Editor’s Note: In a nod to our 91 years of history, each week SPEED SPORT will look back at the top stories from 20, 40 and 60 years ago as told in the pages of National Speed Sport News.
20 Years Ago — 2006
News: Fans of pavement modified racing are the real winners with the recent announcement on the formation of the ASA Southern Modified Race Tour. It gives fans another choice in regional modified racing.
“There are three modified touring series in the Northeast, and they all co-exist quite well, so there is no reason why we cannot be the same way,” said Randy Myers, who will head the ASA SMRT organization in its first season.
ASA SMRT was founded on the principle of having as many drivers be competitive as possible at a reasonable cost by utilizing existing equipment and not putting them at a disadvantage.
“The way we are doing this allows the group of drivers in the Southeast who choose not to race at certain tracks or change their cars to follow other tour rules to still have a place to race and be competitive with what they have already in the shop,” Myers said.
Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, N.C., will be the core track for the 2006 season, hosting six dates, with Coastal Plains Speedway in Jacksonville, N.C., adding one event.
Although the complete schedule is still being finalized, Myers anticipates it will be around 12 events and hopes to have an official announcement in a week or two.
Winners: Three-time World of Outlaws champion Sammy Swiridell dueled with polesitter Jac Haudenschild for ·the first 10 laps before finally taking over the lead on lap 11 and deftly maneuvering through traffic to earn the 267th World of Outlaws victory in his legendary career Friday night at the Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
With Donny Schatz and Terry McCarl giving chase, Swindell worked the bottom groove in the first two corners and the top in turns three and four to become the sixth different winner in six World of Outlaws events this season.
McCarl was on the move on lap 12, but just as he worked past Haudenschild a caution waved. With a lapped car between Swindell and McCarl on the restart, Swindell shot down the frontstretch and dove to the bottom in turns one and two. McCarl
cleared the lapped car quickly and started to work on Swindell as Schatz, who paced the 34-car field in time trials, began to close the gap from third, eventually passing McCarl to finish second.
The three cars hit traffic, with Swindell again low in the first two corners and going to the top in turns three and four. With three to go, McCarl and Schatz pushed hard to catch Swindell, splitting traffic on the high-speed, half-mile oval. But Swindell was· strong all night and used his Mopar powerplant to drive off with the $10,000 checkered flag.
Randy Hannagan turned in his second-consecutive top-five finish by running fourth, with Joey Saldana fifth.
With temperatures dipping into the 30s and snow periodically blowing around, the track was in incredible condition, offering three different grooves with almost no rubber down.
“The track was a lot different Thursday night,” said Swindell. “On the original start it didn’t take off at all, and I went back to third. I was watching those guys and looking for the best way to go forward.
“When I was in the dash, the line was the top in turns one and two and the bottom in turns three and four. There weren’t a lot of guys who could hit the bottom in turns one and two, but they were all on top in turns three and four. You always want to run the shortest line you can but also the one with the most grip.”
40 Years Ago — 1986
News: Leading into this Sunday’s Motorcraft 500 at Atlanta Int’l Raceway, former ASA regular Alan Kulwicki has a new car owner for the NASCAR Winston Cup circuit — himself.
Kulwicki has purchased the yellow and black Ford Thunderbird he has been campaigning this season from Bill Terry. Kulwicki will house the car at Norman Negre’s shop while Prototype Engines will build the powerplants.
Kulwicki, who recently moved from the Midwest to Concord, will be competing for the Champion Spark Plug Rookie of the Year title and hopes to run at least 20 of the remaining 26 races.
While Kulwicki said he could not reveal any details about the team’s sponsorship situation, he had earlier said he hoped to retain Quincy’s Steakhouse, which sponsored the team in the first three races of the season.
A sponsorship announcement is expected this weekend at Atlanta.
Winners: If it seemed to Ronnie Silver like he had been in this situation before, he had, as Sunday he recorded a brilliant drive to victory in the Mountain Dew 400 NASCAR Busch Grand National race at Hickory Speedway.
Driving his own racing team Pontiac, Silver came from 14th starting position to take the lead late in the 200-lap event and sped to the $4,350 victory.
Less than a year ago, same track, same field, same starting position, Silver won his first career GN (late model sportsman) race. Sunday, he won his second.
Silver overhauled leader and defending division champion Jack Ingram after the latter had headed the field for 188 laps.
In victory lane, Silver told the large crowd, “I took it easy for. awhile to see how the car would hold up, but I don’t know whether I could have run as hard all day as I did later to catch Jack.”
60 Years Ago— 1966
News: Junior Johnson, the chicken farmer from Ronda, N.C., returned from the ranks of the retired last week to drive a 1966 Ford to an unofficial one-lap record of 139.12 mph at Darlington International Raceway.
The amazing Johnson. who announced his retirement from stock car driving last Fall and hasn’t driven competitively since, was in Darlington with his Holly Poultry Farm Racing Team testing tires for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in preparation for the Rebel 400 stock car race scheduled for Saturday, April 30.
The official one-lap record for the 1.3-mile Darlington track is 138.133 mph set by Fred Lorenzen in his 1965 Ford while qualifying for last year’s Rebel 300.
Johnson turned in an unofficial Darlington one-lap record last April during a test program for Fireetone and went on to win the Rebel 300 on the same type tire — the race has been lengthened 100 miles for 1966.
Climbing from the yellow Ford, the smiling Johnson was quick to assert that his retirement plans were still intact and that Bobby Isaac will drive the car on race day.
Winners: A night of hard racing at Hialeah Speedway Saturday night saw Richard Estes lose out in the Tornado feature when he hit a wet spot on the track, allowing Gary Balough to skim by for the victory, and Freddy Schweikert coming home first in the late model feature.
The popular Tornados really were going hard, with Estes looking like a sure winner until his skid. Charlie Rutherford followed Balough past Estes to take second, with Estes recovering enough to take third.
The finish in the Late Model main was bumper to bumper, with Dickie Brack right behind Schweikert and third-place Marion Edwards almost too close to Brack for comfort.
Buddy Griffin had the early lead, but something happened to his car and Schweikert took over early to command the rest of the race.
