I was born in 1946 and I am so glad. I've seen it all. The best of times. NASCAR is a shell of itself now. If your wing is off by 1/4 inch, you're fined. If this or that is not within specs, you're fined. Let's bring back racing where the best car wins and damn the silly rules.
That driver was Junior Johnson, one of the originals. Seriously, Junior Johnson didn't stop running moonshine until the mid 1960s. He was arrested more than once as a NASCAR driver. As you can see, he was a big ole boy.
Junior Johnson flips his car over get out of it in middle of the track with his back to the on coming cars still fling around the track on bothsides of him while taking his shirt off & tries to put the fire under the hood !!! & it all happened in less than 2 mins !!! How freaking crazy was that !!!!!
Real men? Brave? In my opinion, they were only idiots risking their lives in a sports performance doing the dirty job of intelligent men that stayed safe in the pit booth.
+Dallas Nyberg I went to a Golden Gloves boxing event in, oh, about '65 or '66. During the break between rounds, I watched a trainer stick a smoke in his fighters mouth, while they worked on his eye! True story.
No fire suits smoke break while your car is being serviced in the pits and no fireman needed just put this thing out with my shirt! You gotta love it thanks so much for this video! Just a few yrs before I started watching NASCAR.
Amazing! This is really the first superspeedway race. Darlington opened a couple years before but the banking was increased for 1953. Qualifying speeds were up nearly 20 mph over '52. Hudsons were the first factory sponsored stock cars.
Yes. Hornets ruled in that era. The Hudsons were ahead of their time with lowered floor pans which gave the car a lower center of gravity. It was this feature that happened to give them a handling advantage to The Big Three which didn't catch up to that design until 1955.
Hudson allowed GM to use their "Step Down" design for access to GM's Dual Range Hydra-Matic transmission. Marshal Teague, the Flock brothers Tim and Fonty, Herb Thomas and even Jim Rathman were successful Hudson drivers. It was Smokey Yunick that tuned Teague's Hornets. Sadly, Hudson was consumed by Nash and moved to Kenosha never again to be the great innovator they had been since 1909.
Now that's some trivia. Thanks! Did Hudson lend this idea to GM or did GM just copy it? I had just thought it was a natural progression whereby it took the rest of the industry a couple of years to get this designed into their new cars in.
It was a contractual agreement. Hudson obtained the GM Hydra-Matic in 1951 for the Hornet. They introduced the "Step Down" design for 1948. The Big Three didn't have new cars till `49. Cars till then were warmed-over pre-war cats. In 1929 Hudson was actually the third largest auto producer in the U.S. I grew up with Hudsons as my father's favorite cars. I have owned several including a 1954 Super Wasp convertible brougham. and 2 `54 Hornets. The Hornets did handle amazingly well, rode very nicely and had tons of torque.
Balls. These drivers had them in abundance. Miss Southern Pride or whatever was nice to look at too. Notice the winning drivers wife was by his side real quick, making sure the beauty queen didn't get too close...
I just loved the truly sportsmanlike gesture of that guy pushing that Hudson with the blown engine-of course, there was track equipment that would have removed the car, but then of course, he would have been out of the race-when instead, his fellow racer pushed him high-speed around the track in order to finish the laps, and, with a dead engine, finished a very respectable fifth place...those racers were not just competitors-they were off the track brotherly friends, who knew each other, went for a nip together, worked on each other's cars, and would share "fishermen's stories", which they all knew would be just boasting, but would enjoy anyway...this would be one aspect of racing that would probably be missing today-everyone would just zip by the broken-down racer-after all, that's what the Track equipment are for anyway...
I love seeing them rocket 88s tearing up that track I had one of them cars it was in my family for 37 years hard times befelled me and had to sell it still heartbroken and always will be
Thank you for sharing! This brought back wonderful childhood memories of the mid to late 50,s and early 60,s when Dad raced in north central Ohio. Some of the best memories of my childhood were at Ashland, Mansfield, Mt. Vernon, Attica, and Sandusky raceways Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
In the early days of Australia's biggest stock car race was held on a mountain circuit in the town of Bathurst. It was common place for competitors to drive their car to the meet, make the change to racing livery, run the race, back into civvies then drive back home again. What won on Sunday sold on Monday. Of course now the race cars are completely removed from you can buy in the show room. Pity. You used to be able to watch Fords, Holdens(GM), Minis, Jaguar, etc. Shit.... you name it, it was there all in the same race! Nothing better than watch a nimble small car like a Mini carve up a big Ford through the twisty bits and then watch that same big Ford gobble up the Mini down the big long "Conrod" straight. Great racing and sorely missed.
Les Mach I’ve seen guys rob parts off their tow rigs, batteries, water pumps, etc, bolt them in their racecar, race, then pull them back off and back onto their hauler to drive back home.
@@GOFLuvr The rollover crash looked pretty bad and it said he had minor injuries so I'm gonna say "deathtrap" is a bit of a stretch but they were less safe than modern nascars. The speeds were also a lot lower too.
Fireball Roberts and so many other legends and pioneers of the sport. As a stock car driver who races asphalt and dirt sprints and modifieds I wish I could go back in time and race one of these cars against the greats looks like a blast driving them things
This was REAL racing. If they had a racing series with replicas of cars from the 1950s, they would have sellout crowds in my opinion. Anyway great film quality from 1953!
yeah right they would sell it out to the gills.... LOL there's many many many Strictly Stock series ran around the country and they are on the brink of being extinct
NASCAR on the other hand peaked at 18 MILLION viewers for the 2018 Daytona 500.... Averaging 4.2 million viewers in the first half of the season...... You honestly think those old cars would attract the same amount of viewers and then some??????? Please PLEASE pass me whatever your smoking cause I want some
your stupid.... Safety alone wouldn't allow that to happen.... Nascar hasen't been stock since 1966. But yeah lets take stock cars to Michigan and Daytona and Auto Club.... Sure thing man. Sponsors would leave in droves when drivers die... smh people are so stupid@@Dantheman-dv9rl
Me too. Stopped watching, probably, 25 years ago. Sometimes i'll try to tune in for a couple minutes but its always caution laps. Then its restart, bunch up, crash, restart, bunch up crash not watchable.
