Nashville's 1960 Southern 300

As was the case in 1958 and 1959, the Southern 300 modified race closed out the third season of Nashville's Fairground Speedways. The third edition of the race was scheduled for Sunday, October 2, 1960.

Fans saw multiple winners during the 1960 season. Heading into the Southern 300, the track's 21 modified features were won by twelve different drivers. Ten of the twelve won no more than a pair of features. Malcolm Brady topped all drivers with four wins - including two of the three races before the season-closer.

For the third year in a row, the race included a scheduled break for pit service. Unlike 1959 when breaks were scheduled at laps 100 and 200, a single break was scheduled after 150 laps to allow for pit stops and safety checks.

Malcolm's late season mojo continued into the Southern 300 weekend. He laid down the quickest lap on the half-mile track to capture the top starting spot. Bobby Celsor, an eventual eight-time Fairgrounds winner, qualified second.

Alabama's Dave Mader and perennial Nashville competitor Charlie Griffith made up the second row. And the Marlin boys from Columbia - brothers Jack and Coo Coo - lined up in the third row.

Some races are instant classics - some mature with time and revisionist romanticism - and others are simply duds. Except for a handful of a few folks, most would slot the 1960 Southern 300 in that third bucket.

A promising field of 36 cars took the green, but few remained at the end to see the checkered flag. The racers gave the fans quite a show during the first half of the race. Pole-winner Brady, two-time Southern winner Jimmy Griggs, Mader, and Griffith took turns up front during the first 150 laps.

Following the scheduled break, however, the second half had an entirely different story line. By then, the garage began to accumulate more parked cars than the number still racing on the track. Gone were Griffith, Joe Lee Johnson, Bobby Allison, and the Marlin brothers.

Brady put his modified in the wind and began to pull away from Griggs. When the checkers fell, Brady won with a half-lap margin over Griggs. The eight other remaining drivers were multiple laps down to the top two.

Brady continued to race and win at the Fairgrounds. Though he did not win the 1960 title, he carried his late season flurry including his Southern win into the following year. He won only one feature in 1961, but his consistency earned him the track's 1961 modified title. Brady was also recognized as a track legend in 1968-1969 with two 100-lap late model sportsman features named in his honor.

Source for articles: The Tennessean

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July 19, 1958 - The debut of Fairgrounds Speedway

After decades of racing on the one-mile, dirt oval, horse racing facility at the Tennessee State Fairgrounds, the Legion Bowl (later renamed Nashville Speedways), and other short-lived, Nashville-area short tracks, a group of local entrepreneurs and racing promoters envisioned something greater for fans.

Bill Donoho, Mark Parrish, and Bennie Goodman collaborated to build a new racing facility at the fairgrounds to replace the one-mile, dirt track. With an (advertised) investment of $200,000 and the cooperation of the Nashville Fair Board, the trio built two asphalt tracks - a half-mile outer track with an inner, flat, quarter-mile track.

Courtesy of Russ Thompson

Fairground Speedways was ready for its debut on July 19, 1958, with a slate of events for the modified racers. The half-mile didn't host its first race until about three weeks later - and it was a big-time event. NASCAR's Grand National drivers raced for the first time in Music City on August 10, 1958 in the Nashville 200.

The new track drew several drivers who would become local legends - and a few who even tasted a bit of glory in NASCAR's GN/Cup ranks. The list included Bullet Bob Reuther, Malcolm Brady, Jack Marlin and his brother Coo Coo, Jimmy Griggs, and Joe Lee Johnson (winner of the first World 600 two years later).

Rather than re-create what has already been written, Nashville racing historian Russ Thompson blogged a great recap of the opening of the track and its first round of races back in 2011. Highly recommended reading.

Charley Griffith (or Griffin as he frequently seemed to be known back then) captured the full slate of races. He won his 12-lap heat race, a three-driver match race, and the 30-lap feature.

Though Griffith dominated the win tally in the races in which he ran (with remaining heats and consolation races won by others), the night's events didn't lack excitement for the fans. During the second of three heat races, Brady got out of sorts in turn two and flipped multiple times down the backstretch.

After being extricated and heaving several gulps of fresh oxygen, Brady was transported to the hospital. He suffered a broken rib, was otherwise OK, and returned to racing and winning several times over the next few years.

Nearly ten thousand fans attended the opening night's slate of racing - all on the quarter-mile track. Donoho, Goodman, and Parrish were delighted at the prospects of what-might-be when the NASCAR big dawgs started rolling in three weeks later.

Griffith was not one of the local racers. He traveled from Chattanooga in southeast Tennessee. More specifically, he was from Red Bank - just outside of the city limits. For the first couple of years of my post-college life, I lived along the base of Signal Mountain - just five minutes or so from Red Bank.

Earlier this summer, a restored version of Griffith's race-winning modified was displayed for fans at the Fairgrounds. The car was restored by Al Jones who also owned a 1960s era late model raced by Marty Robbins. Jones later enlisted the help of Ray Evernham to restore the Robbins 777 racer.

Six months or so after wining the debut race of the newly opened Fairground Speedways, Griffith headed south to race in the inaugural Daytona 500. Balancing skill and good fortune - and racing a Pontiac raced a year earlier by Cotton Owens on the beach - Griffith combined his win on Nashville's new quarter-mile track with a third place finish on the 2.5 mile superspeedway in what became labeled as The Great American Race.

Source for articles: The Tennessean

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