The Day Goliath Roared (sort-of) In NASCAR Racing
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06/23/2016 Frank Buhrman |
Some of my colleagues might disagree, but I have a feeling this article will cement my standing for bringing up the most obscure topics of any RFF writers. Top this, gang.
I was rambling through Racing-Reference.info doing research for a future story when I ended up looking at the results of the 1958 Crown America 500 Grand National (now Sprint Cup) race on the Riverside, Calif., road course – the first such race run at Riverside. I remembered that a Jaguar had won a road-course race in New Jersey a few years earlier, so I was only mildly surprised to see some European cars in the standings, including what appeared to be two factory-sponsored Citroens. Sadly, an Austin-Healy had failed to make the field.
Then I saw IT: there in 27th place was 40-year-old Californian Dan Eames (his only GN start) in a ’58 Goliath.
A WHAT?
I slightly underestimated the Internet and briefly questioned my ability to find out what a Goliath is/was, because all it took was a visit to Wikipedia and some collector car sites to find out that Goliaths (also known as Hansas) were made in Bremen, Germany, and sold in the U.S. for several years in the 1950s and very early ‘60s before the company suddenly went belly-up in part due to a U.S. economic downturn.
But a NASCAR race? I haven’t done exhaustive research, but it looks like this might have been Goliath’s only appearance. That 1954 race in New Jersey had “furrin’” cars making up nearly half the field – more than a dozen Jaguars and a Morgan (ask somebody older if you don’t know what that is/was) among them, but no Goliaths. By the time NASCAR returned to Riverside in 1961, the days of imports joining the fun was over (although that starting field included a Corvair, which was pretty foreign in other ways).
Haven’t had any luck finding a photo of a Goliath in racing trim.
Well, this may be a lot more fun for weird Frank than for you, so let’s cut to the takeaway: NASCAR these days is heavily dependent on factory participation and in fact actually controls that (as they try to do with everything else). That’s why we have Chevy, Ford & Toyota, presumably with the door open for Dodge/Fiat’s return and maybe others.
On the other hand, the 1958 Crown America 500 had 12 different makes entered, eight domestic and four imports. Half the domestics no longer exist, but the number of import possibilities seems much higher, despite the demise of Goliath and Austin-Healey. If my crusade to drastically cut costs and increase participation would actually lead to action in that direction, I think we might just pick up some new fans if they could come to watch their VWs, Subarus and Kias mix it up for Cup bragging rights. Maybe?
(NOTE #1 – Goliath initially made its name in Germany producing three-wheeled postal vehicles, an earlier version of the Cushmans our postal service used at one time. They moved into three-wheeled light trucks later. The name change from Goliath to Hansa apparently was a failed attempt to separate the cars from that legacy.)
(NOTE #2 – Dave Fulton and I – along with Dennis Andrews and other honorable folks elsewhere – frequently refer to the NASCAR Grand American class of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s having a small number of imports competing. This even happened on ovals, and Jack Ryan’s Porsche was pretty successful.)
(NOTE #3 – The first Southern 500 had 11 domestic brands in the field; in 1951, there were 14. NASCAR’s problem is that diversity makes rule enforcement nearly impossible, but since the current attitude is, “If you come up with anything we don’t like, we’ll change the rules within the hour,” it seems that could be done on a broader basis, too: if Volvo wins five straight races by large margins, take away a cylinder or something.)
(NOTE #4 – Last one, I promise. Randy Hallman, the awesome writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, had a great article this week reminding those of us who tend to be critical every time somebody in NASCAR turns on a ceiling light, that racing these days is much better than it was in the “old days” in terms of competitiveness. That deserves thought. The 1958 Crown America 500 wasn’t a nail-biter at the end: Eddie Gray won by a mile-and-a-half over Lloyd Dane, and third-place Jack Smith was four laps behind. Paul Aars finished 10th quite a bit more than 50 MILES behind the winner. Plug a finish like that into today’s declining TV ratings.)