This 1953 race happened one year before I was born l look back at it and say wow those old cars what a time capsule thank you I love seeing this find more please 👍🇺🇸
Those Hudsons were beautiful. This was a lovely era of US car design. Lower, racier, more streamlined than the 30s 40s cars. No vulgar fins and sharp edges and over-chroming of the circa '57 era cars.
5:27 A guy hits the wall and just ahead of him there is a still a big section of fence completely missing from when someone else ripped it down earlier in the race !!
This was racing, cars had hood ornaments and when your car caught fire you pulled off your shirt and beat it out like Junior Johnson did, I'd like to see Danica Patrick do that !!!
They weren't as concerned about safety back then, you can see a hole in the fence at 6:47 from a previous accident. About Junior's fire and shirt. I remember talking to a fireman about car fires. He was telling me about a guy who burned his car. He took a walk through the bushes and found a brand new fuel can. He said if it was an accidental fire the owner would have burned up his shirt and jacket trying to put it out. I laughed because I've done the same thing. I'll be damned if I'd have turned my back to those cars on the track though.
Pretty good picture quality for a race from 1953. This is back when the Hudson Hornet was the dominant car in NASCAR. The Oldsmobile Rocket 88 and Hudson Hornet were the best early stock cars
At 4:17... car wrecks, driver gets out in the middle of the race (full speed), opens the hood while 110mph cars pass by, takes off shirt and extinguishes fire in the engine with it... huaehueha crazy old times
That was Junior Johnson, who was still running moonshine when he wasn't racing. I guarantee 90% of the money in that car was his, he saw his money burning. He was one of the greatest. He once stated that "The fastest car he ever drove was a moonshine car."
This one was Before I was born I do love the stock car races. I remember going to Macon and ft Valley with my aunt and uncle and cousins racing and Jake my Dad . he raced here in ray city or morven ga with the radneys. Can't remember for sure the racetrack. But my sister her boyfriend now husband and our brother and my brother in laws brother would go on Saturdays go to the races. That was good times. Now.. my sister and her boyfriend was ready to take us home after the races so they could go on there date.. Watching all of these old and new races has brought back GREAT memories.. Loved it
3:54 - I LOVE that during the pits the driver has a smoke. 4:26 - Johnson is working on his car right on the track. Amazing. The cars were not much to look at (sorry old timers) - but they looked like actual 'stock' cars...not like today. 9:08 - Maybe car looks have improved - but women could look as attractive then (gal holding trophy) as they do now. Thanks for posting this interesting video.
Smoking inside the car in the pits at 3:54 😂 I wish I was there for this stuff. RIP to my great grandfather, jack of all trades on Herb Thomas’ pit crew. Bunch of good ol’ country boys from Lee and Harnett county NC. This is why I love the sport! ❤️🤘
In the early 1950's, the Southern "500" was not just the only 500-mile race on the NASCAR schedule, but one of only two 500-mile events in all of auto racing (the other was the Indianapolis "500" for open-wheel Indianapolis-type cars.
The first race I ever saw on TV was broad cast from Darlington, they still ran on the apron in those days. Running up top was frowned on but not illegal despite the lamantations of many.
Parabens pelo video foi ai que comecou a historia de carros preparados.e os pilotos bom porque seguravam o carro e no braco.obrigado por relembrar meus parabens
Grew up not far from Darlington. Lot of great racing at this track, The Lady In Black. Don’t forget the 1/4 mile strip just down the road. Love them both at 63 years old. Thanks for the video 👍
Racing at its best 90% of those cars from just good old boys had a chance at taking the flag and wild we do have some hard working people in racing today who give there best racing like this was pure gold Thanks for posting
Me too. Since modern "stock cars" are really just silhouette cars, NASCAR should make the teams go with car bodies that look similar to what stock cars looked like in the 50's and 60's.
No seatbelts, racing uniforms that may be fire resistant (and weren't in the case of Fireball Roberts), and helmets that protected a driver's hair more than their skull. The risks drivers used to take in all forms of motorsports were absolutely insane!
@@GOFLuvr They did have seat belts(lap belt) it was required in 1949 I believe. Some of them used harnesses too but it wasn't required. As far as fire protection it was basically get out of the car as fast as possible lol
@@redtra236 Wow, I had no idea that even so much as lap belts were required as far back as 1949. Forgive me for watching too much Formula One, I just figured that the safety standards were just as low in NASCAR in the old days.
these were the days when there weren't any "super'stars" just hard racing with out all the hoopla todays drivers are spoiled and way over paid,give me the old days anytime
@@ceeinfiniti1389 I agree 100 %. They should run bone stock Challenger R/T's, Mustang GT's, and Camaro SS' against each other with racing slicks, maybe some suspension work, and full cages welded in. But bone stock other than that
Hudson flathead 6 cylinder was real popular. I used to buy Hudson spark plugs that were real hot and put them in my 47 knucklehead cause the rings were bad. It worked.
The 7X racing engine designed by Hudson engineer's, strictly for Nascar racing had more to do with their dominance on the track than lower center of gravity, although that helped. The 7X racing engine had 75 more horsepower than a stock Hudson engine.