1960's: NASCAR's Northern Tour
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09/22/2016 Frank Buhrman |
With the Sprint Cup traveling show headed for New Hampshire this weekend, fans of a certain age might be forgiven for thinking that the trip north means it’s mid-July and not late September,
Those would be folks like me, who grew up with the “NASCAR Northern Tour” as a regular part of their summer in the 1960s. Right after the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, the Grand National regulars and an odd lot of others spent about a week running a handful of races above the Mason-Dixon line before returning to the land where they knew NASCAR belonged: the South.
I had a chance to do a little light research on Racing-Reference.info the other day and learned some things I didn’t know about the Northern Tour, and I hope you’ll find this quick trip into the past at least moderately interesting, too.
I started following NASCAR in 1963 and really began paying attention the next year. For that reason, I kind of thought the Northern Tour had always been there.
Wrong. Turns out that 1963 was the first year for the tour, and it appears to have been an effort to bring the GN schedule back to its roots. You see, from the outset when it was the Strictly Stock class in 1949, NASCAR’s marquee division had run a schedule that covered much of the country. Three of the eight races that first year were outside of the South Atlantic, including the biggest event of them all at Langhorne, Pa. In 1950 it was 10 races of 19; in ’51 it was 20 of 41 (one other race, at Mobile, Ala., was in a state that doesn’t border on the Atlantic).
It pretty much continued that way through the ‘50s, although NASCAR had a habit of scheduling West Coast and East Coast races on the same day and counting both in the standings. Didn’t matter where you lived, you might have NASCAR coming to town: in 1953 there was even a three-race swing to South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. In 1956’s 56-race schedule, six events were held in the Northeast, four in the Midwest and nine on the West Coast.
Then things changed. In 1960, there were two California events, plus one on a dirt track in Phoenix and one in Pittsburgh; everything else was in the South Atlantic. The next year there were four California events – two of them double-scheduled against East Coast races – and a date at Norwood, Mass., Arena.
In 1962, the farthest the GN tour got from its South Atlantic roots was a four-race swing through Tennessee and Alabama, plus a second Bristol event – and given that Bristol straddles the Virginia-Tennessee line (although the track is squarely in the Volunteer State), it’s hard to identify races there with another region. The Mason-Dixon Line might as well have been the Great Wall of China.
So reclaiming NASCAR’s geographic diversity might have been behind the schedule change in 1963 that saw a quick dash north in mid-July (five races had been run in the Southeast after the Firecracker) for events at Old Bridge, N.J., Stadium (1/2-mile paved) and Bridgehampton (Long Island, N.Y.), Raceway, a venerable 2.850-mile road course.
Those would be folks like me, who grew up with the “NASCAR Northern Tour” as a regular part of their summer in the 1960s. Right after the Firecracker 400 at Daytona, the Grand National regulars and an odd lot of others spent about a week running a handful of races above the Mason-Dixon line before returning to the land where they knew NASCAR belonged: the South.
I had a chance to do a little light research on Racing-Reference.info the other day and learned some things I didn’t know about the Northern Tour, and I hope you’ll find this quick trip into the past at least moderately interesting, too.
I started following NASCAR in 1963 and really began paying attention the next year. For that reason, I kind of thought the Northern Tour had always been there.
Wrong. Turns out that 1963 was the first year for the tour, and it appears to have been an effort to bring the GN schedule back to its roots. You see, from the outset when it was the Strictly Stock class in 1949, NASCAR’s marquee division had run a schedule that covered much of the country. Three of the eight races that first year were outside of the South Atlantic, including the biggest event of them all at Langhorne, Pa. In 1950 it was 10 races of 19; in ’51 it was 20 of 41 (one other race, at Mobile, Ala., was in a state that doesn’t border on the Atlantic).
It pretty much continued that way through the ‘50s, although NASCAR had a habit of scheduling West Coast and East Coast races on the same day and counting both in the standings. Didn’t matter where you lived, you might have NASCAR coming to town: in 1953 there was even a three-race swing to South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa. In 1956’s 56-race schedule, six events were held in the Northeast, four in the Midwest and nine on the West Coast.
Then things changed. In 1960, there were two California events, plus one on a dirt track in Phoenix and one in Pittsburgh; everything else was in the South Atlantic. The next year there were four California events – two of them double-scheduled against East Coast races – and a date at Norwood, Mass., Arena.
In 1962, the farthest the GN tour got from its South Atlantic roots was a four-race swing through Tennessee and Alabama, plus a second Bristol event – and given that Bristol straddles the Virginia-Tennessee line (although the track is squarely in the Volunteer State), it’s hard to identify races there with another region. The Mason-Dixon Line might as well have been the Great Wall of China.