About the photos – The Goliath that raced at Riverside would have looked something like one of these. Vroom!
I was rambling through Racing-Reference.info doing research for a future story when I ended up looking at the results of the 1958 Crown America 500 Grand National (now Sprint Cup) race on the Riverside, Calif., road course – the first such race run at Riverside. I remembered that a Jaguar had won a road-course race in New Jersey a few years earlier, so I was only mildly surprised to see some European cars in the standings, including what appeared to be two factory-sponsored Citroens. Sadly, an Austin-Healy had failed to make the field.
Then I saw IT: there in 27th place was 40-year-old Californian Dan Eames (his only GN start) in a ’58 Goliath.
A WHAT?
I slightly underestimated the Internet and briefly questioned my ability to find out what a Goliath is/was, because all it took was a visit to Wikipedia and some collector car sites to find out that Goliaths (also known as Hansas) were made in Bremen, Germany, and sold in the U.S. for several years in the 1950s and very early ‘60s before the company suddenly went belly-up in part due to a U.S. economic downturn.
But a NASCAR race? I haven’t done exhaustive research, but it looks like this might have been Goliath’s only appearance. That 1954 race in New Jersey had “furrin’” cars making up nearly half the field – more than a dozen Jaguars and a Morgan (ask somebody older if you don’t know what that is/was) among them, but no Goliaths. By the time NASCAR returned to Riverside in 1961, the days of imports joining the fun was over (although that starting field included a Corvair, which was pretty foreign in other ways).
Haven’t had any luck finding a photo of a Goliath in racing trim.
Well, this may be a lot more fun for weird Frank than for you, so let’s cut to the takeaway: NASCAR these days is heavily dependent on factory participation and in fact actually controls that (as they try to do with everything else). That’s why we have Chevy, Ford & Toyota, presumably with the door open for Dodge/Fiat’s return and maybe others.
On the other hand, the 1958 Crown America 500 had 12 different makes entered, eight domestic and four imports. Half the domestics no longer exist, but the number of import possibilities seems much higher, despite the demise of Goliath and Austin-Healey. If my crusade to drastically cut costs and increase participation would actually lead to action in that direction, I think we might just pick up some new fans if they could come to watch their VWs, Subarus and Kias mix it up for Cup bragging rights. Maybe?
(NOTE #1 – Goliath initially made its name in Germany producing three-wheeled postal vehicles, an earlier version of the Cushmans our postal service used at one time. They moved into three-wheeled light trucks later. The name change from Goliath to Hansa apparently was a failed attempt to separate the cars from that legacy.)
(NOTE #2 – Dave Fulton and I – along with Dennis Andrews and other honorable folks elsewhere – frequently refer to the NASCAR Grand American class of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s having a small number of imports competing. This even happened on ovals, and Jack Ryan’s Porsche was pretty successful.)
(NOTE #3 – The first Southern 500 had 11 domestic brands in the field; in 1951, there were 14. NASCAR’s problem is that diversity makes rule enforcement nearly impossible, but since the current attitude is, “If you come up with anything we don’t like, we’ll change the rules within the hour,” it seems that could be done on a broader basis, too: if Volvo wins five straight races by large margins, take away a cylinder or something.)
(NOTE #4 – Last one, I promise. Randy Hallman, the awesome writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, had a great article this week reminding those of us who tend to be critical every time somebody in NASCAR turns on a ceiling light, that racing these days is much better than it was in the “old days” in terms of competitiveness. That deserves thought. The 1958 Crown America 500 wasn’t a nail-biter at the end: Eddie Gray won by a mile-and-a-half over Lloyd Dane, and third-place Jack Smith was four laps behind. Paul Aars finished 10th quite a bit more than 50 MILES behind the winner. Plug a finish like that into today’s declining TV ratings.)
About the photos – The Goliath that raced at Riverside would have looked something like one of these. Vroom!
