Thursday, June 18, 2009

Vintage Auto Racing 1906 - 1964

This is Langhorne Speedway..This is probably like 1958 59...Langhorne was paved in 1965.





Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Michigan Before MIS

Because stock car racing wasn’t born yesterday.

In 1969, the smooth, fast Michigan International Speedway was born in the rural reaches of southern Michigan. It has been the only home for NASCAR in the state since.

But well before that day, NASCAR’s uniqueness was in the ‘touring’ qualities of the series. During the 50s and 60s, NASCAR would sweep into almost any town with short track and bunch of wild old boys who thought they could beat the Southern regulars to keep alive the Civil War, or as we from the South refer to it, The War of Northern Aggression.

It gets hot in the Southeast during the summer, so July and August were perfect months to head north.

NASCAR’s first foray into Michigan was in July 1951. The local boys didn’t fare very well—Jimmy Florian from nearby Cleveland OH and Tommy Lane from parts unknown (but a Midwestern starter only) were the only two “Yankees” to finish in the top 10.

Florian followed the NASCAR stars on their Northern tour all through the 1950 and 1951 seasons and had acquitted the Midwesterners properly, scoring six top 10s in ten starts during 1950—all in the upper Midwest or Mid-Atlantic states. His attempts in the South had not gone nearly as well. He finished 41st out of 75 competitors in the inaugural Southern 500 and was first man out in a race at Occoneechee Speedway in Hillsboro, NC.

His crowning moment was when he bested the boys a year earlier on a dirt track in Dayton, OH to provide Ford with its first win. In doing so, he outran Curtis Turner, Lee Petty, Bill Rexford and many other strong competitors.

10th place finisher Tommy Lane’s only other NASCAR start was a back-of-the-pack run at Heidelburg Stadium in nearby Pennsylvania two weeks later.

Marshall Teague was flagged the winner of the 100-mile, 200-lap affair in 1951. Records show only that he completed the 200 laps—not how far ahead he was in front of 2nd place Dick Rathmann, nor how long it took to complete the race. In fact, the correct finishing order for driver outside the top 10 isn’t even known—nor how many drivers started the race. The only matter worth considering was the $1,000 Teague got to take with him when he left the track.

A little more than one month later, the good old boys were back in Michigan. This time the race would be run in style, right under the noses of the auto manufacturering muckety-mucks. A 250-mile race on the one mile dirt track at Michigan Fairgrounds in Detroit took four hours, twenty minutes and change to complete. Officials kept track of qualification for this race, giving the cars two laps to post time—then added the two times together. Frank Mundy was the fastest car at 69.76 miles per hour, but it was not set in the first round of qualification, so Marshall Teague started the day on the front row—undefeated in Michigan so far.

Fifteen different makes of cars were in the field, all of them the finest of American Iron. The manufacturers anticipated this race for several months. They weren’t disappointed.

Marshall Teague launched off the pole to lead the first lap, but it was the only one he would lead. Overheating sent him to the showers a little past halfway.

Fonty Flock and Tommy Thompson swapped the lead six times before the 100-lap mark when Gober Sosebee wrenched the lead away from the two-some. He held his lead for seven laps before Flock and Thompson came back into the fray, but this time, they brought Curtis Turner with them, which almost proved catastrophic for all involved.

Flock crashed out on lap 130, turning the lead over to Turner—well known for his intimidating driving style. Thompson proved hard to intimidate. These two now took on the chore of thrilling the 16,000 fans. Turner held the lead for 82 laps when Thompson chased him down and passed him. Turner could not let the challenge go unreturned. He swept past Thompson three laps later and the two laid on each other for the next ten circuits before their cars could not stand anymore—and with 25 laps remaining in the event the two slammed into the wooden fence.

Slow and steady, Joe Eubanks eased past the wreck to take the lead—unaware he had even done so. Both Turner and Thompson scrambled to refire their mounts. Thompson chased Eubanks down within eight laps and charged back into the lead, winning the unnamed event by 37 seconds.

Chrysler celebrated as the winning mount, with the Oldsmobile of Eubanks on the same lap in 2nd. Johnny Mantz in a Nash Ambassador and Red Byron in a Ford came home 3rd and 4th. It was Thompson’s first and only victory in only his fifth start.

For his efforts Thompson took home $5,000 in cash and a Packard convertible valued at $3,700. What do you want to bet at least parts of that car made their way onto a racetrack in the months to follow?

The dusty tracks in 1951 are a far cry from the 2-mile SuperSpeedway, but the races were no less thrilling.

Other Michigan Races
SeasonRaceTrackDateWinner
1951Grand National Race No 14Grand River Speedrome7/1/1951Marshall Teague
1951Grand National Race No 20Michigan Fairgrounds8/12/1951Tommy Thompson
1952Motor City 250Michigan Fairgrounds6/29/1952Tim Flock
1952Grand National Race No 20Monroe Speedway (MI)7/6/1952Tim Flock
1954Grand National Race No 25Grand River Speedrome7/11/1954Lee Petty