Track was a big
wheel
From 1954-57,
nearby speedway helped NASCAR get a jump-start
By Craig
Wack June 4, 2006
Hooker Hood
had a fantastic qualifying run -- good enough to land on the
front row.
As he rolled his
car to the starting line, his feeling of self-satisfaction
disappeared the second he looked into his rear-view mirror
and realized he was in for a long -- or painfully short --
day.
"I had turned the fastest lap that had ever been turned over
there," Hood said. "I sat outside the front row. I looked
back and saw them bad cats back behind me:
Lee Petty,
Buck Baker
and those cats. I said, 'Man I'm going to get my ass run
over in this first corner.'"
In the mid-1950s
NASCAR was in its infancy. The racing circuit was more a
collection of barnstormers than the big-time stars of today.
From 1954-57,
Memphis-Arkansas Speedway
was a regular NASCAR stop. The drivers who would become
stock car racing's first legends tested their grit and
machines on the high-banked 11/2 -mile dirt oval located a
few miles to the west of West Memphis, near Lehi, Ark.
"I remember
going there a long time ago. We raced there in the summer
and I went with Daddy," seven-time NASCAR champion
Richard Petty
said about his racing adventures with his father, Lee Petty.
"The track had a lot of banking, and I remember that they
had two ponds on both ends of the speedway. They used that
dirt for the banking. It was pretty impressive, and it was a
big dirt speedway for the time. ... Still, it was tough to
forget the speedway because it was so big."
If not for
$100,000 worth of pavement and some better timing,
Memphis-Arkansas Speedway could have had the storied history
of NASCAR facilities like Martinsville and Darlington.
Instead it was
one of the first chapters in the storybook of Memphis pro
sports dreams that never quite materialized.
"I'm not sure
what ever happened to the track, but it looked like some of
the tracks we race today. The banks were so high and that
really wasn't normal back then like it is today," Petty
said. "We had Darlington and later we had Daytona come
along, but the Memphis-Arkansas Speedway was pretty special
for that time."
Dusty banks of
Lehi
The track's
first race happened on Oct. 10, 1954. Late Commercial Appeal
columnist Walter Stewart described the scene:
"Our region has
gone completely major league in the matter of racing
automobiles. ... It's rather difficult to describe the
awesome impact of a racing plant which rose from the cotton
fields with such a rapidity which suggests the work of
wizards. The track itself is the largest stock car squirrel
cage in these United States. It's a mile and a half long --
owns curves so steeply banked that after paving it will
cradle speeds which are out of the question at
Indianapolis."
Unfortunately
the track was never paved, and the racing was considerably
dustier.
"They were going
to pave that track. They built the banks up and decided to
run races on the dirt," said 1957 race winner
Marvin Panch.
"I guess they wanted to make some money before they paved
it, so we ran on the fill. It was dirty and rough.
"When you run
the fill like that, the ruts get pretty deep. You had to be
careful where you ran. And you had to run as high as you
could and back it into the corners and try and keep it
straight, as best as you could. It was a challenge."
Hood
did have a short day that first race, but it wasn't because
anyone ran him over -- it was just a routine part failure.
"I led the thing
for three or four laps but I broke a spindle arm. I pulled
into the pits and they fixed the thing for me," said Hood,
who turned 80 in April. "I finished way back in the back
that day. But we ran there another couple of times; it was
quite an experience."
Just getting to
the track was an adventure for
Panch,
who celebrated his 80th birthday on May 28, 2006.
Panch and his
wife drove the race car to the track.
"The first time
I ran it, I ran with an old, burned-out 98 Oldsmobile. I
drove that thing cross-country,"
Panch
said. "We had all the tools and jacks and everything piled
in there. We put some cans on the exhaust to quiet it down a
little bit. But we drove it, banging and rattling all the
way."
Buck Baker
won that first race in an Olds 88.
Dick Rathmann
and his Hudson were second and
Lee Petty
in a
Chrysler third.
Parker Eubanks
was a teenager when the track was operational, and lived
nearby. He had a close encounter at the speedway while
taking a shortcut home.
"Lee
Petty
went over the bank and into the lake and his car went
underwater," Eubanks said. "He climbed out of the car, got
on top of it and said, 'Damn, that water's cold. ... Get me
another car ready.'
"I was about 15
years old at the time, but that really impressed me."
There were two
races in 1955;
Fonty Flock
won the first race -- a 250-miler -- with an average speed
of 83.61 miles per hour in front of 15,000 fans.
Flock
got a flat tire with two laps to go but had a big-enough
lead to limp to the checkered flag.
Al 'Speedy'
Thompson
won the second race and pocketed $3,000.
Panch
finished second in a car that he bought and outfitted right
in West Memphis.
"I built that
car right there at the Ford dealership,"
Panch
said. "I bought the car over there, stripped it out, and
built it right there -- they let me build it in one of the
(service) bays at the dealership."
Panch
said the races in Memphis were popular with drivers because
of the healthy payouts.
"They paid big
money. In the first race, seventh paid $400. In the second
race when I ran second, I made a whole $1,450,"
Panch
said. "In the race I won, I made $3,500. It wasn't my car,
so I had to share half of that."
To put that
payday into perspective, U.S. census statistics show the
average U.S. family income was $4,400 in 1955.
However there
was a scary moment during the 1955 event that would
foreshadow the tragedy that would occur the next year.
