L
LUKE'57
Guest
With the opening of the Daytona International Speedway the last nail was driven into the coffin that would bury one of Nascar's most colorful divisions. What had started off in '56 as a completely seperate division, by the close of the fifties had been blurred into just a supporting show for the Grand National headliners.
The racers had found out early on that the tops could be cut off the lower cost sedans to make them "convertibles" as a cheaper alterative to the top of the line true ragtops. The demarcation lines blurred even farther when enterprising racers discovered that the tops could be bolted back on and the same cars run in both the Convertible and Grand National Divisions.
Even the sanctioning body got into the act when, to help fill out dwindling fields after the factories pulled out, they allowed both cars to run together in the hardtop division in what they refered to as "Sweepstakes" events. All these things combined to cause the division to be cancelled at the close of the '59 season.
But the colorful ragtops had a champion in Darlington's Bob Colvin who loved to watch them run. He had created a special superspeedway event for them in 1957 at "his" track and called it the Rebel 300 and run it on the Saturday closest to Confederate Memorial Day. When told of that the convertible division was history, he said,"Boy, you better get some good hacksaws come May 'cause you're gonna need'em".
For the next three years the tops were cut off the Grand National cars for that one race and the fans were treated to some hair raising racing in that SC cottonfield. I know that most of you have read my tribute to those zany times on my son's e-magazine so I won't bore you with the details.
If one man represented the division it would have to be Ol' Pops, Curtis Turner. Here's his '60 Ford from that crazy race way back in stock car racing's colorful past.
The racers had found out early on that the tops could be cut off the lower cost sedans to make them "convertibles" as a cheaper alterative to the top of the line true ragtops. The demarcation lines blurred even farther when enterprising racers discovered that the tops could be bolted back on and the same cars run in both the Convertible and Grand National Divisions.
Even the sanctioning body got into the act when, to help fill out dwindling fields after the factories pulled out, they allowed both cars to run together in the hardtop division in what they refered to as "Sweepstakes" events. All these things combined to cause the division to be cancelled at the close of the '59 season.
But the colorful ragtops had a champion in Darlington's Bob Colvin who loved to watch them run. He had created a special superspeedway event for them in 1957 at "his" track and called it the Rebel 300 and run it on the Saturday closest to Confederate Memorial Day. When told of that the convertible division was history, he said,"Boy, you better get some good hacksaws come May 'cause you're gonna need'em".
For the next three years the tops were cut off the Grand National cars for that one race and the fans were treated to some hair raising racing in that SC cottonfield. I know that most of you have read my tribute to those zany times on my son's e-magazine so I won't bore you with the details.
If one man represented the division it would have to be Ol' Pops, Curtis Turner. Here's his '60 Ford from that crazy race way back in stock car racing's colorful past.
