18 replies to this topic

[John B]

This question came up watching the recent Sears Point race where Canadian Ron Fellows again came close to pulling off a win - victimized by a badly timed caution and pit stop. Unless I've missed someone obvious (which I have the nagging feeling is possible) there must be a pretty large number of consequtive American winners, so it seems like a Fellows or Fittipaldi pulling off a victory would be a reasonably significant milestone and story.

I've been following the sport just since the late 1970s, so any historical winners would be of interest as well....

[m.tanney]

John,

  The September 29, 1974 edition of the Old Dominion 500, run at Martinsville, Virginia, is still the only Winston Cup race won by a non-American. It's winner was Earl Ross, of Ailsa Craig, Ontario. Ross drove a 1972 Chevy Monte Carlo prepared and entered by Junior Johnson and sponsored by Carling Breweries. He went on to win the rookie of the year award. At the end of the season, Carling reneged on a multi-year sponsorship deal with Johnson, leaving the talented Ross high and dry. IIRC, he only had a two more Winston Cup starts.
  Another Canadian driver, Lloyd Shaw, is still the only non-American to have started a NASCAR Grand National (as the races were called before 1971) from the pole. In 1953-'54, NASCAR allowed non-American cars to enter certain races. Shaw took the pole for a 200 mile race on the notorious Langhorne dirt track, his only NASCAR start. His car was a Jaguar - though I'm not sure if it was a sedan (saloon) or an XK120.

Mike

[John B]

Mike, thanks for the info

A Jaguar on a dirt track....that's worth a picture!

[m.tanney]

Originally posted by John B
A Jaguar on a dirt track....that's worth a picture!

Lloyd Shaw's regular ride was a Jaguar-powered sprint car. He was the Canadian champion.

A Jaguar won a NASCAR race in 1954, the only win by a non-American car, but it was on a paved road course at Linden, NJ. The driver was Al Keller, the car was an XK120.

[cabianca]

Sports cars on dirt tracks were rare in America, but it did happen. Even a Ferrari saw a dirt oval at least once in the US. In the 50s, there was an organization called Sports Car Owners and Drivers Association (SCODA). Founded in the New York area in 1951, it had a NASCAR affiliation for a time and ran on ovals. Cars were mostly Triumphs, Austin Healeys and Jags. When professional racing came to America in the late 50s, SCODA no longer had a raison d'etre.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by cabianca
Sports cars on dirt tracks were rare in America, but it did happen. Even a Ferrari saw a dirt oval at least once in the US. In the 50s, there was an organization called Sports Car Owners and Drivers Association (SCODA). Founded in the New York area in 1951, it had a NASCAR affiliation for a time and ran on ovals. Cars were mostly Triumphs, Austin Healeys and Jags. When professional racing came to America in the late 50s, SCODA no longer had a raison d'etre.

And there were a few early Sports Car races on the Carrell Speedway 1/2 mile dirt oval in Gardena, California. Phil Hill is supposed to have driven in at least one.

SCODA operated at least through the mid-1960's and a couple of the drivers from that era went on to Indy: Steve Krisiloff and Al Loquasto. IIRC, Krisiloff had a Porsche and Loquasto a Corvette.


Jim Thurman

[Magee]

I recall back in the mid-sixties a group of us sports-car drivers raced at the Western Speedway oval track near Victoria, B.C. I managed a second place in one heat, but my arms were very tired at the end due to my locking them in one position for at least 15 laps. A little bit of dizziness was also a symptom of driving in the groove. Fortunately there were no shunts or bumps; all of us had driven our cars (mine was a TR Spitfire) to the track and needed them in one piece to return home.

