Donnie Allison recalls World 600 win of 50 years ago

Image courtesy of MSHFA
42 shares
share
tweet
emailBy Vintage Motorsport | 15 hours ago

Last Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of the sensational two-lap victory in the 1970 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway by 2011 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America inductee Donnie Allison in a Banjo Matthews Ford.

Look closely at the photo there are subtle aerodynamic tricks like molding the rear bumper to the body, sinking the front bumper into the body and making the grill flush to scoot air over the car plus lowering the nose sheet metal leading down to the front bumper. MSHFA president George Levy talked with Allison about the race.

Tell us about that race and the keys to winning the 1970 World 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway 50 years ago.

“Well, there’s several things involved. I had to get help at the end of the race because I burned my feet so bad, but the race was a typical World 600 at the time — it all came down to the last 100 miles. I was driving for Banjo Matthews in a Ford, naturally, and my car was really good, but I burnt my right foot so bad I couldn’t keep it on the gas pedal. I tried driving with my left foot, but that didn’t work too well.

“What had happened, before the race Ford came out with some new spray foam insulation for the floorboard, and it was covered with a thin sheet of asbestos. Before the first pit stop my foot had already gone through that and got down on the bare floor. And, not knowing it at the time, I was (making it) worse; every time I made a pit stop, I got them to hand me the water hose and I squirted water on my foot. Well, it was actually cooking it. By the time I got to the end of pit road it’d be boiling.”

“I tried everything in my power to drive that thing, even on my left foot, so I had to get relief. LeeRoy Yarbrough was out, and he got in and finished the race. We had put ourselves out front (by two laps), and when he got in, he kept it there and went and won the race.” (Note: Yarbrough drove the final 37 of 400 laps.)

How important was it to you at that time to win the 600, one of the great races?

Oh, it was the most important. At that time, the World 600 got just about as much hoopla as the Daytona 500, if not more. Not only was its stock car’s longest race, that was the year that I ran fourth at Indy and won Rookie of the Year, a week separated of that 600-mile race.

Was driving Charlotte any different than Talladega or at Daytona?

Well, it’s a pretty difficult track to race. It’s got two completely different corners. If your car is good in one corner it may not be as good in the other, and it takes the driver figuring out what he has to do to get through both corners good. I was lucky early in my career to get help from Ralph Moody (MSHFA Class of 2005), who was part of Holman & Moody, to learn to drive around it. I always was thrilled to run Charlotte. I had a really good career there, and oddly enough it was the racetrack that I got my butt busted pretty bad (in a 1981 wreck).

We’d be remiss if we didn’t ask you about your relationship with Banjo, and how you guys came to be running together that year.

Well, I knew Banjo from way long time ago in South Florida. I was from Miami and he was from Miami; Opa-locka, Fla. But anyway, I got a deal with Ford to run a one-race deal at Daytona and busted a tire and knocked the wall down in the race. I was all disheartened because my factory ride was gone. It was a one-race ride, and I didn’t do very well. Well, I ran well, but I didn’t finish well. Anyway, they call me to the Holman Moody office and said that John Cowley wanted to talk to me, and he was the second in command of Ford Racing at the time. I don’t think he liked me or (brother) Bobby (Allison – MSHFA Class of 1992) very well. I said, “Oh no.” So, I went over there and he just asked me straight out, “You want to drive Banjo Matthew’s car at Rockingham, a one-race deal?” Oh, God. Yes.

So, I went over and talked to (Banjo), and he said, “Yeah, I want you to drive in Atlanta tomorrow and we’ll run a test.” So I did. The weather was pretty bad, and the racetrack was pretty well frozen across the backstretch where the water ran. And the whole test I ran faster than LeeRoy.

I got the opportunity to drive the car at Rockingham, but it was a one-race deal. Well, strangely enough, the race got rained out. So, then we went to Bristol and I won the race.

Banjo and I really got along well. The man was very, very, very intelligent. Race-wise there was nobody any smarter than he ever was, I don’t think. In fact, I think he should be in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America. But anyway, I think it really did a lot for my career for me to get to drive for him first.

 

Paul Goldsmith, 95, reunited with his ‘Roarin’ Relic’

1.8k shares
share
tweet
emailBy Robin Miller | April 29, 2021 7:56 AM

He’s the oldest living Indianapolis 500 starter, the last driver to win when stock cars ran on the beach in Daytona, a motorcycle champion, a NASCAR winner and the highest-placing NASCAR regular ever at Indianapolis.

And Paul Goldsmith, the 95-year-old treasure who still flies his own airplanes, was reunited with some of his amazing history last week.
Thanks to the efforts of Gray Bostick, Griffin Motors Racing and Team GMR, Goldy got to drive a copy of the modified sportsman known as the Roarin’ Relic that he raced to fifth place on Feb. 21, 1958 — just a couple days before claiming the final Grand National race on the 4.2-mile beach course in Smokey Yunick’s Pontiac.





Goldy, who ran third in the 1960 Indy 500, took it up and down the runaway of his airport in Griffith, Ind. wearing a retro suit that was made for this occasion and then let family, friends and employees unwind the Olds Rocket 88.

“I can tell you that he loved it,” said Bostick, admitted Goldsmith groupie from way back. “And you could tell he was a real racer by how he scanned the dash gauges — and was the only one to drive who did a brake check.”

It was Bostick’s persistence that made this happen as the first meeting got snowed out and when they finally got to Florida, they discovered the original car was in the NASCAR Hall of Fame all painted up with Buck Baker’s name on the car.

“So we recreated the Relic as closely as possible and then we had the car hand-lettered and numbered and even had a couple of decals recreated to ensure an accurate representation.

“We were there all day and Paul never took off his uniform or his smile.”

 

Whiskey Roads featuring Junior Johnson (2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSDuwvu8slY
41,503 views
Apr 17, 2019

44018Share
Save




HODIUSDUDE
6.1K subscribersFrom 2006 on the old Speed Channel, this documentary examines the links between bootleggers and the early days of NASCAR with a focus on legendary driver/mechanic/car owner Junior Johnson.

 

Stockcar!

23,062 views
May 11, 2016

1872Share
Save




Calhoun98
954 subscribers1976 movie about NASCAR Cup racing.

 

Tying some racing history together
See last post in thread:
See it before it goes away.



*****************************
Inside the NASCAR Hall of Fame*********************

You Tube

NASCAR Hall of Fame Tour 2013************************

You Tube

NASCAR Hall of Fame Museum Tour... Charlotte, NC

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/a...ml#post9441920

*************************************

Abandoned tracks in Florida area and other places (updated)
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...s-fl-area.html

Bonneville History
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...e-history.html

Daytona History
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...a-history.html

Drag Racing History
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/dr...ml#post9366328

This link has some historic drag racing pics.

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/dr...pics-ever.html


Local historic drag racing track Twin City Oldsmar

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...florida-4.html


Indianapolis History

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9373490

24 Hours of Lemans history

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...s-history.html


Lime Rock Park history

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/au...rock-park.html


Pikes Peak racing history
Is Pikes Peak a road Race?


https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9362624


History of Race Cars

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9370578

Road Racing History
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/g...g-history.html

Sebring history

The way to part 2 "A brief History of Sebring Raceway" is here:
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/g...-40-posts.html
-------------------------------------------------
This was the original brief history of Sebring part 1
https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/general-car-chat/816701-sebring-raceway-brief-history-part-1-has-now-exceeded-40-posts-115-posts.html
---------------------------------------------------

A bit of stock car racing history

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...ml#post9362625


Tying some Tampa Racing history together with links: Tampa International Raceway (Fair Grounds)

https://www.tamparacing.com/forums/ge...l-raceway.html

 

Black Saturday: NASCAR's Darkest Night and the Lost Raleigh Speedway

32.3K subscribers195,961 views Sep 18, 2019
**Shoutout to Smyle for sponsoring this video. In addition to brand development, Smyle has several hundred thousand photographs in their archives and can tell the history of auto racing from its beginning: ** On September 19, 1953, NASCAR scheduled a high-profile race for Modified/Sportsman cars at the Raleigh Speedway.

The event paid more money to win than almost all other races and attracted the best drivers. More significantly, the event was the first night race ever held on a track over one mile. With expectations this would be a great moment in NASCAR's brief history, no one could've predicted how terrible the night would become on lap one. Bill Blevins stalled on the pace lap and went

unnoticed by officials. The green flag was thrown and a field of 59 cars went racing toward him at full speed. On the backstretch, Blevins was struck by Jesse Midkiff and 15 cars were involved in the fiery crash. Both Blevins and Midkiff died in NASCAR's only double fatality. It was a stain that the modern but unpopular track couldn't erase. While Raleigh Speedway was torn down over 50

years ago, ironically the section of track where the accident occurred still exists, hidden in the woods on a Raleigh side street.

 

Hidden History: Unearthing the Lost Raleigh Speedway

ByHeather Leah
Monday, February 4, 2019Bird's eye view of what Raleigh Speedway looked like in the 1950s
N.C. Geological SurveyRALEIGH, N.C. -- Typically, we think of Charlotte as North Carolina's connection to NASCAR history, but once upon a time, NASCAR drivers zipped around Raleigh on a one-mile paperclip superspeedway with banked edges, tight curves, and fiery, fatal races. In the 1950s, crowds of more than 15,000 people gathered to watch races that rivaled anything Charlotte had to offer.

So why has Raleigh been mostly erased from NASCAR history?

Today, you'd never guess this quiet industrial section of Atlantic Avenue--within earshot of a suburban Brentwood neighborhood--used to host raucous events with roaring engines, cheering crowds, and NASCAR legends of the era--like Tim Flock, Fireball Roberts, and Lee Petty.

Like so much of Raleigh's history, the speedway has long-vanished. Many people have forgotten Raleigh ever played a role in NASCAR history at all. With just a handful of black and white photos and aerial shots, there aren't many mementos of the Raleigh Speedway.

But, much like the remains of the lost Isaac Hunter's Tavern, it seems a segment of this historic icon remains -- hidden in plain sight for decades. But how do you lose an entire one-mile speedway?

The Remains of the Raleigh Speedway

A patch of undeveloped woods holds a hidden reminder of this bygone era of classic cars and roaring engines. In fact, the entire patch of trees is growing right out of the remaining asphalt of nearly 90 feet of racetrack -- a tangible memorial of this golden age of 1950's Raleigh history.

If you'd never heard of the Raleigh Speedway, the segments of unexplainable asphalt peeking out from beneath decades of soil and pine needles would seem strange, especially on undeveloped land. One unearthed section reveals a 15-foot width of track, about 4 feet long. Another small section of black, crumbling asphalt pokes out on the edge of a steep drop-off.

 

 

 

1 of 11
Heather LeahDusting away dirt and pine, it's easy to see that the remaining track was likely never torn up from this piece of land. It's all still lying beneath the dirt. Even the trees have bowling ball sized chunks of asphalt circling their bases, from where they've punctured through the layer of speedway history.

Standing on the surviving segment of track in the hush of the woods, one might almost detect the far off roar of an engine, the smell of motor oil and exhaust, and remember the era of Raleigh NASCAR.

NASCAR Comes to Raleigh

Although Raleigh hosted eight major NASCAR events, our city is often forgotten for its role in NASCAR history. Jacob Simpson, who created a website devoted to preserving the memory of the speedway, complete with photos from the 1950's races and interviews from NASCAR drivers, shares, "It opened in 1952 as Southland Speedway, and its first ever race was a Triple-A Race, which we now know as IndyCar."

In 1953 the speedway went bankrupt and was re-named Dixieland Speedway by the new owners. However, later in 1953 the speedway switched its focus to NASCAR and re-branded as the Raleigh Speedway.

"In the late 40s and 50s, racetracks like this began popping up across North Carolina as NASCAR really began to take off," explains Simpson. In fact, there's another abandoned racetrack near the N.C. State Fairgrounds. Many of these tracks suffered the same fate as the Raleigh Speedway, leaving a swath of forgotten asphalt ovals across our state like footprints to a lost era.

"The site of the Raleigh Speedway was an airstrip prior to the 1950s," Simpson says.

"Raleigh hosted Seven Grand Nationals, which today would be known as the Cup Series," he elaborates. "We also hosted local events, but I haven't been able to track down any information about the smaller events." NASCAR historians, he says, typically keep records of racing history, and they tend to focus on top tier events. Those smaller, local races may be forgotten forever.

"I do know we had at least three convertible series races, and one sports car race," he shares.

In the 1950s, the area around Raleigh was still very rural, with mills and farms surrounding the city limits. But our small city had classic 1950s-era Thunderbirds, Corvettes, and Mercedes thundering around the track -- a car lover's dream.

"A Mercedes 300SL won that race," shares Simpson.

A Monkey on the Racetrack

In 1950 Raleigh's population was only 65,000, yet the Speedway saw record-breaking crowds of over 16,000 people -- a true testament to the raging popularity of racing. The Raleigh Speedway was also the first superspeedway in North Carolina, with lights for night racing, putting our city on the map for NASCAR history.

"All the big NASCAR names were there," says Simpson. "Richard Petty's father, Lee Petty, Glen Wood, and even Tim Flock with his famous Rhesus monkey, Jocko Flocko."

The monkey, who often rode shotgun with Flock, was an infamous spectacle at the races. Jocko Flocko became a NASCAR tall tale: The first monkey to win a race. The fastest monkey alive. Flock, the driver, smuggled the monkey into his car so the bigwigs wouldn't forbid his furry co-pilot from riding along. After races, kid loved to see Jocko Flocko and even get his autograph.

The Raleigh Speedway, sadly, was one of Jocko Flocko's final races.

The story goes like this: Jocko Flocko used to ride in the car, peering out the passenger window to distract other racers. But one fateful day, Jocko Flocko pulled on a cord that opened a small hatch, usually used for racers to manually check their tire conditions while driving. Some say a little pebble flung up onto his head, and others day he accidentally hit his head on the moving tire; regardless, the monkey became spooked. Jocko Flocko began screeching and flapping around the moving race car, climbing on the driver and clawing at his face. He was such a hazard that the driver had to pull over and toss the monkey out to the pit crew.

Sadly, Jocko Flocko was never the same after that day. According to Our State, he stopped eating and was permanently traumatized. He had to be put down.

Black Saturday: Raleigh NASCAR's first death

The Raleigh Speedway, while an advanced superspeedway for its time, was not constructed with the heightened safety standards practiced today. "Several drivers I interviewed kind of questioned the construction of the track. It was 1800' straight-aways, then another half-circle, so it was constantly going as fast we you can, then a rapid slow down. Modern tracks are a little more gradual for the turns and have a higher embankment, which allows drivers to carry momentum through the turn, so it won't wear down your brakes. The Raleigh Speedway would wear cars down pretty quickly."

Then, tragedy struck. On September 19, 1953, the Raleigh Speedway saw a double fatality. About 10,000 people in the crowd witnessed two explosions -- the cars of Bill Blevins, 25, and Jessie Midkiff, 18.

According to local fire historian Mike Legeros, "The pack of about 60 cars was hitting 90 miles an hour" when Blevins' car stalled on the first lap. This caused a pile-up that lead to the explosion. "Flames from the two cars shot up about 70 feet into the air and showered the other speeding cars."

The race was a 220-mile national championship for NASCAR sportman's modified stock car race.

Closing the Raleigh Speedway

Despite its success and record-breaking crowds, the Raleigh Speedway closed in the late 1950s.

When the speedway was built, it was outside the Raleigh City Limits, but as population growth expanded into a growing suburbia, the speedway soon found itself not fitting in with its neighbors. Sampson theorizes that the history of hazards like Black Saturday and other major injuries beginning to crop up in NASCAR began creating anti-racing sentiment in the general public. Politicians put a ban on Sunday racing, and neighbors began to complain of the noise, the danger, and the wild crowds near their family homes.

Perhaps the location of the Raleigh Speedway was its only real downfall.

Mark Turner, who explores forgotten Raleigh history, writes, after the speedway closed "it sat dormant for eight years, during which the track was divided to keep trespassing drivers off."

He adds, "The track was demolished in 1967 and an industrial park was built on the site. Little, if any, trace remains of the track."

For decades after, most people believed the track was gone -- if they even remembered Raleigh had ever had NASCAR events at all.

Simpson wonders how such an important piece of NASCAR history has faded from our collective memories, and failed to be properly recorded in books. How, he wonders, can it fade away without so much as a reminding marker?

For now, Simpson's website serves as the reminding marker--and most complete history--for the Raleigh Speedway. And in the woods, a stretch of trees bursting through the Raleigh Speedway's final stretch serve as reminders that time changes everything.

But the next time you drive down Atlantic Avenue, listen for the sound of distant engines, and remember that you're driving where NASCAR legends once rode.