July 31, 1960: Atlanta's new track debuts
Stock Car Racing History
Another pic - Ned Jarrett (11) starting 15th. Lee Petty (42) starting 14th. Shorty Rollins (81) starting 17th.
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Stock Car Racing History
July 31, 1960: Atlanta's new track debuts
Stock Car Racing History
Some heavy names did not qualify for this race.
- Buddy Baker
- Tim Flock
- Paul Lewis
- Curtis Crider (83)
- Bob Barron (17)
- Arnold Gardner
Crider's and Barron's cars can be seen on pit road in one of the photos.
July 31, 1960: Atlanta's new track debuts
Stock Car Racing History
This article includes some fun anecdotes about the history of Atlanta - including quips from Rex White, Richard Petty and Ed Clark:
http://www.atlantamagazine.com/history/story.aspx?ID=1288189
It also includes one from Miss Georgia at the time, Sandra Tally.
Miss Georgia 1960 greeted him on Victory Lane. Sandra Tally Coolik: I had never been to a race before. I was overwhelmed by the heat and the noise. I remember chatting with Fireball Roberts very briefly. Then I patted his crewcut; I imagine that was staged for the photographers. I dont think I kissed him. Id remember that because Im sure he was hot and sweaty, and that probably wouldnt have been the most pleasant thing to do.
July 31, 1960: Atlanta's new track debuts
Stock Car Racing History
Some photos from the race ... and time leading up to it.
The track was originally supposed to open in 1959. Construction woes delayed it a year. But Joe Weatherly and Curtis Turner were already sporting ads for the track at the 1958 Southern 500.
Paving the banks in 1960.
Part of the starting line-up. Doug Yates (23), Marvin Panch (77), Jimmy Massey (21), Possum Jones (2)
Tiger Tom Pistone's car sits on the starting grid. Tough to tell, but that's Richard Petty's 43 alongside him.
Jim Paschal drove one of three Petty Plymouths in the race. All 3 cars had good runs. Paschal finished 3rd, Lee was 6th, and Richard was 7th.
updated by @tmc-chase: 07/31/17 03:12:51PM
July 31, 1960: Atlanta's new track debuts
Stock Car Racing History
The first race at what was originally known as Atlanta International Raceway was the Dixie 300 on July 31, 1960. It was a Fireball weekend as Roberts swept the pole and the race.
Source: Palm Beach Post
Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal
Notes from the race.
Source: Spartanburg Herald Journal
updated by @tmc-chase: 08/12/18 02:31:44PM
July 31, 1951 - Lee Rolls in Rochester
Stock Car Racing History
The GN series was scheduled to race on July 27, 1951 at Monroe County Fairgrounds in Rochester NY, but rains begin to fall after the green flag waved. Because the next race was scheduled for 2 days later in Asheville-Weaverville, the decision was made to postpone the race until July 31. Then an interesting decision was made. Rather than restart the race at the point the rains fell, the decision was made to re-run the ENTIRE race. The line-up for the 2nd attempt was set based on how the cars were running at the time the race was postponed 4 days earlier.
NASCAR was only in its 3rd year for the GN series. So I guess I'll cut them some slack for calling an audible or two.
So the teams hauled their gear back to the south to race in North Carolina. Then a few of them drove back to upstate New York two days after A-W to run the rescheduled Rochester event. And this was before interstates, McDonald's, Cracker Barrels, Stuckey's and state-provided rest stops (unless you consider a cluster of trees along the side of a Federal highway a state-provided rest stop).
Lee was one of the few who returned to Rochester. On the 2nd trip home, he had a trophy in the front seat with him. The win turned out to be his only victory of the 1951 season.
Read on for more.
http://bench-racing.blogspot.com/2013/07/july-31-1951-lee-petty-rolls-in.html
Special thanks to Dorris at Williamson County Public Library in Tennessee. She helped arrange the transfer of microfilm for the Rochester Democrat Chronicle from New York State Library to ours so I could browse through the reels and grab several article scans.
updated by @tmc-chase: 12/05/16 04:00:58PM
Racing History Minute - July 31, 1955
Stock Car Racing History
Hmm, 1955. Richard would've been 18 and Maurice 16, right? And a summertime series of races. Wonder if either or both of them went to Rochester and/or California. Lee flew from NY to the west coast. But someone had to drive the car home from NY as well as take a second car out to California while Lee was up north. Inquiring minds want to know who drove where.
Racing History Minute - July 31, 1955
Stock Car Racing History
Finishing 28th in the race and the last car running was Elias Bowie, making his one and only NASCAR Grand National start. Its believed Bowie is the first black driver to start a GN race.
Elias Bowie made his only start in July 1955 at Bay Meadows Speedway in San Mateo, Calif., in a 250-lap Grand National race that featured notable drivers such as winner Tim Flock, Marvin Panch and Lee Petty.
At the time, Bowie owned several transportation companies in the Bay Area.
