Nashville's Sterling Beer Trophy

Nashville's Fairground Speedways opened in 1958, and quickly built a solid reputation for its annual NASCAR Grand National race, the season-ending Southern 300 late model event, and the weekly modified and later late model sportsman programs.

A new tradition began in 1969. Sterling Beer introduced the rotating champion's trophy. The winning driver's name of the track's annual late model sportsman division points title was added to the trophy. The driver apparently retained custody of the trophy for the following season, and it was then returned to be awarded to the new champion. The trophy was to be permanently retired only if a driver won three track championships.

The trophy was first awarded to Dave Sisco who captured the track's LMS title in 1969. Sisco advanced to NASCAR's Cup series in 1971 where he raced as an independent pretty regularly through 1977.

The second recipient of the champion's trophy was Darrell Waltrip in 1970. After a few additional seasons in Nashville, Ol' DW moved up to Cup where his accomplishments are well known.

A few days before the annual awards dinner, Sisco and Waltrip rehearsed the passing of the trophy to the new champion.

Source: The Tennessean

Waltrip celebrated his championship with his wife, parents, and inlaws. A portion of the trophy can be seen on the table at the right edge of this photo.

Coincidentally, Waltrip secured Sterling Beer as his sponsor for the following season. Sterling also sponsored the Sterling Beer 100 late model race in July 1971, and Waltrip used his champion's trophy and postcards to help promote it.

Source: The Tennessean

Flookie Buford earned the honor of hoisting the champion's trophy in 1971. He won 13 LMS races at Nashville from 1969 through 1974. His son, Joe Buford, later became a four-time track champion and is Nashville's all-time win leader.

Buford's promotional photo for the 1972 season included his R.C. Alexander-owned Ford Fairlane and the champion's trophy from '71.

Buford won his second consecutive championship in 1972, and he became the first driver to have his name on the champion's trophy twice.

The 1973 season was another turning point for the track. After three years with banking steeper than Bristol, Nashville lowered its banking to 18 degrees where it remains to this day. Despite the change in configuration, Waltrip captured his second championship in four years. For much of the season, Buford contested Waltrip in an effort to win his third consecutive championship. After going winless, however, Buford's car owner replaced him ending any hope for Flookie to capture the champion's trophy for a third time and permanently.

Before being awarded the champion's trophy for the second time, Waltrip looked it over along with the other hardware with mini-stock division champion Maurice Hassey and limited sportsman division champion George Bennett.

Source: The Tennessean

The 1974 track champion was an out-of-towner. Jimmy Means traveled each week from Alabama, and he outpointed the local contingent of drivers. Interestingly, photos haven't surfaced of Means being awarded the champion's trophy. Perhaps Waltrip wasn't ready to surrender it to the new champion - or maybe he was too busy with first few races of the 1975 Cup season to make the transfer. Nashville's awards dinner was March 1, 1975 - right in the thick of Waltrip's commitment to a three-race stretch of Daytona, Richmond, and Rockingham.

Means did receive his 1974 Winston Racing champion's helmet. Though he didn't receive the rotating champion's trophy, the helmet went into a bit of rotation on its own. Some time later, Jimmy passed along his helmet to his son, Brad. More recently, Brad passed along the helmet to good friend, Dale Earnhardt, Jr.

Future NASCAR inspector, Walter Wallace, won his second track title in 1975 and received the champion's trophy from Don Naman of Alabama International Motor Speedway. Wallace earned his first championship in 1967 - two seasons before the introduction of the champion's trophy.

Courtesy of Russ Thompson

As Jimmy Means did in 1974, Alton Jones traveled from Alabama each week and won the track title in 1976. How he did so is a bit of a mystery. Jones won three feature races as compared to the eleven victories by rookie Mike Alexander. Consistent finishes by Jones helped him in the end, however, as Alexander had some struggles with a few DNFs and injuries.

The ninth and final season to be recognized on the rotating trophy was in 1977. Steve Spencer of Old Hickory, TN, a Nashville suburb, captured the title over drivers such as Alexander, Sterling Marlin, Dennis Wiser, and P.B. Crowell III. Spencer later became the personal pilot for Marlin.

Though Spencer's name is the last one engraved, the champion's trophy rotated once more. Racers and fans returned in 1978 for yet another season of Late Model Sportsman racing. All were stunned when track operator Bill Donoho announced the sale of his rights in the track's lease to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker. The new operators then announced weekly racing would not continue in 1979 as they focused on track improvements and larger events.

In that final season, Mike Alexander earned his first Nashville track LMS championship. As with Jimmy Means, Walter Wallace, and others, he was presented a Winston Racing Series commemorative champion's helmet. Because of the change in track operators and cessation of the weekly racing for 1979, the formal awards dinner to recognize the 1978 champions was scuttled. Consequently, Alexander was not presented the champion's trophy.

The trophy, however, had been returned by Spencer - or at least had remained at the track during the year. Knowing what it represented and knowing he earned it, the Sterling Beer Champion's trophy rotated once more to an ... ahem, permanent location.

Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway is now readying for racing again this season under new management. In this writer's opinion, 2020 would be an ideal year to renew the tradition of a rotating champion's trophy. Of course, it would need to be a new trophy as the 1969-1978 one has been retired.

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