So reclaiming NASCAR’s geographic diversity might have been behind the schedule change in 1963 that saw a quick dash north in mid-July (five races had been run in the Southeast after the Firecracker) for events at Old Bridge, N.J., Stadium (1/2-mile paved) and Bridgehampton (Long Island, N.Y.), Raceway, a venerable 2.850-mile road course.
The Bridgehampton road course layout.
Billy Wade in Bridgehampton’s victory lane.
A couple of notes about Bridgehampton: only 17 cars started that race, which must have gotten everybody really spread out on such a big layout, but they were all GN regulars, except for Connecticut short track ace Roy Hallquist, and – of all people – 6th-finishing Lee Petty, who for some reason, made his last four career GN starts during the 1963 and ’64 Northern Tours.
The tour expanded to six races in 1964 (that includes the Southern but clearly on-the-way Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Va.) and carried on until the start of the so-called “Modern Era” in 1972, when the schedule was downsized and all those 200-lappers at weekly tracks were booted off.
That 1972 season saw Trenton’s 1-1/2-mile peanut-shaped track hold one last GN race (but by then Dover and Michigan were on the schedule, as were six other tracks in states not on the Atlantic coast: Riverside and Ontario in California, Talladega, Texas World Speedway in College Station, and Nashville and Bristol in Tennessee).
By that point NASCAR had tried to start a sort-of “National Tour” with consecutive June events in Dover, Michigan, Riverside and Texas – that took the whole month. Trenton, on the other hand, was wedged between Bristol and Atlanta, hardly a tour.
The Northern Tour was at its longest in 1964 with six races over 14 days. Except for 1963, the other years involved three or more races over five to eight days. No track ran the tour every year, and the one that ran the most races was the shortest of them all. Here’s a quick history of the rest of the Northern Tour:
1964 – Ned Jarrett won at Manassas before Billy Wade went on a tear in Bud Moore’s Mercury #1 and collected wins at Old Bridge, Bridgehampton, Islip, N.Y. (the shortest track at 1/5 mile), and Watkins Glen. David Pearson then claimed the tour finale at Lincoln Speedway in New Oxford, Pa. (the only dirt track ever on the tour).
The tour expanded to six races in 1964 (that includes the Southern but clearly on-the-way Old Dominion Speedway in Manassas, Va.) and carried on until the start of the so-called “Modern Era” in 1972, when the schedule was downsized and all those 200-lappers at weekly tracks were booted off.
That 1972 season saw Trenton’s 1-1/2-mile peanut-shaped track hold one last GN race (but by then Dover and Michigan were on the schedule, as were six other tracks in states not on the Atlantic coast: Riverside and Ontario in California, Talladega, Texas World Speedway in College Station, and Nashville and Bristol in Tennessee).
By that point NASCAR had tried to start a sort-of “National Tour” with consecutive June events in Dover, Michigan, Riverside and Texas – that took the whole month. Trenton, on the other hand, was wedged between Bristol and Atlanta, hardly a tour.
The Northern Tour was at its longest in 1964 with six races over 14 days. Except for 1963, the other years involved three or more races over five to eight days. No track ran the tour every year, and the one that ran the most races was the shortest of them all. Here’s a quick history of the rest of the Northern Tour:
1964 – Ned Jarrett won at Manassas before Billy Wade went on a tear in Bud Moore’s Mercury #1 and collected wins at Old Bridge, Bridgehampton, Islip, N.Y. (the shortest track at 1/5 mile), and Watkins Glen. David Pearson then claimed the tour finale at Lincoln Speedway in New Oxford, Pa. (the only dirt track ever on the tour).
Bill Wade’s car on the hauler at Bud Moore’s Garage.
1965 – Junior Johnson won at Manassas and Old Bridge, then Marvin Panch collected top money at Islip and Watkins Glen. This was the “But wait, there’s more!” year: Beltsville, Md., had an August date, and there was a mini-tour in September with races at Lincoln/New Oxford and Manassas. Jarrett, Dick Hutcherson and Richard Petty won those.
1966 – Elmo Langley claimed one of his two GN wins at Manassas to start the 1966 tour, and David Pearson and Bobby Allison alternated wins after that at Bridgehampton, Oxford, Maine, Fonda, N.Y., and Islip.
1967 – Trenton (still a mile track then) joined the tour and saw Petty take its 300-miler, after which Allison repeated at Oxford and Petty claimed Fonda and Islip.
1968 – The order of the previous season’s races was reversed: Allison won at Islip, Petty won at Oxford and Fonda, and LeeRoy Yarbrough took Trenton.
1966 – Elmo Langley claimed one of his two GN wins at Manassas to start the 1966 tour, and David Pearson and Bobby Allison alternated wins after that at Bridgehampton, Oxford, Maine, Fonda, N.Y., and Islip.
1967 – Trenton (still a mile track then) joined the tour and saw Petty take its 300-miler, after which Allison repeated at Oxford and Petty claimed Fonda and Islip.
