October 13, 1957 - Gwyn Staley Nabs Norfolk

North Wilkesboro's Gwyn Staley ran about half the NASCAR Grand National races in 1955 and 1956 - with pretty much all of them behind the wheel of Chevrolet's fielded by car owner Hubert Westmoreland. (Johnny Mantz won the first Southern 500 in a Plymouth fielded by Westmoreland.)

In 1956, Staley and Westmoreland ran about half the convertible division's races in addition to their GN schedule. In 1957, Staley and Westmoreland began their season focused only on the convertible races - perhaps in an effort to claim the division's championship that was won by Bob Welborn in 1956.

View image | gettyimages.com

For whatever reason, the duo parted ways about half-way through the season. Staley hired on with Julian Petty to run most of the remaining convertible races as well as a dozen GN events.

The new arrangement paid dividends early for Staley in the GN races as he won three times in Julian's cars. The convertible races were a different story though as Gwyn and Julian couldn't quite find their way to victory lane despite a number of top 5 finishes.

Then with three races to go in the 1957 season, the ragtops rolled into Virginia for a 250-lap race on the 4/10-mile, dirt Virginia Beach Speedway. (The track, built in 1947, seems to have gone through a a series of name changes over the years including Chinese Corner Speedway, Weatherly Speedway and Norfolk Speedway.)

Glen Wood won the pole in the Ford maintained by his brothers. Staley qualified on the front row alongside him in Julian's #38 Chevy. Lined up third was Welborn in his own #49 Chevy, and starting fourth was 2015 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Joe Weatherly. Starting shotgun on the 14-car field was perhaps an unexpected entrant: Julian Petty. In addition to fielding Staley's car, Julian saddled up in the #88 Oldsmobile belonging to his older brother Lee. The race was Julian's one and only career convertible start - and his first race as a driver since June 1955.

Welborn controlled the race as was often the case in the convertible races from 1956-1958. When he made a pit stop with 40 laps to go, however, Staley was able to take the lead from him. Staley was able to prevail over the remaining laps to finally secure the long-sought, ragtop win. Welborn soldiered on to finish second, and he all but secured his second consecutive convertible division title.

As an owner, Julian Petty had a fine day. As a driver, well... not so much. He apparently tooled around on a Sunday afternoon in a '57 Oldsmobile owned by his brother Lee. After all, he did have the top down. Though records indicate he was still running at the end of the race, Julian finished where he started - 14th and dead last - 195 laps down to the winner's car that he owned.

Source: Greensboro Daily News

The four victories in the two divisions in the back half of the schedules likely gave Gwyn Staley and Julian Petty the confidence greater things lay ahead for them in 1958. They returned the next season to run the full schedule in both series - including the beach race at Daytona.

View image | gettyimages.com

Fate had a different plan, though, and Staley was tragically killed in Julian's car on the first lap of of the convertible race at Richmond's fairgrounds raceway. His win at Norfolk in October 1957 turned out to be his final one.

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September 15, 1957 - Gwyn Lassos Langhorne

Today's Cup schedule seems to run forever as it begins in February and finishes in November. The schedules of the 1950s and 60s, however, were a true grind for those who made a legit effort to race in all or the majority of the races.

The 45th race of the 53-event 1957 season was scheduled for September 15th at Langhorne Speedway in Pennsylvania. The 300-mile race was a NASCAR Sweepstakes event - a blended race of Grand National hard-top sedans and drivers from NASCAR's convertible division.

Paul Goldsmith won the pole in Smokey Yunick's #3 Ford convertible. Fireball Roberts qualified second in his hard-top sedan. Glen Wood and Lee Petty made up the second row. Bob Welborn rounded out the top 5 starters. The rest of the 48-car field was set with the quickest ragtops starting in the inside, odd-numbered positions and the sedans filling the outside, even-numbered slots.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

Several starters were drivers from the northeast making their one and only or at least an infrequent GN start including:

• George Bumgardner - only start
• Bobby Abel - only start
• Roger Baldwin - 2nd of two career starts
• Jerry Benjamin - 4th of 5 career starts
• Art Binkley - 4th of 5 career starts
• Don Gray - 3rd of 5 career starts
• Dick Klank - 6th of 7 career starts
• Tommy Elliott - 6th of 7 career starts
• Ken Marriott - 4th of 5 career starts (4 at Langhorne and 5th in inaugural Daytona 500)
• Huck Spaulding - 6th of 9 career starts
• Dutch Hoag, modified ace of the northeast  - 4th and final GN race

Fans witnessed a great back and forth battle between Goldsmith and Fireball during the first third of the race. Each led a handful of laps before being passed.

Fireball was finally able to shake Goldsmith as the race neared the 100 lap mark. Two additional challengers then made their way to Roberts' bumper. First, Bill Amick of Portland, Oregon got by Roberts to lead 19 laps. Like Goldsmith, Amick's time up front was short-lived. Roberts re-took the lead, and Amick later lost an engine near the 200-lap mark.

After Fireball led for a 63-lap stint, he began having steering issues. Multi-time NASCAR Short Track Division champ Jim Reed went out front for 44 laps as Roberts fell further behind. Then Reed developed engines issues of his own, and he fell out of the race after only 220 laps.

As the race cleared the two-thirds mark, Gwyn Staley arrived. Staley was driving a Chevrolet convertible for owner Julian Petty and started the race deep in the field in 25th. He led the remaining 85 laps to take the win by a half-second or so ahead of unknown Whitey Norman. Though close at the time for the fans and drivers, a post-race scoring recheck revealed Norman was actually two laps down to Staley.

Johnny Allen came home third. The little bit of remaining drama involved the fourth and fifth place finishers. With four laps to go, Buck Baker eased by Rex White into fourth place. On the last lap, however, Baker's Chevy ran out of gas. He coasted helplessly to the finish, and White was able to pass the fading Baker to reclaim fourth.

Although Staley raced Julian's convertible, NASCAR records recognize his win as a Grand National victory. His car was the only convertible of the top five finishers.

The race also turned out to be the final Grand National race at Langhorne. Staley needed a shade over four hours to capture the win. It seems like that would have been like an eternity to wrestle the wheel around Langhorne's one-mile, dirt circle. Yet at the time, the mark was a race record.

Staley's win was also the last of three career Grand National victories. All were won in 1957, and all were at the wheel of Julian Petty's Chevrolets.

Source: Philadelphia Inquirer

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September 5, 1957 - Gwyn Staley Scores Syracuse

NASCAR's Grand National drivers arrived at the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse on Thursday, September 5, 1957. They readied to compete for 100 laps on Syracuse's legendary one-mile dirt oval.

Gwyn Staley won the pole in Julian Petty's #38 1957 Chevrolet. Short-track ace Jim Reed qualified alongside him. Twenty-two other cars trailed behind the two front-row starters.

Staley took control of the race early. He led the first 62 laps from his top starting spot though Reed hounded him lap after lap. As the race neared its two-thirds mark, Reed decided it was time to go to the front. He made the pass and led the next 10 laps. In a true That's Racin' moment, Reed then blew a tire, pounded the guardrail and saw his chances for a win disappear. His crew changed the tire and did what they could to make repairs to the car. When the checkers fell, however, Reed found himself in 12th place, 26 laps behind the winner.

With Reed out of the picture, Staley re-took the lead and ran a moderate pace to get the win. Lee Petty in a 1957 Oldsmobile finished second, one lap down to his brother's car.

Source: Syracuse NY's The Post Standard

Source: Syracuse NY's The Post Standard

Staley shared victory lane, such that it was, with Julian. His victory was the second of only three career Grand National wins. The race was also the fifth and final NASCAR Grand National and Convertible division races at Syracuse.

Source: Syracuse NY's The Post Standard

About 20 years later, the historic Syracuse track became home to one of the premier dirt modified races in the nation. The Schaefer 100 (and later 200) ran at Syracuse from the 1970s through early 1980s. Scha-LOOT!

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August 26, 1957 - Gwyn Staley Wins Myrtle Beach

From the late 1980s through 2000, NASCAR's Busch Series (now Xfinity) raced at Myrtle Beach Speedway in South Carolina. Prior to its branding as Myrtle Beach Speedway, the track was known as Rambi Speedway. Rambi hosted Grand National (later Cup) races from 1958 through 1965.

Rambi replaced another Myrtle Beach track - Coastal Speedway. Coastal was just a couple of blocks from the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean and hosted two GN races. Fireball Roberts won the first one in 1956, and the drivers were back for the second and final 200-lap race at Coastal on Saturday night, August 24, 1957. Because of South Carolina's blue laws, the race was moved to Monday evening vs. running it on Sunday.

Source: The Robesonian via Google News Archive

Johnny Allen surprised the other drivers and the fans by putting his Plymouth on the pole on the half-mile dirt track. His top spot was the first of only three career poles for Allen. Fireball started second in a Ford. Gwyn Staley qualified third in Julian Petty's Chevrolet. Lee Petty and Jack Smith rounded out the top 5 starters.

Allen's fast lap in qualifying did nothing for him in the race. He didn't lead so much as one lap, and he was the first to depart the race when the fan assembly on the Plymouth failed after ten laps. His DNF relegated him to 15th and last in the field - a true case of going from the penthouse to the outhouse.

Fireball got the jump on the field and began his domination of the race. His plan was to go the distance without making a pit stop. One thing about Fireball though. His M.O. was pretty straightforward: go fast. It's likely he used more gas than was needed simply because he was leading - and likely trying to pull away.

Roberts' strategy almost worked, but almost doesn't get it in racing. With 15 laps to go, Fireball ran dry. He coasted into the pits, got him a splash to go, and returned to the track. Instead of a trophy, Roberts went home with a third place finish and two laps down to the winner.

Staley took advantage of Fireball's miscue. He put his Julian Petty-owned Chevy out front, led the remaining laps, and scored the win. The win was Staley's first of three career GN victories. All three were won in 1957 and in Julian's '57 Chevrolet.

Staley did not, however, receive any GN points for the race. Julian had bolted a hardtop on the Chevy following Staley's second-place finish in a convertible race at Charlotte Fairgrounds three days earlier. The car had no rear window, however, which made him ineligible for points. Because Staley was a full-time convertible division driver and raced only part-time in a few GN races, the points loss was of little concern to him or Julian.

Eddie Pagan finished second, one lap down to Staley. Pagan had traveled across the country to race in the Southern 500 at Darlington. He also entered the Myrtle Beach race while he was in the neighborhood. As was often the case back in the day, a win generally didn't happen without a corresponding protest. Someone (it's unknown who) filed a protest saying Staley made a pass under caution. The protest was either withdrawn or rejected by NASCAR officials because Staley was allowed to keep his win.

Source: Greensboro Record

Thanks to fellow Petty fan Tim Leeming (web | Twitter) for the assist with this post. 

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April 5, 1958 - Welborn Wins Fayetteville

The 1958 NASCAR Grand National season began in November 1957 with a race at the 1/3 mile Champion Speedway in Fayetteville, NC. Interestingly, two of the next six races were also scheduled at the track.

Gwyn Staley - whose brother Enoch owned and operated North Wilkesboro Speedway - ran his final career Grand National race at Champion on March 15, 1958 - the second of the three races. Eight days later on March 23, he entered a NASCAR convertible division race at Richmond. He flipped on the first lap and was tragically killed. His car owner for both races was Julian Petty.

Two-time NASCAR convertible division champion Bob Welborn finished 8th in the March Fayetteville race in a second #49 Chevrolet for Julian. Following Staley's death, he became the sole driver. On April 5, 1958, Welborn raced Julian's #38 Chevrolet - likely the same car Staley had driven to a 2nd place finish at Fayetteville a month earlier.

Julian's brother got the initial upper hand. Lee Petty qualified quickest in his Oldsmobile to win the pole. Welborn had to settle for second and on the front row with Lee.

At the drop of the green, Lee set sail and led the first 24 laps of the 150-lap race. Eleventh-place starter Buck Baker was effective in moving towards the front, and he went after Lee for the lead. The two NASCAR Hall of Famers banged fenders as each wanted the lead. Lee got the roughest of the duel as he broke an axle. He dropped from the lead on lap 25 and then out of the race two laps later.

Baker showed the way for the next 52 laps. As the race reached half-way, however, Baker couldn't hold the lead. Welborn passed Baker, and the #38 Chevy led the rest of the way. Perry Allen Wood recapped the race in his book Silent Speedways of the Carolinas:

This third visit of the young season to Champion saw 29 speed demons take the green with Bob Welborn...climbing into Julian Petty's Chevy... As if weird things do not happen often enough, in this, the first race since Staley's death, Welborn won in Staley's old car. And guess who was flailing away at his back bumper? Frankie Schneider, the man that punched Staley's ticket to the hereafter at Richmond a fortnight earlier! ~ p. 191

Source: Greensboro Daily News

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