Racing History Minute - July 22, 1953
Stock Car Racing History
From July 2003 Rapid City Journal article - published at the time of the 50th anniversary of this race.
http://rapidcityjournal.com/sports/local/fifty-years-ago-nascar-s-heavy-hitters-visited-rapid-valley/article_c1d97e36-8898-5fef-a50d-19aee5931b8c.html
July 21, 2003 - Jim Holland, Journal Staff
They were all in Rapid City, the heavy hitters of early day major-league stock car racing, on a steamy summer night exactly 50 years ago.
The National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing's Grand National Circuit, now the million-dollar Winston Cup Series, made its only South Dakota appearance at Rapid City's Rapid Valley Race Track (now Black Hills Speedway) on July 22, 1953.
"200 Laps at a Dizzying Pace!" an advertisement in the Rapid City Daily Journal hyped before the race, for NASCAR's premier division of late model stock cars.
Another full-page newspaper ad trumpeted the race's $5,500 purse as the largest ever paid in the state.
"The first racing classic of national importance ever held in S.D. A sight to behold, unparalleled for excitement, thrills and speed," the advertisement touted.
"Thrills, both monetary and osculatory," awaited the winner of the race, then-Journal Sports Editor Bill Hockstedler wrote, referring to the $1,000 winner's purse, and a kiss from Miss South Dakota.
NASCAR pioneers, including Lee Petty, Buck Baker, Dick Rathman, Herb Thomas and Fonty Flock highlighted the field.
Defending the home turf were Leo Ray and Bob Laswell of Rapid City, Ray drove a '51 Nash, and Laswell handled a '49 Plymouth, both sponsored by Marv's Auto Body and Salvage of Rapid City.
Accompanying Lee Petty were his sons Maurice, 14, and Richard, 15, destined to become one of NASCAR's greatest drivers with 200 wins and seven point championships.
Richard Petty described his family's summer travels as "a speed circus going from town to town," in his 1971 biography Grand National, co-authored by Bill Neely.
"At times there was a whole caravan of passenger cars towing race cars, zipping along the open roads, a lot of times almost as fast as the race cars themselves could run," Petty and Neely wrote. "It was a tough grind towing that swaying race car through the middle of cities and over detours."
"We would pull in, unhook the race car and get it ready for the show. It always needed something - which as often as not was a sledgehammer to pound out the dents from the last race."
Back in '53, race cars came right off the street or showroom floor, although NASCAR looked the other way if racers quietly swapped factory suspension pieces for heavy-duty truck parts to better withstand the pounding of competition.
Hudson's Hornet dominated stock car racing in the early 1950s.
The Hornet's step-down body design gave the car a lower center of gravity for better handling, and it's potent 300 cubic-inch, six-cylinder engine pumped out 220 horsepower.
The Hornets also had factory-designed "Severe Duty" reinforced wheels, heavy-duty suspension and brakes.
Race day was a typically hot, dusty summer western South Dakota day.
General admission tickets were $1.55. Front row reserved tickets cost $3, with back row reserved seats available for $2.25.
Expecting a large crowd for the 8 p.m. race, promoter Chet Nelson arranged for buses to shuttle spectators to and from the track, leaving Donaldson's Department Store at Seventh and St. Joseph Streets every hour.
Promoters spread 6,000 gallons of oil, donated by the Skarty Oil Co., on the track in a vain attempt to quell the dust.
Spectator Bill Roth of Rapid City said he didn't remember much more than the dust and Hudson's domination.
"It was a long time ago," he said.
"They kicked up an awful lot of dust once they got going," said Roth, who watched the race from the track's east side.
A big crowd watched Thomas and Rathman battle for most of the race which ended in near-darkness, he said.
"It was pretty hard to beat those Hudsons," he said.
Former Journal editor Jack Cannon covered the race as one of his first assignments for the newspaper.
"It was hotter than hell," Cannon recalled.
Drivers seemed to be keeping their distance from each other, he said.
"It looked like they were trying hard not to scrape fenders," he said.
The enduring image from the night, Cannon said, was the sight of promoter Nelson with his sweat-soaked shirt open to the waist. A big wad of cash, the evening's gate receipts, was stuffed in Nelson's shirt.
Thomas, of Olivia, N.C. was fastest qualifier, with a 32.30 lap for a 55.72 miles-per-hour average on the nine-sixteenths-mile track.
Baker's '53 Oldsmobile Rocket 88 paced the first 20 laps before surrendering to the Hudson juggernaut.
Thomas's No. 92 "Fabulous Hudson Hornet" led all but four remaining laps in what Hockstedler reported was "a splendid show of excellent driving."
Rathman led briefly at about the 115-lap mark. Thomas regained the lead for good four circuits later when Rathman slid high in the north turn.
Thomas finished 2 seconds ahead of Rathman completing the race in 1 hour, 44.46 minutes for an average speed of 57.438 mph.
Flock was 46 seconds, about a lap and a half, back in third.
Lee Petty's No. 42 Petty Engineering Dodge led the non-Hudson drivers in fourth. Baker finished fifth.
Ray moved into eighth when Iowa driver Mel Krueger broke a rear axle on his Ford.
Ray who still lives in Rapid City, could not be contacted by the Journal. Laswell is deceased.
Hockstedler reported that Krueger's pit crew did a remarkable job in replacing the axle, allowing him to rejoin the race. Laswell was 14th in the 15-car field.
Thomas was joined in victory lane by newly-crowned Miss South Dakota, Delores Jerde, 19, Spearfish.
The GN tour never again ventured to South Dakota, although Rapid Valley's modified stock cars remained under the NASCAR banner through 1955.
Black Hills Speedway operated under the NASCAR Winston Racing Series sanction in 1996.
