November 11, 1956 was quite the busy day for NASCAR. Three sanctioned races for its national touring series were scheduled for the same late fall day:
- The inaugural Buddy Shuman 250 GN race at Hickory (postponed because of rain from its original date of October 6)
- A 150-mile GN race on the Willow Springs Speedway road course in Lancaster, CA
- A 200-lap, 100-mile convertible division race at the new Jacksonville Speedway in North Carolina.
Even with the boocoodle of tracks that dotted the Carolinas and Virginia in the 1950s, the east coast of North Carolina was seemingly underserved. After a track failed in Wilmington, a new one was built in Jacksonville and opened in July 1956. - Star News
In an odd scheduling twist, the end of the 1956 GN season and the beginning of the 1957 one OVERLAPPED. The Hickory race on its makeup date of November 11 was the next to last race of the 1956 season, and the season concluded with a race at Wilson Speedway on November 18th. But the 1957 season started with the roadie in Lancaster that was won by Marvin Panch - with two races still to go in the 1956 season!
The cut-off between the 1956 and 1957 seasons for the convertible division was much cleaner. After the 1956 season ended in Hillsboro NC in mid October, the 1957 season started about 3 weeks later.
One of the drivers scheduled to participate and promoted in the paper was Joe Weatherly. But if I didn't know better, I'd swear that was his running buddy Curtis Turner at the wheel of Little Joe's car in the promo photo.
Regardless of the promo pic, Little Joe came to the east coast race. He won the pole in his Pete DePaolo Ford. Teammate Turner plopped his Ford alongside the original Front Row Joe. Bun Emery, Glen Wood and Art Binkley rounded out the top 5 starters.
Records of the race's lap leaders were apparently not retained. However, the following race report notes Pops led the first 100 laps before surrendering the lead to Weatherly.
Also, I found this race recap through a translated (and TMC edited) version of the text at:
http://stockcar-world.com/SiteV5/Index.php?Page=Histoire.php&IdHistoire=10991
On Sunday, November 11, 1956, less than a month after the end of the 1956 season ... It is in Jacksonville, NC, on the eponymous speedway that hostilities will begin. It is half a mile into the earth that NASCAR visits for the first time.
The race will be weird in the sense that there will be several unusual race incidents. First was an incident on the 73rd lap when Mel Larson saw his gas tank detach from his Ford and hit the wooden fence surrounding the circuit. The fuel ignited the fence, and firefighters took several minutes to overcome the fire. When the race restarted, Weatherly took the lead over Turner as they raced head-to-tail. Turner then had a tire issue that eventually relegated him to a sixth place finish.
After refueling during a pit stop, Joe took the lead well ahead of Glen Wood, the last driver to still be on the lead lap. Wood close, but Weatherly held on to the lead. He crossed the finish line narrowly over Wood to claim his 5th career convertible division victory.
Race report from Star News .
The race turned out to be the one and only NASCAR convertible division race at Jacksonville. The track hosted two GN races and continued to operate until the mid 1960s. Today, the remnants of the ghost track are still a bit visible from above. The parcel of land that once sported a race track still sits near the corner of Weatherington Rd and Race Track Road.
| Fin | Driver | Car |
| 1 | Joe Weatherly | '56 Ford |
| 2 | Glen Wood | '56 Ford |
| 3 | Jimmy Massey | '56 Chevrolet |
| 4 | Gwyn Staley | '56 Chevrolet |
| 5 | Bun Emery | '56 Ford |
| 6 | Curtis Turner | '56 Ford |
| 7 | Bob Welborn | '56 Chevrolet |
| 8 | Bob Beck | '56 Chevrolet |
| 9 | Joe Eubanks | '56 Ford |
| 10 | Bill Poor | '56 Chevrolet |
| 11 | Jimmie Lewallen | '56 Chevrolet |
| 12 | Norman Schihl | '56 Ford |
| 13 | Tom Pistone | '56 Chevrolet |
| 14 | Cannonball Brown | '56 Chrysler |
| 15 | Bill Lutz | '56 Ford |
| 16 | Whitey Gerken | '56 Dodge |
| 17 | Art Binkley | '56 Plymouth |
| 18 | Mel Larson | '56 Ford |
| 19 | Tony Calvo | '56 Ford |
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Schaefer: It's not just for racing anymore.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM