1970 Flameless 300

Since 1958, Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway closed its seasons annually for twenty years with the running of the Southern 300 during the 1960s and Southern 400 in the 1970s. Beginning in 1966, the track scheduled the Flameless 300 as its April season opener (1967 - 1968 - 1969).

A month following the 1969 Southern 300, construction crews arrived to tear up the original half-mile track and replace it with a high-banked one. Long-time Nashville racing historian, Russ Thompson, blogged in 2011:

After the fire destroyed the original grandstands in September of 1965, the track went into a holding pattern. Management realized the track needed to be updated but wanted to wait until a decision was made to reconstruct a permanent grandstand. The “temporary” stands served the track for four seasons.

During 1969 the Fair Board approved construction of a new state-of-the-art grandstand. It would be covered like the original stands, but unique in that there would be no posts supporting the roof. A revolutionary design was implemented where a series of cables would support the roof from above. With the construction of the stands, the decision was made to build a new track as well. The track would have the steepest banks in the nation at 36 degrees. And the distance would be slightly longer than the half-mile at five-eighths of a mile.

The new track was supposed to be ready for racing by May 30, 1970 - about six weeks later than the traditional season opening. Instead, multiple delays pushed the completion date until well into the summer.

The track was finally ready - barely - by mid-July. Rather than launch the abbreviated season with the late model sportsman 300-lapper, NASCAR's Grand National teams arrived to christen the new track. The Nashville 420 was slotted for July 25th - about the same of the year as it had been throughout the 1960s. Bobby Isaac won the race, but the larger story was about tires. Speeds were significantly faster on the new, smooth, high-banked track, and the tires simply couldn't cope with them.

A newer tire compound was brought in for the 1970 edition of the Flameless 300 two weeks later on August 8th, the second event of the shortened season. It was expected to be a safer, more predictable tire for the late model racers.

Source: The Tennessean

The defending and two-time winner of the Flameless 300, Bob Burcham, did not return for the 1970 race. He had been expected to race and perhaps would have done so if the race was held on one of the previously expected dates.

Freddy Fryar, also a two-time Flameless 300 winner, returned for the 1970 race after missing it in 1969. Fryar's finish in his first outing on the new track, however, hardly resembled the solid finishes he'd experienced on the old half-mile.

Source: The Tennessean

A driver making his Nashville debut was  Jerry Sisco, brother of 1969 track champion and future Winston Cup driver, Dave Sisco.

Source: The Nashville Banner

Jerry Sisco endured a bit of irony in two different rookie seasons.

• He began his Nashville racing days in the 1970 Flameless 300. 
• Six years later as a Cup rookie in Darlington's Rebel 500, he pounded the wall and went up in flames. He was pulled to safety by Dale Inman and Barry Dodson from Petty Enterprises' crew. The race was Jerry's fourth (and perhaps understandably) final career Cup start.

Jimmy Griggs, a long-time Nashville racer, winner and fan favorite, was badly injured in the 1969 season-ending Southern 300. About two-thirds of the race through the race, Griggs and Ron Blasingim were involved in a first-turn, two-car savage wreck with Griggs getting the worst end of it. He was rushed to the hospital in critical condition and needed months to recover.

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History Facebook Group

The accident ended Griggs' racing career. But he returned just shy of a year later to be the Grand Marshal for the 1970 Flameless 300.

Source: The Tennessean

Chattanooga, TN drivers Fryar and Burcham had ruled the night in the four previous Flameless 300 races. The duo split the four races, and Burcham won two poles to boot. Another Chattanooga driver - Friday Hassler - added to the Scenic City narrative by winning the pole position for the 1970 race. 

A two-time winner of Nashville's Southern 300 in 1962-1963, Hassler had been a frequent NASCAR GN racer since 1967, and he was the only driver in the Flameless field to also race in Nashville's GN event a month earlier.

James Ham, a local racer since 1968, seemingly loved the high banks. He qualified an unexpected second. With the new configuration, Nashville's track record was destroyed by the top qualifiers by about 30 MPH.

An occasional racer at the Fairgrounds from Owensboro, Kentucky - Darrell Waltrip - qualified third, and Bill Morton lined up fourth. Waltrip committed to run the full season, such that it was, in Nashville for the first time in 1970 in an orange-and-white #48 Chevelle owned by long-time Nashville racer P.B. Crowell.

Though the tire issues experienced in the Grand National race seemed to have been resolved, new challenges faced the late models. The speeds of the new high-banked demon stressed the cars and drivers. 

Hassler led eight of the first nine laps before breaking a rocker arm in his engine. Ham interrupted Hassler's lead but for only one lap. After only six laps, he broke a wheel spindle and within moments was joined on the sidelines by Hassler. The top two qualifiers suddenly found themselves as the bottom two finishers.

With Hassler and Ham gone, Charlie Binkley in #125 took over and led the first third of the race. Fryar in #41 and Waltrip followed close behind as all three took the high line around the speedway - not even close to the line that drivers take on today's track configuration.

Continuing the theme of the night, however, Binkley's early domination ended with a parts failure. His distributor gave up the ghost, and he parked it as had fourteen other cars before him - all before the halfway mark of the race!

Fryar broke a crankshaft a couple of laps after Binkley's exit, and he would not become a three-time Flameless 300 winner. Fryar's night was not done just yet though. Nearing lap 200, former NASCAR GN driver and middle Tennessee transplant, Bunkie Blackburn hit pit road. He almost passed out from fumes in the car and needed oxygen when pulled from his car. Fryar immediately belted into Blackburn's #42 in relief.

Before Blackburn could be transported to a local hospital, however, Fryar's night was finally done. Not long after returning to the track, Fryar wrecked Blackburn's car while trying to pass a lapped car.

A full third of the race remained, but few cars remained to challenge for the win. With many of the top starters already parked, Waltrip put 'er on cruise control and piled up lap after lap out front. When the checkered flag fell, the late model rookie was five laps ahead of second place finisher L.D. Ottinger and 25 laps ahead of third place finisher, Ben Pierce. Only eight of 33 cars were still around to see the end of the Flameless.

The victory was Waltrip's first late model win at Nashville. He followed it with 50+ more of them. Waltrip's Nashville resume is also padded with:

• two late model sportsman track titles
• eight Winston Cup victories - including four in a row
• a Busch Series win
• a USAC stock car division win, and 
• an All American 400 win.

Waltrip also won eleven Cup races at Bristol. He has noted he developed his feel for Bristol by racing on Nashville's high banks in the early 1970s.

Source: The Tennessean

Finishing Order:

1. Darrell Waltrip
2. L. D. Ottinger
3. Ben Pierce
4. Ronnie Blasingim
5. Jerry Sisco
6. Bob Brown
7. James Veach
8. Harold Carden
9. Jim Woodall
10. Junior Caldwell
11. Gene Payne
12. Bunky Blackburn
13. Dorman Adams
14. Bill Morton
15. Jimmy Kyle
16. David Sisco
17. Freddy Fryar
18. Phil Woodall
19. Charley Binkley
20. Flookie Buford
21. Charlie Higdon
22. Bobby Hargrove
23. Chester Albright
24. Bobby Walker
25. Bob Hunley
26. Jim McDowell
27. Donnie Roberts
28. Jimmy Williams
29. Art Ellis
30. David Lowe
31. B. K. Luna
32. Friday Hassler
33. James Ham

TMC

1969 Flameless 300

As the calendar turned to 1969, only three seasons had passed since Nashville's Fairground Speedways re-opened following a devastating fire in September 1965.Yet the new tradition of the Flameless 300 as the track's season opener was by then old hat. The fourth running of the event was scheduled for April 19, 1969.

Several track regulars returned for another season at the fairgrounds. Included in that bunch were Jimmy Griggs from Donelson (TMC's stomping grounds as a yute), long-time veteran driver Bill Morton, future Winston Cup independent Dave Sisco (who would also claim the track's LMS title in 1969), and 1967 late model track champion Walter Wallace.

Source: The Tennessean via Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History Facebook page

One regular who did not return was four-time track champ Coo Coo Marlin. Tom Powell from The Tennessean noted Coo Coo "retired" following the 1968 season. Coo Coo didn't actually retire - he just didn't race at the fairgrounds as often. He focused instead on developing a NASCAR Grand National program and entered seven races in 1969 - including the inaugural Grand National race at Talladega. Though Coo Coo's GN/Cup program wasn't a winning one, it served as a proving ground over the next decade for his son, Sterling.

Source: The Tennessean

The Flameless 300 was scheduled as the track's season opener since 1966. In a bit of irony, rain arrived and postponed the 1969 Flameless. Instead of opening with a 300-lapper on a Saturday night, fans welcomed the new season with a Tuesday night slate of regular races. The 300 was rescheduled for the following Saturday, April 26th.

Source: The Tennessean

The late Joe Carver was track promoter Bill Donoho's right hand man when it came to promoting races. He polished the rainout by suggesting the makeup date would draw more big name drivers including NASCAR legends Junior Johnson, Rex White, and Red Farmer as well as two-time and defending Flameless 300 winner, Freddy Fryar.

As it turns out, none of the drivers teased by Carver showed for the race. Zero. But Carver always looked forward - not behind. After a few more years in Nashville, he moved to Virginia to promote races at Langley Speedway. Carver later became an integral part of Darrell Waltrip's management team - including the launch of his own Cup team, DarWal, Inc. The two met during Waltrip's formative and championship years in Nashville.

Source: The Tennessean

Ben Pruitt won the pole in his first late model sportsman division start. Though a late model noob, Pruitt was a dominant winner throughout 1968 in the track's Tuesday night limited late model division. Aboard one of R. C. Alexander's Harpeth Motor Fords, Pruitt had a so-so night in his debut. As it turns out, his Flameless 300 P1 start ultimately became his biggest accomplishment in the late model sportsman division.

Pruitt continued to race albeit with limited success. In August 1972, he was involved in a vicious wreck with James Ham in turn 2 as the cars entered the backstretch. Flames engulfed Pruitt's car, and his recovery from the burns all but ended his racing career.

Flookie Buford had been a 1960s era racer in the track's figure 8 and Cadet divisions. Like Pruitt, he moved up to the track's late model sportsman division as a rookie beginning with the 1969 Flameless. He joined Pruitt as a teammate in a second Alexander Ford. In the 1970s, Alexander provided late models for his son, Mike Alexander, who eventually had an injury-shortened Winston Cup career.

Pruitt set out to prove being fastest during qualifying wasn't his only skill. When the green flag fell, Pruitt buried his foot, hauled off into turn one, and led the first 107 laps.

While Coo Coo Marlin turned his efforts to NASCAR's Big Time, his brother, Jack Marlin, returned for another season and shot at the Flameless 300 trophy. But as was the case a year earlier, Jack again had a miserable night. He wrecked early and finished 24th out of 27 cars. In 1967, Jack exited under a similar scenario and finished 25th out of 27 cars.

After leading the opening third of the race, Pruitt surrendered the lead to Bob Burcham. A junk dealer (*cough* retailer of used auto parts), Burcham qualified second to Pruitt and held his lead until he made a stop for fuel on lap 194.

Jimmy Griggs assumed the lead when Burcham and Pruitt pitted. Griggs had rallied from three laps down because of an early-race accident and extended time in the pits. But he made up the deficit and found himself in the lead when the top two made their stops. Griggs' lead was short-lived, however, as Burcham went back to the point on lap 202. Griggs later lost a right front wheel spindle but still managed a P3 despite his steering challenges.

Pruitt's #85 Cinderella chariot unfortunately turned into a pumpkin. Despite keeping pace with Burcham and maintaining a clean car, he cut a tire with 60 laps to go, popped the wall, and had to settle for an eighth place finish.

With Pruitt out of the picture and Griggs having issues, Burcham hunkered down and led the remaining third of the race.

Unlike his teammate Pruitt, Flookie Buford had a great night in his LMS debut with a P2 in the Alexander Ford. Buford really took to the division and won Nashville's LMS title in 1971 and 1972. His son, Joe Buford, later won four titles of his own between 1998 and 2002.

With four Flameless 300s in the books, two were won by Freddy Fryar and Burcham nabbed the other two. Burcham had an edge in overall stats with two poles and a P2 finish in 1968.

Source: The Tennessean

The race was the final Flameless on the Fairgrounds' original track layout. Construction equipment rolled in after the 1969 season concluded, and the track was rebuilt to a high speed demon. Gone was the original half-mile. In its place would rise a 5/8-mile oval banked 35 degrees - steeper than any track in the country including Daytona and Talladega.

Finishing Order:

1. Bob Burcham
2. Flookie Buford
3. Jimmy Griggs
4. Raymond Stiles
5. Dorman Adams
6. Tommy Andrews
7. Bobby Hargrove
8. Ben Pruitt
9. Phil Woodall
10. Donnie Roberts
11. Ed Kennedy
12. Charlie Higdon
13. Ron Blasingim
14. David Hitt
15. B.K. Luna
16. James Veach
17. Gene Payne
18. Don Binkley 
19. Bruce Hidenwaite
20. Chester Albright 
21. Otis Deck Jr.
22. Roy Brinson
23. John Nicholson
24. Jack Marlin
25. Walter Wallace
26. Charlie Binkley
27. David Sisco

TMC

April 12, 1987 - Valleydale Meats 500

NASCAR's 1987 Winston Cup season got off to a blistering start. Awful Bill from Dawsonville, Bill Elliott, captured his second Daytona 500 win in three years. He did so after also capturing the pole at 210 MPH and leading over half the race. The jaw dropping lap was a NASCAR speed record that lasted only until May 1987 when Elliott topped it by another two miles per hour at Talladega.

The rest of the top five at Daytona was comprised of Benny Parsons as a replacement for Tim Richmond in the Hendrick Folgers Chevy, a surprisingly resurgent Richard Petty, another old guy Buddy Baker, and Dale Earnhardt.

Earnhardt then went on a tear. He and the Richard Childress Racing, Wrangler Jeans #3 team won four of the next five races. A failed alternator and battery during a dominating day at Atlanta prevented him from sweeping Rockingham through North Wilkesboro.

The racing gypsies then rolled into East Tennessee for the third short track race of the young season. The Valleydale Meats 500 at Bristol was slated for April 12th. The 1986 winner of the race, Rusty Wallace, was back to defend his title - albeit with Kodiak as his sponsor rather than Alugard as he'd had in 1986.

Embed from Getty Images

The Bandit - Harry Gant - won the pole for the 1987 race, but he had little time to enjoy his view from up front. Wallace leaped on the lead when the green flag waved and led the first 40 laps. Gant completed the full race, but led only one lap on his way to a pedestrian P6 finish.

Elliott was widely known for his superspeedway strength as well as his challenges on many short tracks. At Bristol, however, his Coors Ford came to race. He led three times during the middle stages of the race - two of which were for 50+ laps each. When the checkers fell, Elliott finished a solid P4.

Another lap bully of the day was one of Tennessee's own. Sterling Marlin was a three-time track champion at Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway. He had his sights set on his first Cup victory in the eastern third of the state.

As the race hit the 200 lap mark, Sterling found himself on the point. He found his rhythm and pulled the field around Bristol's asphalt half-mile for over 50 laps. Behind him and closing quickly, however, was the blue and yellow #3.

Earnhardt dropped low on Marlin as the two roared through turns 3 and 4 of lap 253. As they sailed off into turn 1, Marlin held his outside line as Earnhardt tried to squeeze to the inside as both passed Mike Potter on the bottom. Earnhardt twitched his car slightly to the right and hooked Marlin in the left rear. (Wreck begins around 1:39 mark in video near end of post.)

Potter continued along with Earnhardt who checked up a bit. Geoff Bodine jumped on the binders, spun, and Ken Schrader sideswiped the left side of Bodine's Levi Garrett Chevy. Though Marlin was calm and collected when interviewed by Jerry Punch on ESPN, he was anything but pleased with how things unfolded.

Source: Knoxville News Sentinel

ESPN nearly missed the Earnhardt and Marlin incident after an on-screen graphic about an Oldsmobile having never won a Bristol spring race was removed just as Earnhardt made things three wide. As an aside, an Olds never did win the Bristol spring race. The manufacturer's only Bristol win was scored by Cale Yarborough in the summer 1978 Volunteer 500, the track's inaugural night race.

As the track crew cleaned the track from the accident and most of the leaders pitted, Kyle Petty stayed out an extra lap. Rain began to fall, and the race was red flagged at lap 265. Kyle had one Cup win on his résumé at that point - the February 1986 Miller 400 at Richmond - but was coming off a P2 to Earnhardt a week earlier at North Wilkesboro.

Kyle and his Wood Brothers, Citgo team had hoped NASCAR would call the race official at that point, but they also knew their chances of winning an abbreviated race were slim. Sure enough, the race resumed after a 90 minute delay. The #21 Ford was competitive yet not enough to hang with others in the top 5. When the long day was done, Petty landed in 7th place - the final car on the lead lap.

Source: Bristol Herald Courier

Side note: The writer of the article, Kevin Triplett, later went to work for NASCAR and then the Bristol track as its Vice President of Public Affairs. Today, Triplett is the Commissioner of Tourism Development for the state of Tennessee.

After the rain and during the final third of the race, Elliott resumed his strong run and led nearly 40 laps. Morgan Shepherd then took over the top spot for 30+ laps in Kenny Bernstein's Quaker State Buick.

Meanwhile, two cars were rolling towards the front. Earnhardt carved his way through traffic after repairs to his right front resulting from his hook of Marlin. He passed Shepherd with about 120 laps to go and set sail.

The second driver who found new life down the stretch was ol' King Richard. After seeing Kyle out front and in a position to win because of the rain, King may have been motivated to get up there and remind his kid of how the old man had done it for decades. He continued to progress through the top ten and knocked off drivers such as Kyle, Elliott, Ricky Rudd, and Shepherd.

With ten to go, King had Earnhardt in his sights. He white smoked his right rear tire as he hustled his STP Pontiac after the leader. Petty was *this close* to Earnhardt as the white flag flew, but he simply ran out of laps and tires to challenge for win #201.

The race was the final second place finish in The King's career. The race was also the second and final time Earnhardt and King finished in the top two spots - the other being at Atlanta in November 1986. Just about everyone knows Petty won 200 Cup races in his career. Many are not aware, however, of another remarkable stat from his career: 157 P2s.

Source: Bristol Herald Courier

Earnhardt won again the following week at Martinsville to extend his winning streak to four races. Had it not been for his failed alternator and battery at Atlanta, he could have had a seven-race winning streak heading to Talladega the week after Martinsville.

Source: Knoxville News Sentinel

TMC

1968 Flameless 300

Drivers belted in for the third annual Flameless 300 on April 20, 1968 - once again, the season opener for Nashville's Fairground Speedways.

Long-time Nashville racer and future NASCAR official, Walter Wallace, returned for another season but with a different panache. Wallace won the track's late model sportsman title in 1967 and returned for his defense of it - albeit with a different car and owner.

Source: The Tennessean

Chattanooga's Bob Burcham, the defending race winner and two-time pole winner, returned to middle Tennessee yet again with a high level of confidence. He had good reason for his optimism with a handful of other Nashville wins in 1967 in addition to his Flameless pole and victory.

Source: The Tennessean

After three Nashville titles in four years plus a bucket of wins in 1966 and 1967, Coo Coo Marlin began to reduce his time at the fairgrounds and increased his number of NASCAR Grand National starts. Yet, he was ready to go yet again for the big race, the Flameless 300.

Coo Coo's older brother Jack Marlin, however, still had a Nashville itch to scratch. Walter Wallace didn't win a race in 1967 yet won the track title over Jack. That fact alone provided a good bit of motivation for the 39 year-old.

Source: The Tennessean

In addition to the track regulars, season champions, and out-of-town ringers, the race featured another interloper of sorts. Country singer Marty Robbins took his racing as seriously as he did his musical craft. Though he didn't get to race as often as many of the regulars, Robbins made sure to do what he could to be right in the thick of the mix.

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History

Source: The Tennessean

Even with his planned schedule reduction, Coo Coo came to race - not to play. He plunked his #711 car on the pole. Yet for the third year in a row, he simply could not muster a winning race in the Flameless. In the 1966 event, he blew a tire and fell out of the race at lap 78. In 1967, poor fuel mileage and/or pit execution relegated him to a P2 finish, two laps down to winner Bob Burcham.

When the green fell on the 1968 race, Coo Coo hauled off into turn 1 and led the first 10 laps. He surrendered the lead and settled into a good rhythm for the rest of the evening. About ten laps later, however, his accelerator hung and he piled into the first turn wall.

Furthermore, Coo Coo was aching. He needed to be taken to the hospital to have his injured back examined and treated. But as long-time Nashville racing historian Russ Thompson blogged, he didn't want his wife, Eula Faye, to see him loaded into an ambulance so he slipped out the back gate in a wrecker instead. With true grit toughness and as a display of good sportsmanship, Marlin returned to the track before the end of the race and congratulated the winner in victory lane.

Three weeks later, Tom Powell from The Tennessean interviewed Coo Coo about the accident and his planned return to racing:

Coo Coo wrecked in the opening night Flameless 300 race when his accelerator stuck. "It was the worst wreck I was ever involved in," the blond farmer from Columbia confessed yesterday. "It almost knocked me unconscious."

Asked to describe the sensation he experienced when the throttle stuck, Coo Coo said, "It was like driving without brakes in that I kept picking up speed and couldn't do anything about it. There was no time to reach for the switch. Everything happened so fast."

Concerning his car that has been wreaking havoc for the rest of the drivers at the Speedways during the last couple of seasons, Coo Coo smiled and said, "If it’s better when we get it fixed, it'll be a dilly. I just hope it runs as good as the other one."

The car will have a new frame. “We're trying to salvage everything good from the other one, but we're completely rebuilding. The biggest damage was to the frame, but we haven't looked at the engine yet."

Coo Coo said he saw no way to have the car ready for this week's show and stated, "I just hope we can make it by the next week, but we've still got a long way to go."

Marlin admitted, "My wife's been after me to quit during this spell, so we just let the car set for three or four days, but we're going after it now."

Despite not racing last week, Coo Coo was in the pits watching the races. "I wonder what other people find to do on Saturday nights," he laughed. ~ May 3, 1968 The Tennessean 

With delays in getting his car rebuilt and listening to Eula Faye who advised him to back it down, Marlin did not return to racing until June 2. He finished fourth in the 30-lap feature  - six weeks after his Flameless misfortune.

Coo Coo's wreck was hardly the only DNF of the night. Nine cautions chewed up 70 of the race's 300 laps. When the checkered flag fell, only six of 27 starters were still around to see it.

Jack Marlin set the tone early with a second lap wreck involving himself, Charlie Higdon, and Robbins. Jack said later "This is a helluva way to start the season, but I had fair warning. Two black cats crossed my path today." Troubles for other racers after the Marty and Marlins exits including:

• Charley Binkley - engine issues
• P. B. Crowell - led 29 laps but fell out because of overheating
• Charley Stofel - steering 
• Walter Wallace - engine issues. He joked "I even got a haircut to cut down on the car's weight, but we must have broken about a dozen rocker arms."

As the car counted dwindled, two drivers separated themselves from the rest of the remaining field. Burcham and the 1966 Flameless 300 winner, Freddy Fryar, pretty well had the race to themselves.

Near the midpoint of the race, Burcham made an unscheduled stop under green because of a flat tire and lost two laps. Fryar made his planned stop later but was able to do so during a caution. Burcham made up one of his two laps during Fryar's stop, but he still needed good fortune to have a shot at Fryar.

Burcham was all over Fryar with 25 laps to go. He raced him hard but clean with the aggressive hope of getting back on the lead lap. He made the pass to get back on the lead lap - barely, but Burcham needed to see another yellow flag to close the gap.

With only six cars remaining, however, the race stayed green the rest of the way. For the second time in three years, Fryar again took home the trophy and the loot. Though P.B. Crowell fell out of the race as a driver, he still got to visit victory lane as the winning car owner.

Source: The Tennessean

Finishing Order:

1. Freddy Fryar
2. Bob Burcham
3. Donnie Carter
4. David Hill
5. Chester Albright
6. James Veach
7. Stan Starr
8. Donnie Roberts
9. Ronnie Blasingim
10. Bobby Walker
11. Art Ellis
12. Ronnie Muller
13. P. B. Crowell
14. Otis Deck
15. Tommy New
16. James Ham
17. Jimmy Griggs
18. Bobby Hargrove
19. Bunkie Blackburn
20. Charley Stofel
21. David Sisco
22. Charley Binkley
23. Coo Coo Marlin
24. Walter Wallace
25. Jack Marlin
26. Charlie Higdon
27. Marty Robbins

TMC

1967 Flameless 300

With the success of the Flameless 300 as the 1966 season opener at Nashville's Fairground Speedways, the track chose to again have the big race start the 1967 season. The second annual Flameless was slated for Saturday, April 22, 1967.

Racer Walter Wallace paired with owners Charlie McGee and Kenneth Wiser to race a #43 Chevelle in 1967. The relationship worked well as Wallace notched the first of his two Nashville late model track championships (the other title coming in 1975).

Source: The Tennessean

The 43 received support from Merrill's Restaurant on Nolensville Road in Nashville. The restaurant is long-gone, and a Burger King sadly now sits on the site.

Courtesy of Russ Thompson

Bunkie Blackburn, a part-time, ten-year veteran of NASCAR's Grand National division, relocated to middle Tennessee. He shelved his GN career and focused instead on racing at the local level.

Source: The Tennessean

Blackburn's limited GN career included a half-dozen races for Petty Enterprises in 1962. He and Jim Paschal were hired as platoon drivers as the Petty team continued its recovery from the loss of Lee Petty and development of the future King, Richard Petty.

Freddy Fryar won Nashville's 1964 modified-sportsman division championship as well as the 1966 Flameless 300. Originally from the Chattanooga, Tennessee area, Fryar relocated to Baton Rouge, Louisiana and returned to Nashville to defend his 1966 win. Fryar's home base didn't seem to affect his racing career as he raced short tracks seemingly any time and anywhere.

Source: The Tennessean

After blowing a tire and falling out of the 1966 Flameless 300 before the one-third mark, Coo Coo Marlin went on a tear. He won more than a dozen races, his second consecutive track championship, and his third title in four years. Though the rush of weekly racing had started to fade a bit, Marlin was back again in 1967 looking to win the season-opener and pick up where he'd left off the previous September.

Source: The Tennessean

As racers arrived for preparation and practice, one 'driver' spotted on the track was Roy Drusky, country singer and songwriter. Drusky fielded a car for Blackburn in the Flameless 300 as noted in the above article, and he put others behind the wheel (including himself) over the next couple of seasons. Trivia unrelated to the race: Drusky was the first to record a song written by the legendary Kris Kristofferson, Jody and the Kid.

Source: The Tennessean

Chattanooga's Bob Burcham won the pole just as he'd done for the previous year's Flameless 300. Burcham led the first few laps before Marlin took over the top spot - a familiar sight for the field during the previous season. Coo Coo held the lead through nearly half the race before pitting for fuel.

Fryar raced in the top five for much of the race and stayed near Burcham, Marlin, and Wallace. With about 70 laps to go, however, he broke a wheel cylinder and was unable to keep up a contending pace. Even with fading brakes, the Beaumont Flyer still managed a sixth place finish.

Wallace took over the top spot when Marlin pitted a second time on lap 238. Walter put his #43 Chevelle in the wind and looked to be the car to beat over the remaining 62 laps. Until...

An inexpensive pulley belt broke on Wallace's car a dozen laps or so after taking the lead. The chance at the win was gone just like that. As was the case with Coo Coo a year earlier, a bad night in the season opener didn't derail Wallace's year. He soldiered on, had a solid year, and won the track title.

Burcham re-assumed the lead after Wallace's exit, but Coo Coo continued his pursuit. With five laps to go, however, Marlin had to pit an excruciating third time for a final splash of fuel.

A final caution flew with seven laps to go, and Burcham saw the green again with two to go. But with a two-lap lead on Coo Coo and his brother Jack Marlin, Burcham cruised the remaining laps to the win.

Marlin and his crew were perplexed as to how Burcham ran the race with only one stop vs. Coo Coo's two scheduled (plus one final top-off) stops. Rather than protest Burcham, Marlin returned to his Columbia, TN farm and waited for another race to win.

Burcham was worn out after the win but still enjoyed getting the spoils of victory lane. Winky Louise - Miss Firebird - was her elegant self in congratulating the winner. But somehow, I think Miss Fairground Speedways was none too happy about having the out-of-town pretty occupy her victory lane. MEOW

Source: The Tennessean

Finishing order:

1. Bob Burcham
2. Coo Coo Marlin
3. Jack Marlin
4. Jimmy Griggs
5. Sherrill Harris
6. Freddy Fryar
7. Ed Kennedy
8. Flemming Marlin
9. Walter Wallace
10. Jimmy Thurman
11. Ronnie Muller
12. Will Armstrong
13. Clyde Adcock
14. Darrell Waltrip
15. Butch Eades
16. Bobby Hargrove
17. Bill Morton
18. Jerry Long
19. Crash Bond
20. Charles Stofel
21. Chester Albright
22. George Bonee
23. David Hill
24. David Sullivan
25. Charles Loyd
26. Jimmy Brown
27. James Veach
28. Jerry Penick

TMC