1968 – The order of the previous season’s races was reversed: Allison won at Islip, Petty won at Oxford and Fonda, and LeeRoy Yarbrough took Trenton.
Islip Speedway from the air.
The 1966 Northern Tour race at Islip. Note Bobby Allison’s famed #2 Chevelle on the inside, in the turn.
1969 – Three of this year’s four tracks were new. Dover Downs had opened, and it ran a 300-lapper (two days after Daytona) won by Petty. Pearson then won at Thompson, Conn., and Trenton, and Petty completed the swing with a win at Beltsville. By this time new tracks were being added around the country, including Michigan, but the old tour wasn’t dead, yet.
1970 – Dover was moved away from the tour, leaving three races. Petty won at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y., and Trenton, sandwiching a Bobby Isaac victory at Thompson.
1971 – Dover was now running 500-milers and didn’t need to be part of a tour. In what would turn out to be the last Northern Tour, Petty swept all three events, Malta, Islip (back for one more show) and Trenton.
Pocono would join NASCAR’s schedule in a couple of years, Watkins Glen would return in the 1980s, and Loudon would eventually provide a fourth different stop in the Northeast for what by then had become Winston Cup. Obviously there was no longer room for tiny Islip, no matter how many New Yorkers squeezed in to watch racing in an oversized soup bowl.
Today’s schedule features less than a third of all Cup Series tracks in the South Atlantic, so maybe the next schedule change will create a “Southern Tour.” As NASCAR continues its effort to reclaim fans, that move might just be needed.
Frank’s Odds ‘n’ Ends
When the “Modern Era” Cup Series began in 1972, NASCAR tried to spin off its old 200-lappers into the Grand National East Series, and that 15-event schedule did include a mini “Northern Tour” with stops at Malta and Islip. By the next year the “East” series was a mash-up with NASCAR Grand National and Grand American cars, plus ARCA competitors. The whole thing was a colossal mess, but there was a sort-of Northern Tour to Lincoln/New Oxford and Selinsgrove, Pa., Speedway.
Tiny Islip was perhaps best known for Figure 8 racing courtesy of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but apparently it was a great place to watch full-size cars as well. Too bad progress intervened and took it from us.
Islip’s entire GN/Cup history took during the Northern Tour days, but most of the other tracks had run the series before. Thompson ran a Grand National race all the way back in 1951, and no fewer than five of the tracks later associated with the tour were on the 1958 GN schedule (as were lots of other non-Southern tracks; that was a real traveling year). Lincoln/New Oxford (this writer’s “home track” today) had the most prior GN starts with five between 1955 and 1958, plus a Convertible Division contest in ’56.
1970 – Dover was moved away from the tour, leaving three races. Petty won at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y., and Trenton, sandwiching a Bobby Isaac victory at Thompson.
1971 – Dover was now running 500-milers and didn’t need to be part of a tour. In what would turn out to be the last Northern Tour, Petty swept all three events, Malta, Islip (back for one more show) and Trenton.
Pocono would join NASCAR’s schedule in a couple of years, Watkins Glen would return in the 1980s, and Loudon would eventually provide a fourth different stop in the Northeast for what by then had become Winston Cup. Obviously there was no longer room for tiny Islip, no matter how many New Yorkers squeezed in to watch racing in an oversized soup bowl.
Today’s schedule features less than a third of all Cup Series tracks in the South Atlantic, so maybe the next schedule change will create a “Southern Tour.” As NASCAR continues its effort to reclaim fans, that move might just be needed.
Frank’s Odds ‘n’ Ends
When the “Modern Era” Cup Series began in 1972, NASCAR tried to spin off its old 200-lappers into the Grand National East Series, and that 15-event schedule did include a mini “Northern Tour” with stops at Malta and Islip. By the next year the “East” series was a mash-up with NASCAR Grand National and Grand American cars, plus ARCA competitors. The whole thing was a colossal mess, but there was a sort-of Northern Tour to Lincoln/New Oxford and Selinsgrove, Pa., Speedway.
Tiny Islip was perhaps best known for Figure 8 racing courtesy of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, but apparently it was a great place to watch full-size cars as well. Too bad progress intervened and took it from us.
Islip’s entire GN/Cup history took during the Northern Tour days, but most of the other tracks had run the series before. Thompson ran a Grand National race all the way back in 1951, and no fewer than five of the tracks later associated with the tour were on the 1958 GN schedule (as were lots of other non-Southern tracks; that was a real traveling year). Lincoln/New Oxford (this writer’s “home track” today) had the most prior GN starts with five between 1955 and 1958, plus a Convertible Division contest in ’56.
Jimmy Pardue at Lincoln in July 1964. Almost exactly two months later, he died during a tire test at Charlotte.