[Don Capps]

In 1952 and 1958, NASCAR held events in Canada:

1 July 1952 -- Samford Park, Niagara Falls, Ontario
200 laps of 0.5-mile dirt track for 100.0 miles
1st Buddy Shuman, No. 89 B.A. Pless 1952 Hudson Hornet


18 July 1958 -- Canadian National Exposition Speedway, Toronto, Ontario
100 laps of 0.333-mile paved track for 33.3 miles
1st Lee Petty, No. 42 Petty Engineering 1957 Oldsmobile

17th Richard Petty, No 142 Petty Engineering 1957 Olsmobile (First Grand National start)

[Don Capps]

I started looking around and found a few Canadians in the Grand National ranks:

Albert Lemieux -- Montreal, Quebec
1952 Samford/ Niagra Falls

Nick Rampling -- Cooksville, Ontario
1966 -- Fonda

Don Biederman -- Port Credit, Ontario
1966 -- 14 events
1967 -- 22 events
1968 -- 2 events
1969 -- 4 events

I found these in just a quick look-see through some of my materials so there are obviously others. I really wonder about the number of drivers claiming Buffalo as their hometown whenever the NASCAR circus would swing through New York State....

[Frank S]

Sports Cars at Carrell Speedway, one of a dozen or so such events. Some races were run clockwise. I don't know how anyone decided which, but it seems to me I knew they went both ways on the same day (not at the same time).

Foreign Cars On Dirt


Frank S

[gmw]

In the 1956 NASCAR Grand National race at Elkhart Lake there was a Jaguar sedan entered. It was a Mk VII as I recall. It was run by a well known sports car racer, but at the moment I can't remember who it was. The Jaguar was not competitive. The race was won by Tim Flock in a Mercury.

[Don Capps]

Ansel Rakeshaw drove the Jaguar, the only foreign car in the race. What is forgotten by nearly everyone is that the race was run in the wet, rain coming down off and on during the event. It was also Tim Flock's first win since leaving the Karl Kiekhaefer team early in the season -- in essentially what was Kiefhaefer's backyard. The crowd was estimated to be at least 10,000 and the 3 1/2 hour, 63 lap race was certainly entertaining. Flock drove the No. 15 Bill Stroppe 1956 Mercury to the win and collected $2,950 for his efforts.

[Chris_Noto]

Though he was a naturalized citizen by then, a lot of the good old boys felt that Mario Andretti was pretty thoroughly "non-American" when he won the Daytona 500 back in 1967.

[neville mackay]

I'm not quite as au fait with NASCAR racing as with stuff on the right hand side of the pond, but I recall Billy Foster - a Canadian - primarily renowned as an up an coming USAC driver having few NASCAR outings in the mid 1960's. Not sure whether he won anything, but he did meet an untimely end in one at Riverside in 67.

I may be totally wrong here, but isn't Jerry Nadeau Canadian?

Neville

[John B]

Nadeau is from Danbury, Connecticut; his accident got lots of coverage on the CT news.

[neville mackay]

Apologies to Mr Nadeau and the good citizens of Connecticut for my unforgiveable aberration. I'll soon be claiming that Harry O'Reilly Schell was Irish!

[jde]

If you aren't focusing strictly on Winston Cup/Grand National, Ron Fellows has CTS & BGN wins at Watkins Glen.

-jde

[Jim Thurman]

Frank, thanks for the info on Sports Car races at Carrell. I had no idea how many, just that they'd been held. One source said "a few", one said "several".

Don Biederman was mentioned in Don Capps' post. Biederman was a very successful short track racer in Canada, with many, many wins. I believe he also ran some of the major short track Stock Car open races in the Great Lakes states.

He even came all the way out to Anderson, California (a couple hundred miles North of Sacramento) for the big Fall race at Shasta Speedway in the early 1980's.

I finally made it to a Fall race at Shasta, but missed Biederman and the year Mark Martin came out (setting a 1 lap track record that stood for around a dozen years!) I was planning on making the trip that year, but woke up to heavy rain in the San Francisco Bay Area, so thought it pointless : (got to love the California micro-climates)


Jim Thurman

[m.tanney]

Originally posted by Frank S
Sports Cars at Carrell Speedway, one of a dozen or so such events.
Foreign Cars On Dirt

  Interesting to see pre-war GP/Voiturette/Brooklands driver Dudley Froy among the entrants. Froy also had a couple of NASCAR starts in 1951. He started 16th and finished 13th at Gardena, CA 9race 4) and finsihed 13th at Phoenix (race 6), both at the wheel of a '49 Plymouth. Probably the first UK driver in a NASCAR event. Goldie Gardiner ran in the first beach-road stock car race at Daytona in 1936, but that was under AAA sanction.