Couple of trivia nuggets about this race:
Thanks to Russ Thompson, here is a photo of a shiny Tiny car racing Joe Weatherly before Lund's car earthquaked Nashville's billboards.
And looks like Little Joe is racing in his Rebel 300 shirt.
A few other photos became available just today when The Tennessee published a "Nashville Then" gallery of August 1963.
Oh my. David Pearson and Johnny Bruner in a promo pic for the race shot at the Mercury Motel.
King, Jim Estes, and Paschal pre-race.
Paschal accepts the winner's trophy. Jim Paschal is wearing the same Rebel 300 shirt in this photo as he is in the victory lane photo form 1963. Guess its possible he wore the same shirt 2 years in a row - and a uniform in neither!
1st GN race under the lights was June 3, 1965. Here is link to Tim's post about it.
http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/stock-car-racing-history/24216/racing-history-minute-june-3-1965
On August 3, Tim Leeming featured a race at Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Speedway. The [ August 3, 1956 race ] was won by Jim Paschal. Billy Biscoe had a poignant reply to it about his friendship with Paschal and included a picture of the trophy Jim won at the "OK corral".
Today's Petty blog post covers another Paschal win. A day later (plus 7 years), Paschal won his third consecutive race at Nashville's fairgrounds speedway. Driving a #42 Petty Plymouth, Paschal won and teammate Richard finished 4th.
Tiny Lund created a bigger headline than Paschal's triple play. After getting out of shape, he was drilled by David Pearson. Lund's car jumped the fence, tore down a section of the billboards ringing the track, and burst into flames.
Fortunately, Lund was uninjured - and a laughable moment resulted after he exited the car.
Read on for more:
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/08/august-4-1963-music-city-triple-play.html
Wire copy race report from Burlington NC's Daily Times News.
From what I can tell, it looks like Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Speedway opened around 1955. Perhaps the promoter made a call, shook a hand, squeezed an elbow, etc. to get Bill France to bring his Grand National cars to the track not too long after it's opening.
The track continued to feature lots of local dirt tracking in the 50+ years to follow.
But in 2010, the track and its stands were torn down.
Then... (Source: http://virtualglobetrotting.com/map/state-fair-speedway )
Now...
Stands before and during demolition
Couple of articles about the decision to demolish - and the reaction by many locals.
http://www.abandonedok.com/state-fair-raceway/
http://newsok.com/state-fair-speedway-to-close-after-55-years/artic...
http://www.news9.com/Global/story.asp?s=11867368
This is a deal that I wish could have happened. Herk - Jim Hurtubise - entered a car for the 1977 Indy 500 with Woody as the name driver. But from what I understand, the deal never materialized far enough for a car to hit the bricks.
Oh my interest in Woody & Bobby Fisher began more than two years ago...
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/01/woody-fisher.html
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2011/02/searching-for-bobby-fisher.html
I'm convinced there is a pic out there somewhere of one of the Fishers racing a Schaefer sponsored late model. No proof. But I can feel it in my bones. haha
I may have erred on track ID for the 43. Agree with Dave that its not Richmond. And in comparing what I thought was a fall 78 Dover race to what I'm sure is a spring 78 Dover race, its clear the pit "wall" is different. I was so quick in comparing the cars that I likely made the false jump that both were from Dover. In going through the remaining races after the King changed to Chevy, I now think the 43 pic may be from Bristol.
(Choices were Michigan, Talladega, Darlington, Richmond, Dover, Martinsville, Wilkesboro, Charlotte, Rockingham, Atlanta, Ontario and Bristol)
For the record, the Bobby Fisher pic is from a 77 Charlotte LMS race.
So my questions grow:
