Forum Activity for @dave-fulton

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Richard, the photo of Sonny Hutchins in the Junie Donlavey #90 Ford coupe with sponsorship from Perkins Pure Oil is a Walt Wimer photo.

The Commonwealth Ford / Cafe Burgundy #66 at Darlington is from the collection of Pete Peterson and posted with permission at the Carolina Race Place site maintained by our member and resident historian, Jack Walker of Myrtle Beach.

Jack Walker was also kind enough to provide a link to the race results he has posted at Carolina Race Place for the 1963 Virginia 400 at Southside, complete with driver hometowns from his research. He had featured this event in 2010 as a historic race on the RR Racing Through History broadcast.

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Thank you so much Jack for the writeup and much better rundown of the 1963 Virginia 400 than the one I posted. You are always the "go to" guy for historic stuff nobody else has. It is so good to see the various hometowns listed on your rundown. Thanks, again.

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Jimmy Mairs crash at Fredericksburg Speedway in 1958

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

In 1958, Jimmy Mairs was injured during a modified race at Virginia's Fredericksburg Speedway in a wreck with Al (Junior) Grinnan. Mairs was subbing for another longtime Ratus Walters driver, Elmo Langley, who was a no show that night. The racing action at Fredericksburg was halted for the evening since the wreck took place after 3/4 of the feature was complete. Can you imagine the outcry today if such a rule were in place? Here's the report from the Fredericksburg Free Lance Star of August 23, 1958:

A number of drivers in that 1958 Fredericksburg race were in the Richmond Virginia 400 race won by Ray Hendrick at Southside Speedway 5 years later.

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Jimmy Mairs, from Wheaton, Maryland, is credited with making one Grand National start for the Cafe Burgundy family and Ratus Walters - at Nashville in 1959 - however, his other four GN starts have an "undocumented" owner who could have also been Walters.

Car #19 below was driven by Mairs in the 1960 Daytona Modified-Sportsman race and was involved in a 37-car crash.

The owner of Mairs' 1957 Ford #19 is listed as Ray Walters.

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Thanks, Robert. I wondered the location of that shot.

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Did you notice the Cafe Burgundy sponsor on the Jimmy Mairs #0 car above?

That's the same Cafe Burgundy sponsorship carried on the Grand National cars owned by Ratus Walters, including 1962 Southern 500 winner, Larry Franks:

The Cafe Burgundy in Washington, DC was operated by car owner Walters' father, Ray.

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Both Southside and South Boston were running both divisions together. It took me a while to realize there were two separate classes in the same race. I thought a modified-sportsman was a type of car, before I realized there was both a modified and a sportsman in same race.

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Richard, I see where Winnie Talbot finished 5th in Sportsman points at Beltsville, MD in 1965. That was the first year Beltsville ran (it was called Baltimore-Washington Speedway that year) and they raced on Wednesday nights.

From Maryland Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame