Alex Morales Tamale Wagons

[flatlander_48]

That would be July 19, 1974 at Metrolina Speedway in Charlotte N.C. in a ‘64 Chevelle bought from Harry Gant.

Dale Jr. has an episode of Lost Speedways on Metrolina...

[jandj]

Just following along here but I don't know if Dale got many laps at Bowman Gray.

Maybe I'm wrong but it's not a place where his name comes up often.

Bowman Gray is more of a modified joint too which was not his forte'

I don’t recall Dale running BG.
He did drive a Mod at Metrolina in ‘74, may have been his only time in a groundpounder.

[KevMcNJ]

I don’t recall Dale running BG.
He did drive a Mod at Metrolina in ‘74, may have been his only time in a groundpounder.

Zoom in on that article and read some of the names that were showing up back then.

Wow

[jandj]

In ‘74 the Mods were still holding their own with LMS in the South, lot of guys ran both including more than one that went to Cup.

[JThur1]

I know there are some websites that have Sprint Car Results, but there are so many Sprint Car Races especially from 20's-30's until like the 80's maybe early 90's probably a hundred or more EVERY weekend, you could possibly find a lot of the larger races and probably some of the smaller races, but it would be impossible to find results from ALL races.

Winners have been compiled for quite a few of the major sprint car sanctioning bodies (WoO, USAC, IMCA, CSRA, CRA), and some extend to top 3 or top 5, but full field results and full entry lists are what is lacking.

With newspapers online, and microfilm, it's possible to locate race results, it just takes a lot of time.

Trivia Question: When & Where did AJ win his first Sprint Car Race...

*Not Champ Car/Indy Car, that would be simple to find out, talking about Local Short Track Sprint Car Race.

Better yet would be A.J.'s first win in anything, which likely came at Playland Park in Houston.

[JSJLW]

Winners have been compiled for quite a few of the major sprint car sanctioning bodies (WoO, USAC, IMCA, CSRA, CRA), and some extend to top 3 or top 5, but full field results and full entry lists are what is lacking.

With newspapers online, and microfilm, it's possible to locate race results, it just takes a lot of time.


Better yet would be A.J.'s first win in anything, which likely came at Playland Park in Houston.

That was what I meant when I said Local Sprint Car.

I was tempted to say Playland Park, I thought I heard that name somewhere.

[jandj]

I’ve done some digging and AJ’s first win in anything is generally given as coming in a Midget at Playland in ‘53 but no date given.
Like JThur1 said, with enough looking you could probably find the date in a local paper.
And not to belabor the point, but in 1953 there wasn’t any Local Sprint Car.
It was pretty much Midgets and Jalopies/Stock Cars at the local level.
Sprint Cars would have been a special event.

[JSJLW]

I’ve done some digging and AJ’s first win in anything is generally given as coming in a Midget at Playland in ‘53 but no date given.
Like JThur1 said, with enough looking you could probably find the date in a local paper.
And not to belabor the point, but in 1953 there wasn’t any Local Sprint Car.
It was pretty much Midgets and Jalopies/Stock Cars at the local level.
Sprint Cars would have been a special event.

Thanks...And Nice Job, I think that would make AJ 18 or so, that would sound about right.

And you are probably the expert on the Midget/Sprint thing.

And the issues would be someone would dig and find one in July, and someone else would dig and find May, or even 52, and who knows if the Newspaper would even cover it it would be so minor, who knows?

[jandj]

Wouldn’t surprise me if someone here had the info in a folder somewhere.

https://m.facebook.com/groups/254801983630?group_view_referrer=profile_browser

[JSJLW]

And his first USAC Champ Car Race was in 1957, that was my bad.

[thehairpin]

You have to remember that back then Midgets were the premiere division at local tracks, Sprint Cars being pretty much traveling circuits.
The IMCA Fair Circuit was just one notch below USAC.
Vaughn gave AJ his first Sprint Ride in ‘56, by ‘57 he was with USAC.
His win at Salem in ‘57 is pretty much what put him in the Dean Champ car in ‘58.
As for how he got to North Dakota, in his book he says Vaughn flew him up to race the day before at the Minnesota State Fair, they drove to Fargo afterward.

Was IMCA still qualifying for prize money and hippodroming the races at the county fairs at this point or had they gotten the fair boards to quit selling sro on the rail by then?

[jandj]

That I couldn’t tell you.
I know the Fair Circuit itself was going into the 60s, I recall Jigger Sirois saying one mistake he made was staying with Midgets when Rutherford asked him to go on the IMCA Fair Circuit with him, it might have landed him in an Indycar ride earlier and in better equipment.

[JThur1]

And the issues would be someone would dig and find one in July, and someone else would dig and find May, or even 52, and who knows if the Newspaper would even cover it it would be so minor, who knows?

That's not how research works. You thoroughly look back beyond the earliest expected date, then you have proof. You don't just go: "yeah, that seems about right" and stop . At least any researcher worth anything doesn't

I don't have access to it, but I believe a Houston newspaper is available at one of the online pay newspaper archives. If so, it's even simpler to find Foyt's first win in whatever Playland Park called their class for coupes. It would be more surprising if a newspaper didn't cover the most prominent local track. That was common even in big city newspapers. If it isn't online, even microfilm research wouldn't be too time consuming. One would just look at each week's report, either starting a bit before Foyt got there, or working back from when he left for "the big time."

As jandj wrote, sprint cars weren't a weekly racing class at local tracks back then. Midgets were hanging on, rapidly fading out to jalopy and stock car classes. These were usually pre-war coupes, open wheel. If they were very stock and unmodified, they were jalopies, if they allowed more souping up, they were modifieds.

[JThur1]

Was IMCA still qualifying for prize money and hippodroming the races at the county fairs at this point or had they gotten the fair boards to quit selling sro on the rail by then?

By then, IMCA would have been legit. The hippodroming was more a pre-WWII thing, though how universal it was later, I can't say. I've read/heard if track conditions were terrible, they'd hippodrome out of safety concerns...and not wanting to lose that gate money.