|| *Comments on the 1951 unnamed race (1951-23):* View the most recent comment <#54> | Post a comment <#post> Tweet 1. Anonymous posted: 08.27.2007 - 10:00 pm Rate this comment: (2) (0) Now that's a Flock of Flocks. 2. earle posted: 04.30.2010 - 8:50 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) this lists frank mundy #23 in a studebaker and was this the only time a studebaker ran at this track? i am sure there was somebody racing a studebaker lark in the 60"s and it came to this track but maybe for some reason it did not qualify . Does any body know anything about a lark racing about this time? 3. Dan Jackett posted: 01.22.2013 - 1:43 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) I'm thinking that with only 15 cars in this race, everybody else was gearing up for The Southern 500 4. Dan Jackett posted: 01.22.2013 - 1:57 am Rate this comment: (0) (1) 4 races remain before what would have been the 1951 Chase...Frank Mundy became the 5th driver to clinch a spot Point Standings (2011 system) 1. Fonty Flock (5 wins) 736 2. Tim Flock (4) 705 3. Herb Thomas (1) 698 4. Lee Petty (1) 689 5. Frank Mundy (1, clinched) 501 6. Marshall Teague (5) 435 (DNR) 7. Lloyd Moore 409 (DNR) 8. Jim Fiebelkorn 388 (DNR) 9. Curtis Turner (3) 307 10. Dick Rathman 303 11. Lou Figaro (1) 269 (DNR) 12. Bob Flock (1) 259 Rathman was only 1 point behind Figaro coming in, so just starting the race put him in 10 by 28 points...Bob Flock was in 17th coming in, jumped the 5 spots by winning, and the 5 drivers ahead of him choosing not to race...Figaro and Bob Flock hold the wild card spots for The Chase 5. Steve Hartman posted: 01.15.2015 - 9:44 pm Rate this comment: (5) (0) this event was actually held at the Air Base Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina; not at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway 6. Anonymous posted: 01.16.2015 - 6:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (11) "this event was actually held at the Air Base Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina; not at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway " where's your proof? Nascar might of not kept good stats back then but the one thing they did do was keep good records of where/when they raced. hard to disprove something that was already proven FACT. this race was ran at Greenville-Pickens Speedway 7. Anonymous posted: 01.17.2015 - 11:25 am Rate this comment: (2) (1) A detailed investigation revealed that this race was run at the PAVED (for the webmaster's records) Air Base Speedway, and not GPS. Newspaper archives say the same... so this race was indeed run at a different track that is almost completely unknown. Unfortunately, Google shut down the newspaper archives earlier this week for some asinine reason. Erick Erickson is the only living person who ran in this race, and I doubt he remembers that kind of detail. 8. AnonymousEFR posted: 01.19.2015 - 9:24 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Indeed. Greenville Pickens was dirt until 1969. 9. Anonymous posted: 01.24.2015 - 8:51 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) For the record, this was the only time that a single family occupied 3 of the top 4 with only Buck Baker in 3rd breaking up the party. 10. Aldo posted: 07.17.2015 - 10:44 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Someone knows the exact location of this track? 11. nascar_vd / racing-reference.info posted: 08.03.2015 - 12:42 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Note for visitors: we have found some informations missing and/or correction until now on the website (starting position. No time trial due to rain, lineup based on point standing. But there are still a lot of missing information. 12. Alex posted: 01.08.2016 - 7:16 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) It turns out there were a LOT more cars here... along the lines of 36 cars according to reports! 13. Anonymous posted: 01.09.2016 - 9:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) The track was also known as Textile Speedway and Greenville Textile Speedway. It was DIRT and there was also a 1/4 mile track. The speedway was 10 miles south of town, on the highway 25, just south of Donaldson Air Force Base, but I don't know the exact place of the track. On historicaerials.com there are 1947 views from Greenville but air base part is oscured (maybe because it was top secret data). Reports talks of 36 starters. 14. Aldo posted: 01.09.2016 - 4:54 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Looking at https://lta.cr.usgs.gov/, i catched this: http://s9.postimg.org/du40hdg5r/Place_of_Air_Base_Speedway.jpg http://s9.postimg.org/6yjry9lor/Air_Base_Speedway.jpg http://s30.postimg.org/eorxjn3td/nowadays_Air_Base_Speedway.jpg Coming from town down the Augusta Road going south, turn left at Antioch Church Road. The speedway was 400 yards after crossing Harris Road on the right side of the street, at the entrance of Sundland Distribution Inc. 15. Ian posted: 03.15.2016 - 4:58 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) If there were indeed 36 starters in this race (which is likely, judging by the comments here), it would likely nullify the following statement but if not, this race seems to be one of the first where all the car models were from the current year. 16. Breaker posted: 05.14.2016 - 6:28 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) According to Greg Fielden's Forty Years of Stock Car Racing, the number of starters was unknown, as several have stated above, and also positions 6-15 are not necessarily in the correct order. 17. Antmanb posted: 01.23.2017 - 1:24 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) First race that we know of that q was rained out. 18. Dillion3 posted: 04.27.2017 - 11:06 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) This was the only race at air base speedway and with only 15 drivers, everyone was getting ready for the southern 500. 19. Russ Shurtliff posted: 06.18.2017 - 5:49 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Laps Led 1? 