Nashville's 1962-1963 Southern 300s

The Southern 300 reached a bit of a milestone with its fifth edition in 1962. The season ending race for Nashville's Fairground Speedways was held on Sunday, September 30th.

About a month before the Southern 300, Jimmy Griggs of nearby Donelson wrapped up his first and only Fairgrounds modified title with his fourth win of the season. The final race of the year was now simply about the best of the locals vs. the out-of-town ringers.

Bobby Allison won the first two features of Nashville's 1962 season. It was his brother Donnie, however, who captured the pole for the final race of the season. Fellow Alabama Gang members Red Farmer and Bobby Allison qualified second and third. Local racers L.J. Hampton and Charlie Parrish rounded out the top five starters.

As the race grew in stature over its first five years, it also meant some racers loaded up before the race even began. Forty drivers arrived to claim 33 spots. Speaking of stature, the race winner's trophy continued to be a sizable one coveted by all.

Donnie showed early his pole run wasn't a one-lap flash. At the drop of the green, he held the lead for the first 100+ laps. A cut right-rear tire, however, sent him to the pits and ended his lead. He remained in the race but had to settle for a fourth place finish.

About the time of Donnie's issue, things went even worse for track champ Griggs. He broke something in his steering, popped the wall, and collected several others - most spectacularly Bud Fox. No one was injured, but five of six cars involved were done for the day - including Griggs.

Following Donnie's tire issue and the Griggs-initiated, multi-car wreck, Farmer inherited the lead. Red held it until a scheduled stop near lap 150. As Farmer made his stop, Chattanooga's Friday Hassler ascended to the top for a few laps before his own stop.

Malcolm Brady, the 1960 Southern 300 winner, took over from Hassler and seemingly had the race in hand. Somehow, however, he and his crew misjudged his fuel mileage or didn't add enough fuel to his modified.

While leading at lap 265, Malcolm unexpectedly ran dry. He coasted to pit road, got a few gallons to last the remaining 35 laps, and returned to action. Though he salvaged a good finish, Brady lost his shot at a second Southern win.

By that point of the race, the Alabama Gang was no longer a factor. Donnie couldn't regain his early race mojo, Farmer had fallen out with engine issues, and Bobby Allison lost several laps after an accident with Coo Coo Marlin and subsequent tire issue.

Hassler re-assumed the lead following Brady's misfortune. Friday continued the remaining few laps and won by about a half-lap over second place Brady.

Carol Steele (Miss Fairground Speedways), Hassler, 
Nashville Mayor Beverly Briley, and Margaret Petty (Miss Tennessee)

Though Donnie Allison could not convert his pole start into a pole win, he did ultimately win five races at Nashville between 1965 and 1978 - including the 1976 Winston 200 that coincided with Sterling Marlin's first professional racing start.

The racers returned a year later for the sixth Southern 300 slated for Sunday, September 29, 1963.

When racers and fans arrived on Saturday, September 28th for practice and qualifying, soaking rains unfortunately greeted them. The full schedule was moved back one week with the race rescheduled for Sunday, October 6. The 1963 race was the first of only two Southerns postponed by rain with the second soggy one happening in 1975.

After things reset a week later, some fans may have experienced a bit of deja vu from the 1962 Southern 300. As he did a year earlier, Donnie Allison again won the pole. He also did so by setting a track record - just as he'd done in '62.

Unlike qualifying in 1962, a couple of Chattanooga-area drivers nabbed the next two spots instead of Alabama Gang racers. Freddy Fryar qualified second followed by Bob Burcham. Both drivers would have plenty of success at the Fairgrounds throughout the remainder of the 1960s on the track's original half-mile configuration.

The top three qualifiers posed for a promotional photo for the local paper along with young fan Opie Taylor. - Wait, check that. - The young fan was actually Russ Thompson, known today by many across the web as Calhoun98 and a walking encyclopedia of racing knowledge from Nashville, NASCAR, Indy Car, and karting.

A lap-80 wreck eliminated several contenders including Fryar and Burcham. Mechanical woes doomed Red Farmer and NASCAR's Joe Lee Johnson.