The track was a 1-mile dirt track and this was the second of three Grand National races it would host. Bowie started 31st in the No. 60 Cadillac.
The race went 252 laps with Bowie completing 172 and was still running when the checkered flag dropped. He crossed the line with a 28th-place finish, earning Bowie $90.
Bowie died Jan. 25, 2005.
Pictures from FindAGrave.com
updated by @tmc-chase: 06/06/17 03:25:22PM
Racing History Minute - July 31, 1955
Stock Car Racing History
Race report for the Bay Meadows race in San Mateo from The News and Courier .
Flock reflected on that whirlwind schedule a few years later around the time of the 1967 Southern 500.
Source: News and Courier
And a quote from Flock Flock's about the 24-hour, New York-California double was even included in his obituary published in the New York Times :
Consider Flock's memorable 1955 season. He won 18 races, a one-year record that stood until Richard Petty won [27] in 1967, and 19 pole positions, still the record. That July, 24 hours apart, he won major races in Syracuse and San Mateo, Calif.
"Keep in mind," he said of that coast-to-coast sojourn, "we were riding in a propeller plane that didn't fly very fast. I still had mud in my teeth from the New York State race when I got in my car in California."
updated by @tmc-chase: 06/06/17 03:25:05PM
July 30, 1961 - Another racing minute
Stock Car Racing History
Mike Hembree's article seems to have vanished from Speed.com's site. Mike now writes for USA Today. Wonder if that has anything to do with it. Nah, too easy. Right? Either way, I found a copy of it where someone posted it to their blog.
CUP: Smith, Allen Teamed To Win Bristol Inaugural
Fifty years ago, Bristol Motor Speedway was quite a different place.
Fifty years ago, Johnny Allen won the first race at Bristol Motor Speedway, but then again he didn't.
A trophy owned by Allen, now 76, certifies that he was the first driver to take the checkered flag in the track's long history, and that's more to the point.
The speedway's first race was held in the white-hot heat of the Tennessee midsummer, July 30, 1961. The track, then known as Bristol International Speedway, was barely recognizable compared to the giant it has become, a huge 160,000-seat coliseum that will host its 101st Cup race Sunday.
Bristol opened with bare concrete grandstands seating 18,000, an asphalt racing surface, a dirt infield and a metal guard rail circling the outside of the track.
The first race was a big event in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, but drivers knew when they showed up that the heat and humidity would have a big impact on the day's almost-four-hour run.
Nowhere was the damaging effect of the heat felt more than in the cockpit of Jack Smith's No. 46 Pontiac, which started 12th in the race but had the lead by lap 151. The floorboard was blistering hot very early in the race, leading Smith, a bulldog of a man who was one of the toughest drivers ever to sit in a race car, to ponder exiting the vehicle before the race had reached its halfway point. He remembered in an interview many years later that the circumstances, his right foot was taking most of the force of the heat, meant that he couldnt possibly finish the race.
Fortunately for Smith, Allen, one of his closest friends on the circuit, had dropped out of the race earlier in the day. Oddly, heat, but of a very different sort, had sidelined Allens Chevrolet 106 laps into the race.
"I burned the rear end up on the car and came in the pits," said Allen Thursday. "They jacked the car up and pulled the rear end out and were going to put another one in and get me back out because it was so early in the race. The gas man got a little anxious and went ahead and started fueling the car before they were finished. He spilled gas on the hot rear-end grease and started a fire in the pits."
That ended the day for Allens original entry, and he was watching the race from the infield when one of Smiths crewmen approached him about filling in for Smith who, by that time, was seriously overheating inside his car.
"I had driven some for Jack before and had done some work for him, so he trusted me," Allen said.
Allen quickly agreed. Smith dropped into the pits with a three-lap lead on lap 292, and the driver change was made in seconds. Allen returned to the track still in first place and stayed there the rest of the day.
He finished two laps in front of second-place Fireball Roberts.
It was an unusual victory lane, as both Smith and Allen celebrated. More importantly for Allen, who was trying to keep his own racing operation afloat, it was a big payday. Smith won $3,025 and gave Allen a healthy share of the first-place prize.
"They paid off at the track after the race in those days, and Jack said, 'Let's go pick up our money.'" Allen said. "I don't remember how much it was, but I really needed the money at the time. I appreciated the opportunity.
"Sometimes in those days when a driver needed a relief driver early in the race and they had a good car, they would get back in the car late to finish the race, but Jack elected to leave me in and share the glory. It was a memorable day."
It was Allens first visit to a Cup victory lane. A year later, he scored a win of his own, finishing first in a race in Winston-Salem, N.C. It was his only Cup victory.
Allen, born in Greenville, S.C., now lives in Florida. Smith, who raced out of Spartanburg, SC and who won 21 races in a Cup career that began with NASCAR's first season (1949) and ended in 1964, died in 2001.
Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 29 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.