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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