So What if the Grandstands Just Burned Down? We've Got a Race to Run! Where's the Easter Bunny?
General
The late Richmond track promoter, Paul Sawyer (my employer for ten years and friend for longer) had many tales to tell of his days in racing. He owned modifieds driven by the late Joe Weatherly and then in partnership with Weatherly promoted tracks in Norfolk, Richmond and Wilson, NC. When Joe got a factory Ford ride, Sawyer began promoting on his own.
Paul Sawyer at His Richmond Track
In 1959, Sawyer had two NASCAR Grand National races scheduled for the fabled 1/2-mile dirt Wilson County, NC Speedway. The first race was scheduled on Easter Sunday, March 29, a date most promoters avoided like the plague. Not Sawyer. The only date he refused to promote a race was Mother's Day, as he was quick to point out when Atlanta chose that day to hold The Winston, one of the least attended races in the history of motorsports.
One hour before Time Trials were scheduled to begin for Sawyer's Easter Sunday Wilson show in 1959, the main wooden grandstand structure caught fire, probably from a dropped cigarette, and burned completely to the ground.
Sawyer's friend, Rocky Mount, NC native P.A. announcer Sammy Bland (The Racing Man) refused to abandon his perch at the top of the burning wooden stands and calmly directed the crowd to safety until his own life was in peril as the grandstand finally collapsed in ashes.
Sammy Bland, Left at an 80s Richmond Race with
Co-announcers Ray Melton & a Young Joe Moore
Along with the stands burning to the ground, Sawyer lost his tic ket selling operation under the stands. Never one to be fazed by adversity, Sawyer moved to the front of the Wilson County fairgrounds alongside U.S. Highway 301 and began selling tickets out of a suitcase until race time. Time trials were cancelled, starting positions drawnand a reported crowd of 8,800 race fans watched the race that Easter Sunday from behindthe catchfence surrounding the track. When the race concluded, Junior Johnson had pocketed $800 in his '57 Ford for beating Curtis Turner in his '59 T-bird to the finish line by 3 feet.
Before 1959's second WilsonGrand National race, Sawyer rebuilt the grandstands and added lights for night racing out of his own pocket at the track owned by the Wilson American Legion. For his actions, Virginia Beach resident Sawyer was made a life member of the Wilson, NC American Legion post.
I know we still have great promoters and great announcers in racing, but men like Sawyer and Sammy Bland were a cut above. If you never heard Paul Sawyer's friends Sammy Bland & Ray Melton announce races, you missed an earfull. And if you never met Paul Sawyer, you missed meeting a racer's racer.
updated by @dave-fulton: 04/23/19 07:10:06AM
