Nashville's 1967 Southern 300

The ninth running of the Southern 300 at Nashville's Fairground Speedways - the final late model race of season - was slated for Sunday, October 1, 1967. The International 300, an event for modifieds and super modifieds, closed out the season two weeks later.

A few days before the race, track promoters Bill Donoho and Bennie Goodman had received 72 entries for the race. Only the top 33 cars would start meaning more than half the entrants would be loaded before the green flag fell.

The 72 entrants did not include Coo Coo Marlin, Nashville's defending track and race champion.

After scoring 13 wins and his fourth track title in 1966, Marlin returned for another full season at the Fairgrounds along with three NASCAR Grand National races. Coo Coo picked up where he'd left off the previous year. With only a couple of races to go in the 1967 season, Marlin had collected nine victories and was in the hunt for his fifth title.

Things then went a bit awry for Marlin - on the track and in his relationship with the promoters. In a 100-lap race on September 4th, Marlin cut a tire and wrecked with 20 laps to go. With the DNF, his chances at the title were gone as winless Walter Wallace captured the title with one race to go. For some reason, Coo Coo became angry at Donoho and Goodman and swore he would not return to race.

Rain canceled the final race of the season scheduled for September 9th. With only the Southern 300 left to go as a national late model race, Donoho and Goodman had no idea if Marlin would race or not. He played hard to get in interviews about the readiness of his car and the efforts of his crew.

But sure nuff, when race weekend rolled around, Coo Coo was back. He willingly forfeited a $50 bonus payable to the defending track champion because his entry wasn't received by the due date. Marlin laughed it off and considered it money well spent just to prove some sort of point to Dohono & Goodman.

Goodman made it a point, however, to pay Coo Coo his bonus anyway because he'd verbally committed to running the race earlier in the month. When asked for a response to Marlin's comment that it was worth $50 to bug the promoters, Goodman snarked "With 75 entries, we were really worried about him."

Red Farmer returned for another shot at the Southern 300 trophy. Though Red won a handful of Nashville races over the years and was often a factor in the Southern, he'd never been able to close the big race with a victory. A year earlier, he cut a tire and bent a tie rod - ending his day with 50 laps to go and a one-lap lead on the field.

Farmer once again was fast off the trailer, and he captured the pole for the second consecutive year. After his wishy-washy opinion about racing in the Southern, Marlin qualified second - and frankly to no one's surprise.

The third-place qualifier did turn a few heads, however, as Marty Robbins hustled his #777 Plymouth around the half-mile. Local racer and two-time Southern winner, Jimmy Griggs, timed fourth quickest in R.C. Alexander's #84 Ford. All four posed with the coveted trophy.

Source: Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History

The top 25 starters were set during regular qualifying. The balance of the 33-car field was filled with the top eight finishers in a 20-lap consolation race.

The consi race turned out to be more of a hooligan show. Thirty-one cars took the green in the quick, get-to-the-front event. Four laps into the race, however, sixteen cars wrecked - half the field! Eight more tangled a couple of laps after the restart. When Bob Hunley mercifully took the checkers to advance, only thirteen of the 33 cars remained on the track.

Excitement builds as the start nears.
Charlie Higdon (4), Walter Wallace (43), Donnie Allison (47), George Bonee (14)

Farmer began the race just as he'd done a year earlier. At the drop of the green, he set sail and dared others to keep up with him. Lap by lap, bit by bit, many proved they weren't up to the challenge.

Newly crowned track champ Walter Wallace had more time to celebrate his title that Sunday because he didn't race very long. He broke a crankshaft on lap one, and his day was done before even having time to break a sweat.

Marlin, Robbins, and Griggs were quick in qualifying, but none were reliable on race day. Rear-end issues ended Griggs' day after only 100 laps, and Coo Coo accompanied him at the trailers 30 laps later with a failed engine. A broken left front wheel spindle led to a disappointing DNF day for the Twentieth Century Drifter.

Eight cautions chewed up about a quarter of the race's laps. With each restart, however, Farmer retained the lead. At the two-thirds mark of the race, Red had a two-lap lead on the field. But then, the ghosts of past races returned to haunt him again.

On lap 209, Donnie Allison lost a rear-end and spilled grease on the backstretch. Local racers Bobby Walker and Charlie Higdon collected each other as they slid through it. Farmer hit the patch of grease and sailed into the turn 3 wall - painfully ending his quest for the Southern trophy once more.

Freddy Fryar, Nashville's 1964 late model track champion, raced out of Chattanooga for several years but had relocated to Baton Rouge. He also relocated his track position at just the right time. He eased through Allison's oily mess and was sitting pretty when the green returned.

With the top four qualifiers sidelined as well as about half of the remaining starters, Fryar cruised the remaining 90 or so laps to claim his 34th regional late model win of the season.

Fryar had hoped to parlay his remarkable 1967 late model season capped by the Southern 300 win into a NASCAR Grand National ride. His plans, however, didn't pan out that way. Not only did Freddy miss out on a full-time ride, he didn't even get a part-time one.

Though he already had three NASCAR GN starts dating back to 1956, Fryar raced only three more times at the top level over the 1970-71 seasons including the 1970 Alabama 500 at Talladega driving a winged Plymouth Superbird.

Source for articles: The Tennessean

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