again 267 laps on the 3/8 mile paved oval.

Rain washed out qualifying so the starting grid was determined by random draw. Stan Starr, Jr. drew the number one spot and led the first 6 laps until Randy Hutchinson took over and led thru lap 174 when he had to pit with blistered tires. Wayne Andrews took the lead through lap 189 when Ken Rush went out front and managed to hold off Andrews to take the win. There were only 2 cautions for 15 laps. Frank Sessoms took over the point lead with his 5 ^th place finish.

Fin Srt Car # Driver Car Laps Reason out

1 19 44 Ken Rush 68 Camaro 267 Running

2 16 15 Wayne Andrews 68 Cougar 267 Running

3 7 2 Randy Hutchinson 68 Camaro 264 Running

4 18 25 Pete Hamilton 69 Camaro 264 Running

5 8 21 Frank Sessoms 68 Camaro 261 Running

6 14 0 Martin Sharpe 68 Camaro 259 Running

7 4 74 Al Straub 68 Mustang 256 Running

8 3 8 Phil Wills 68 Camaro 251 Running

9 5 7 Jimmy Vaughn 68 Camaro 251 Running

10 2 54 Bobby Fleming 68 Camaro 250 Running

11 13 38 Bobby Brewer 68 Camaro 234 Running

12 17 10 Charlie Blanton 68 Camaro 226 Running

13 6 71 Amos Johnson 68 Camaro 220 Running

14 12 48 Tiny Lund 68 Camaro 209 Running

15 21 13 Richard Childress 68 Camaro 176 Running

16 10 17 Ernie Shaw 68 Mustang 163 Bln. Eng.

17 15 3 Jim Vandiver 68 Camaro 92 Bln. Eng.

18 9 87 Buck Baker 69 Firebird 61 Tranny

19 1 9 Stan Starr, Jr. 68 Camaro 45 Rear End

20 11 88 T. C. Hunt 68 Camaro 17 Bln. Eng.

21 20 72 Doug Easton 68 Mustang 10 Oil Press.

Ken Rush

Randy Hutchison of Newport News, Va. was 20 years old at the time of this race. The previous year, 1968, had seen the introduction of the Late Model Sportsman division to Virginia's weekly NASCAR tracks joining and then replacing the modifieds. I remember Randy showing up at Richmond's Southside Speedway in the summer of 1968 with a beautiful #42 Chevelle painted a dark metallic blue with bright yellow numbers. The car was wickedly fast and Randy looked to be about 15 years old. That same car would later be driven by Al Grinnan.

Randy Hutchison was still running NASCAR Late Model Sportsman on Friday nights in Richmond 3 years after the SoBo Grand American race.

The Fredericksburg newspaper had a very interesting story concerning the Friday night 1972 Memorial Day weekend race at Richmond's Southside Speedway. As a favor to Southside promoter J.M. Wilkinson, Bobby Allison (who was already on the Pole for that Sunday's World 600 at Charlotte) entered the race to spike attendance. Bobby used to come to Richmond in the early 60s and stay at Wilkinson's home while he raced chasing NASCAR Modified points.

Allison's only previous Southside win had come in 1960 in a Modified. His win at Southside in 1972 in the LMS race - came after Randy and veteran Al Grinnan crashed racing for the lead. Grinnan, who had taken Randy's #42 ride at one point quickly came to Randy's defense, however. I don't guess that kind of sportsmanship occurs too often these days.

Randy Hutchison is still convinced he won the 1969 Grand American race at Hampton, Virginia's Langley Field and not Pete Hamilton who is credited with the victory.

In the series' 1968 debut, the most popular cars were Cougars, Camaros and Mustangs, with an occasional Javelin, Porsche and Dart showing well. Tiny Lund won the 1968 championship ahead of Buck Baker, Jack Ryan, Jim Vandiver and Roy Tyner.

Newport News native Randy Hutchison (Warwick High School, Class of '66) drove a family-owned 1968 Camaro in seven of that season's 19 races. His highlight was finishing fourth behind Donnie Allison, Vandiver and Al Straub in the dirt at Richmond's old Fairgrounds Raceway.

In 1969, Langley promoter Henry Klich brought the series in for a late-season race. By then, Hutchison and crew chief Hank Richardson were rising stars. They had finished fifth in the July night road race at Daytona Beach, third at South Boston in August, had won the August race at Holland, N.Y ., and run fifth later that month at Stafford, Conn.

Langley was the 34th stop on the 35-race schedule, and Ken Rush and Frank Sessoms were in a pitched battle for the championship. Pete Hamilton stole their thunder by winning 400-lap, 100-mile race (one of 12 that year) over Hutchison , T.C. Hunt, rookie Wayne Andrews and Sessoms.

Speaking of stealing...

To this day, Hutchison thinks he won the race . " We qualified on the pole (17.98 seconds, 80.088 mph) and led the most laps,'' he said. "But the scorers got messed up during pit stops and gave it to Pete. It took 'em forever to review the scorecards, but I still don't think they got it right.''

Good stuff thanks

Here's a photo of Randy Hutchison the same year - 1969, at Daytona - 3 years out of high school. During the school months he was wrestling at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC.

Great find Dave. I've not seen this one before. My guess would be this is from the 1970 Citrus 250 as the #26 Camaro in the background was Richard Childress and the cars have no head lights. Richard ran #41 at Daytona in '69 and the July Paul Revere race was at night.

Great post and really awesome pictures!!! I'm loving it.

The South Boston Gazette-Virginian carried a photo of Ken Rush in victory lane with a note that the rain mentioned by Dennis Andrews held down the crowd.

Prior to the race, the same paper carried an ad and a brief (canned) preview: