Incredible shot!!!
Al Hamilton was one of the all-time greatest owners in Sprint car racing. He came from being a dirt-poor farm boy, into a multi-millionaire in the coal business. He pumped literally millions of dollars into Sprint car racing, and only recently retired.
His driver in this shot, is Kramer Williamson. Kramer is also a long-time driver who stood on the pedal, but was known to be difficult to work with. He still runs with the URC in the Northeast, and still wins races.
The Furniture Row Chevy - Joe Nemecheck is out for 2009 and the team will run around 12 races with Regan Smith driving…
Here in the foreground facing the wrong way at Sunshine Speedway during a Tornado Feature sits Don Lyons in the #80 Ace of Spades Tornado car.
Speaking of a unenviable position, that is your’s truly in the background exiting the racetrack off Turn 2 in my friend and fellow-competitor, Frank Barfuss’s #73 Tornado car. I normally competed against this car in my #24 car but this night the 24 was down I was asked to take over Frank’s ride.
The period would’ve been 70’ or so. I never could figure out why Frank didn’t ask me back to try the car out again after this.
Obviously, any racing expert can tell that Lyons must’ve just booted me over the wall because I know darn well it couldn’t have been my mistake. :^)
Another shot of Don Lyon’s Flying Aces #80 Tornado above (with left front fender obscuring the number) in this article from back in the day at SS after winning his heat race.
As is evidenced by this shot, Don was a tough, take-no-prisoners competitor and would get to the checkers come hell or highwater…
Always a good, fair competitor from back in the day at SS & GGS in the #81 Late Model:
Kevin Crooks
(Article below & crash photo at right - 1971)
Ouch !!!
Hardy Maddox at Golden Gate…
83
Gotta have a little fun with my buddy Don Heckman.
He was once a fresh faced kid who started his driving career at Florida City in this #83 English Ford. It was a little before my time, but I can imagine that Don was a “little bit assertive” as a driver. Here is a shot of him climbing out after a flip, and another of the same car on the way to victory circle.
[B][I]Question:
on page 2 of this tread, there is a white Modified with a 4 cylinders motor in it, seems to be No23,
What class is this car? Where do they race? Are they built by a company or home made?
Thanks
Andr?[/I][/B]
Its an Outlaw Modified "More Info Here…
[B][I]Thanks!
Very appreciate.
Andr?[/I][/B]
Darel Dieringer in the #85 Pontiac follows Jack Smith?s #47 Chevrolet outside of Banjo Mathews in the #8 Pontiac with the #6 Pontiac of Cotton Owens in the lead in the first lap of the 1957 Grand National Race #4 on the Daytona Beach Road Course.
Driving for John Zink and John Whitford, this was Dieringer?s debut into the Grand National Series, predecessor of NASCAR?s Nextel Cup Series. Unfortunately, Dieringer only completed one lap of this 39-lap event (as did the #47 & the #8 car).
Cotton Owens went on to win this event leading 31 of the 39 laps in his Ray Nichels prepared Pontiac giving Pontiac its first win in the NASCAR Grand National competition.
Emanuel Antonius Zervakis, also known as the ?Golden Greek?, is shown here in his #85 Chevrolet in this first photo running just ahead of Glen Wood at Bowman Gray Stadium in 1961. The second photo is also shot at Bowman Gray showing the Golden Greek following the #35 of E.J. Trivette with Ned Jarrett in the #11 Chevrolet and Tommy Irwin?s Thunderbird following.
Zervakis was a little known but a fierce competitor in the 1961 NASCAR Grand National Series winning two short track races (Greenville-Pickens and at Norwood Arena) and finishing third in the final point standings for the year. He retired his driving career after the Southern 500 at Darlington in 1963.
NOTE: The Bowman Gray Stadium track, located just off Interstate 40 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is a ?-mile completely flat asphalt oval built around a football field and is the same quarter-mile track that would be used for track and field events at the average high school. In fact, the infield is used for Winston-Salem State University’s home football games.
BGS hosted 29 NASCAR Grand National races from 1958 to 1971, and still holds weekly races to this day, primarily hosting the NASCAR Whalen Series.
G.C. Spencer in the #86 Chevrolet goes low as Jesse James Taylor climbs the guardrail backwards in the 1958 Southern 500 at Darlington. Taylor was showing a lot of promise as a 22 year old rookie finishing an impressive second place in the 1951 Southern 500. Then he was badly injured a few weeks later at Atlanta which side-lined him from racing for five full years. After making a brief comeback in 1956, his start in the 58? Southern 500 was also representative of a brief comeback as his car was completely destroyed in this crash. Taylor didn?t return to GN racing with exception of one start in 1961.
This was a particularly brutal race as evidenced by these next few photos.
First is Eddie Pagan?s #45 Ford bone jarring crash where the car ends up shredding itself on the guardrail after blowing a right front tire on the 137th lap. The car tumbled down the embankment and ended up outside of the track but miraculously Pagan walked away injured.
Then there?s Jack Smith?s #47 Pontiac soaring over the guardrail going end-over-end narrowly missing a photographer?s stand and ending up in the parking lot. A crowd of spectators gathers around the car in disbelief after it comes to rest. Although uninjured in this wreck, Smith developed a fear for the track and as a result, hired substitute drivers for future Darlington events.
Another driver (not pictured here), Don Kimberling, a rookie in this race spun his 1958 Chevrolet backwards into the wall which ruptured the fuel tank and turned the car into a blazing inferno within seconds. The rookie driver was able to escape with minor injuries but never again climbed into a race car.
Fireball Roberts went on to win this crash-fest five laps ahead of runner-up Buck Baker.
Lee Arnold Petty, born in 1914, did not begin his racing career until the age of 33. Petty competed sparingly in the National Championship Stock Car Circuit in his first year of racing. Shown here in 1947 driving the #87 1937 Plymouth owned by Ed Blizzard, Petty would win his first race the following year in 1948, then would go on to create Petty Enterprises, the winningest team in NASCAR history two years later in 1949.
The well respected patriarch of the Petty family succumbed to complications from stomach surgery in 2000.
Great stuff Jim! I remember seeing a picture of the Eddie Pagan crash back when I was very young (maybe 1968 or so). It is no less horrifying almost 40 years later.
Along the way though, I did learn that it was Eddie who was the “other half” of Hutcherson-Pagan Racing, that built a ton of chassis for the Nascar circuit in the 70’s and 80’s. Now, all the teams build their own chassis instead of getting an H-P or a Banjo Matthews.
Bill Thompson #88