Consequently, the top two finishers from 1962 - Friday Hassler and Malcolm Brady - once again found themselves at the head of the field again in 1963 for the better part of the final 200 laps. The duo separated themselves from the remainder of the field and were soon the only two cars remaining on the lead lap.

Hassler and Brady had differing race strategies. Hassler needed only one pit stop whereas Brady required three. Adding to deja vu feelings for Brady perhaps was his third and final stop. In 1962, he had to make an unscheduled stop for fuel. A third stop was needed in 1963 with 70 laps to go, but miscues extended the stop and put Malcolm well behind Hassler.

With 50 laps to go, however, Brady was down but not out. He closed the gap on Hassler and maintained pressure in an effort to force Friday into a mistake. Hassler didn't crack though, kept his rhythm, and crossed the finish line to secure back-to-back Southern 300 wins.

Not only was the race meaningful for Hassler individually, but it also marked a point of significant demarcation for the Fairgrounds. After six years of the modifieds as the featured division, big changes were ahead.

The track moved to full-bodied late model modified sedans beginning in 1964. The change was in line with other regional short tracks, but the news didn't come without come controversy and grumbling from the area racers. In 2011, Russ Thompson blogged about Nashville's new division that followed Hassler's win in Nashville's final modified race.

Source: Eddie Shaub / Nashville Fairgrounds Racing History

Friday took home the trophy for the 1963 season-ending race, and Coo Coo Marlin secured his second of four track championships. Marlin's first two titles came in Nashville's modifieds, and he earned his other two in the successor late model division. Interestingly, Coo Coo didn't win a single feature during his 1963 title run.

Throughout the rest of the 1960s, Hassler continued to make the trek between Chattanooga and Nashville to race regularly at the Fairgrounds. Though he only returned home with four trophies, at least two of them were from the increasingly prestigious Southern 300.

He balanced his late model racing career with an increasing number of starts in NASCAR Grand National competition. Sadly, Friday died in a wreck during his 125-mile qualifying race for the 1973 Daytona 500 while driving his familiar red, See Rock City-sponsored, #39 Chevelle.

Source for articles: The Tennessean

TMC

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

1966 Flameless 300

The current footprint of Nashville's Fairgrounds Speedway debuted in July 1958. The abbreviated first season concluded with the Southern 200 modified-sportsman race. The race was extended by 100 laps in 1959 and another hunnerd in 1973, and the Southern 300 / 400 remained the track's season-ending race for twenty years.

The scheduled renewal of the Southern 300 in 1965, however, never got the green flag. On Monday, September 20, 1965 - opening night of the Tennessee State Fair - an inferno raged through the track's grandstands and many other fairgrounds buildings.

Temporary grandstands were rebuilt, and the track was again ready for racing in the spring of 1966 through cooperation with the city of Nashville, the Fair Board, and track management. Perhaps as a tongue-in-cheek nod to the devastating fire and certainly the track's resilience following it, the season opening race on April 23, 1966 was named the Flameless 300.

Jim Donoho, brother of track promoter and leaseholder Bill Donoho, wrote the following poem after the fire and before the 1966 season.

Well, things looked black that night last year

As flames leaped towards the sky

And thousands stood here in silent awe

As smoke filled every eye

But as show business states, "the show must go on"

We took that fire in stride

Because the roar of motors once again

Just could not be denied

Something is missing for sure, we know

The grandstands had its day

But the excitement is just as strong indeed

And soon will be underway

To the many fans who showed concern

To those who asked and wondered

We give you now our answer by

The Speedway's Flameless Three Hundred

As we open the track, we expect more trials

From speeding cars and daring men

Welcome to every one of you

And isn't it great that we're racing again

The Donohos and partner Bennie Goodman got solid interest with 46 entrants in a race only slated to accomodate 33 starters. Defending track champion Coo Coo Marlin entered the race as expected but so did a 19 year-old kid from Owensboro, Kentucky: Darel Waldrip ... or Darrell Waltrip as folks soon learned the proper spelling of his name.

Another expected racer for the Flameless was 1965 NASCAR national modified champion, Bobby Allison. He had arranged to pilot P.B. Crowell's Chevrolet - a car sold by Allison to Crowell.

Source: The Tennessean

Allison's participation was contingent on (1) completing a modified-sportsman race at Martinsville and (2) being able to fly to Nashville in time for the Flameless 300. Apparently one or both conditions didn't happen as Allison wasn't in the 33-car starting line-up. Crowell raced his own #48 Chevy with Bill Morton at the wheel of Crowell's second #49 car.

Source: The Tennessean

Local driver Walter Hamilton started the race but surrendered the wheel to relief driver George Bonee during the first caution. Hamilton was still recovering from major knee surgery just two weeks prior to the race. Walter was the son of Bud "Preacher" Hamilton and uncle of the late Bobby Hamilton, Sr. Preacher Hamilton built a bit of fame as the mechanic for part-time racer and country music crooner, Marty Robbins.

Johnny Thoni belted into a car owned by Ralph Clary at the last minute and finished seventh. Thoni showed up at the fairgrounds as a spectator, but Clary asked him if he'd drive. "Wait until I get my helmet!" replied Thoni as he headed for the car.

A trio of drivers from Chattanooga, Tennessee dominated the race. Bob Burcham won the pole and led the first 109 laps. Another pair of Noogans - Friday Hassler and Freddy Fryar - controlled the final two-thirds of the event.

Hassler certainly knew his way around Nashville as he won the season-ending 1963 Southern 300. He led laps 110 through 160 before he and Fryar made scheduled pit stops. Fryar's crew ripped off a quick stop while Hassler's crew struggled with slower pouring fuel dump cans. The stop difference was enough to flip the running order when the duo returned to racing action.

After additional cars made their stops, Fryar found himself at the point on lap 179. Hassler hassled the bejesus out of Fryar's bumper throughout the final third of the race, but he simply could not get by him.

At the stripe, Fryar prevailed over Hassler for the win. According to The Tennessean's race report, Hassler said "I did everything but put him in the wall," as he discussed the race with another driver, Crash Bond. "I didn't want to win it that way. I was running about a quarter of a second a lap faster than him, but I just couldn't get around him."

Steam poured from underneath the hood of Fryar's Ford in victory lane. He told his mechanic the radiator ruptured with about 30 laps to go - but that he had no intention of coming to pit road while holding down P1.

Fryar got himself a good smooch from Winkie Louise "Miss Firebird" before receiving his trophy for a job well done.

Burcham finished third with local driver and future NASCAR inspector Walter Wallace fourth. Long-time Fairgrounds racer Charlie Binkely finished fifth with Boyd Adams (1960s racer and Nashville's track operator briefly in the 1980s) in sixth.

Marlin blew a tire and exited the race after only 78 laps. Marty Robbins finished 12th despite falling out after 244 laps because "the rear end was going out". Preacher Hamilton joked later that Robbins simply tired out. Darel Waldrip finished 13th in what was apparently his first Nashville start.

Donoho built temporary stands for about 10,000 seats following the fire - enough to get the 1966 season started. One of his biggest challenges on opening day, however, was trying to rally more space to place the nearly 2,000 additional fans from the overflow crowd.

Source: The Tennessean

Fryar continued to be a force in short-track racing for years to come. Hassler, who had been racing while holding down a day job in a farm equipment business, made it to NASCAR's Grand National division in 1967. He raced regularly over the next five years and notched a dozen top 5 finishes and nearly 50 top 10s. During his qualifying twin for the 1972 Daytona 500, however, Hassler wrecked and was tragically killed.

The Flameless 300 continued to be scheduled annually as the track's season opening race through 1971.

Finishing Order

1. Freddy Fryar
2. Friday Hassler
3. Bob Burcham 
4. Walter Wallace 
5. Charley Binkley 
6. Boyd Adams 
7. Johnny Thoni 
8. Dave Mader 
9. Joe Burcham 
10. Jimmy Allen 
11. Charles Lloyd 
12. Marty Robbins 
13. Darrell Waltrip 
14. Crash Bond 
15. Charley Stofel 
16. Sherrill Harris 
17. Eddie Mitchell 
18. Charles Greenwell 
19. Lewis Loyd 
20. M. C. Coble 
21. Bill Woodall 
22. Mack Roberts 
23. Bobby Celsor 
24. Bobby Walker 
25. Donald Penny 
26. Walter Hamilton (with relief from George Bonee) 
27. Coo Coo Marlin 
28. P. B. Crowell
29. Martin Sharpe 
30. Bill Morton 
31. Jimmy Griggs 
32. James Greer 
33. Tommy Galloway

TMC

April 15 - This day in Petty history - part 2

1971 - Starting second in Smoky Mountain Raceway's final Winston Cup Grand National race, Richard Petty wins the Maryville 200 in Maryville, TN to earn his 125th career NASCAR Winston Cup victory.

1971 was the first season R.J. Reynolds' Winston cigarettes sponsored NASCAR's top series. Various records started being referred to as Winston Cup stats rather than Grand National.

An East Tennessee driver - Chattanooga's Friday Hassler - nabbed the pole at the East Tennessee track located about a half-hour's drive from Knoxville. The pole win was the first of two for the 1971 season and his career for Hassler. He qualified fastest again in July at New Jersey's Trenton Speedway where the race winner was: Richard Petty. Bang.

Sadly, Friday was killed less than a year later at Daytona in February 1972 during his 125-mile Daytona 500 qualifying twin. Friday is most closely associated with car number 39. After his death, the number was used infrequently until Ryan Newman began using it at Stewart-Haas Racing a few years ago.

The 1971 Maryville race also marked the Cup debut of driver D.K. Ulrich. A career independent, D.K. drove for himself almost exclusively for 20 years. After making his final start as a driver in 1992 (also the King's final year as a driver), he continued to field entries for other drivers for another three years.

In 1986, the King tried to knock the wall down during practice for the Coke 600 at Charlotte. Without a 43 car, Petty and D.K. worked out a deal for Richard to race Ulrich's green #6 Chevy Monte Carlo. The team slapped a couple of STP decals on it, and Petty extended his continuous race-starting streak that began in 1971.

D.K. Ulrich was also the car owner of the Schaefer beer-sponsored Buick driven by Al Loquasto in the 1981 Mountain Dew 500 at Pocono. And it was D.K. himself who provided a photo of the rarely-seen Schaefer car to TMC (via Rick Houston of the now-gone Stock Car History Online). Needless to say, the Schaefer Hall of Fame holds Ulrich in the highest regard.

Courtesy of D.K. Ulrich

But I digress. Now back to the '71 Maryville race ...

Pole-winner Friday Hassler finished third in the race - behind race winner Petty and second place Benny Parsons.

Courtesy of Chris Hussey

I spotted Richard's race-winning trophy at the Richard Petty Museum during my visit there in March 2011.

Article courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

TMC
Edited April 14, 2015

November 13 - This day in Petty history

1966 - Richard Petty wins his 49th career Grand National race in the Augusta 300 at Georgia's Augusta Raceway. Paul Lewis from Johnson City, TN finishes 2nd in his #1 Plymouth. Lewis bought the previously-raced Plymouth from - ta da! - Petty Enterprises.

Photos courtesy of Harvey Tollison from RacersReunion.com
and Augusta International Raceway Preservation Society

Lewis had a good relationship with the Pettys. Two weeks before the Augusta race, Lewis made his one and only career start for Petty Enterprises at Rockingham.

Photo courtesy of Paul Lewis

The Augusta race was run in November 1966 as the first race of the 1967 Grand National season. Petty's victory was also the first of his 27 wins for the 1967 season - a record that still stands.

The previous year's race was known as the Georgia Cracker 300. Based on the following ad, the 1966 event was also known by that name. However, results I've found in books and on-line suggest the race was known just as the Augusta 300.

Friday Hassler, part-time racer from TMC's former city of Chattanooga TN, qualified a very respectable fourth in his traditionally-numbered #39 Chevy. But he had quite the spectacular exit when he blew an engine early in the race and set the whole rear of the car ablaze.

Petty raced a bit during the race with rival David Pearson. In the end, Lewis split the two with Richard as the winner and Pearson finishing in third.

Photos courtesy of Harvey Tollison

Article courtesy of Jerry Bushmire

TMC