20. Scott B posted: 06.18.2017 - 8:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Information for the race is incomplete, so the only lap leader being given credit at this point is Bob Flock, who we know led at least the final lap. 21. A posted: 11.01.2017 - 12:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The first five finishers had a "k" in their last name. I wonder if that has ever happened in any other race. 22. Andy U posted: 12.18.2018 - 8:25 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Interesting ads and articles from old papers on this track and race. See racers reunion. http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/historic-speedways-and-ghost-tracks/37804/aug-25th-1951-the-forgotten-race-at-air-base-speedway-greenville-sc 23. JonahHeston posted: 08.31.2019 - 10:08 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) S1apSh0es on YouTube did a video on this track. The information he uncovered strongly suggests this was a dirt track, not paved. https://youtu.be/0qKBxePrLhg 24. MSportRev posted: 08.31.2019 - 10:12 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Per newspaper clippings shown in a recent YouTube video, Jesse James Taylor actually won the pole for this race, not Tim Flock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qKBxePrLhg&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR33FVYE177b6alXjClU-ao2TyON3DmsF1dD1otAQv5qPK9U60aTzsFJYFM 25. Eric posted: 09.01.2019 - 12:19 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Awesome mini-doc on this track: https://youtu.be/0qKBxePrLhg 26. hwf0712 posted: 09.02.2019 - 5:02 pm Rate this comment: (0) (3) We have this all wrong. You have not, in fact, posted a cup race. This is, in fact, a modified race. 27. KW posted: 09.02.2019 - 6:21 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) The Greenville News from 8/25/1951 says "Thirty-six drivers will have their feet in the gas tank tonight at 8:30 at the start of the grand national circuit stock car race at the Air Base Speedway. The race, which will be a 200 lap 100 mile feature is open to '49 to '51 models. NASCAR. Bill France Enterprises is sponsoring the race...." The 8/26/51 edition of the Greenville News "Fans flocked to the Air Base Speedway last night and the Flocks thrilled the fans." "Bob the winner started the race in the sixth position and on the seventh lap took the lead..." Sounds like a Grand National Race at a half mile track called Air Base Speedway, won by Bob Flock. 28. Hegmike posted: 09.03.2019 - 8:10 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) A lot of important details have been uncovered! https://i.imgur.com/iLFMCNn.jpg 29. MotorCityOctane posted: 09.03.2019 - 5:53 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) Found over 10+ Articles & clippings since seeing the Youtube video Race Day, Qual, Pole, Purse, etc. etc. Check the link Dan near everything about the race http://racersreunion.com/community/forum/historic-speedways-and-ghost-tracks/37804/aug-25th-1951-the-forgotten-race-at-air-base-speedway-greenville-sc#r42698 30. hwf0712 posted: 09.03.2019 - 7:56 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Yeah the cup race was more than 15 cars, and was a flock 1-2-3 31. David posted: 09.03.2019 - 8:04 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Obviously the source data for this race on this website comes from Greg Fielden's book, in which he states by the way that "positions 6 through 15 may not be in the correct order". The NASCAR season in which there are the most races with missing or conflicting information (mostly missing) is 1951, and it's not even close; that season is a disaster and there are probably many more fragmentary races just like this one. 32. David posted: 09.03.2019 - 8:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) FWIW, I believe that NASCAR does not have official race reports for the 1949-1957 seasons in case anyone ever thought of asking them about a race such as this one. 33. Corey posted: 09.03.2019 - 8:10 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @31 Are the winners accurate though? I would imagine atleast NASCAR has that right. Even then, whose to say that scoring errors might have given us a few wrong winners is some of the early races. 34. David posted: 09.03.2019 - 8:15 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I would hope that the winners are accurate, however the entire finishing order of a 1951 race can be rather speculative and any number of drivers could be missing from certain results such as this one. 35. KW posted: 09.03.2019 - 9:32 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) I have my 1954 Record Book close at hand and it has Bob Flock winning a race in Greenville SC on 8/25, so I'd say the winner was correct. If I get a chance I'll dig up my 1952 Yearbook and see what it shows. I'm sure it won't have a full field run down but it generally had the top 10. 36. MSportRev posted: 09.03.2019 - 10:41 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @32 Yeah, I asked someone at NASCAR while I was at Darlington covering the race, and he said he didn't know of any official race reports prior to 1955 or 1956. 37. Jeff posted: 09.04.2019 - 12:09 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) Interesting that Tim Flock and Lee Petty ran the day before in a race in Morristown, NJ. That's an 11 hour drive with today's highways and speed limits. 38. KW posted: 09.04.2019 - 8:05 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) The 1952 yearbook just lists the top 5, Bob Flock, Tim Flock, Buck Baker, Fonty Flock, Erick Erickson. 39. Yeet posted: 09.07.2019 - 2:57 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) We got this race on trending that's pretty cool 40. MSportRev posted: 09.15.2019 - 11:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Correction: Per at least two newspaper clippings, Jesse James Taylor was the pole sitter in this race. And there was a qualifying session. 41. MSportRev posted: 09.15.2019 - 4:00 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Pole Speed: 53 MPH, 31.06 seconds. 42. JollyMeanGiant posted: 09.16.2019 - 1:40 am Rate this comment: (1) (0) According to SpeedSport Magazine's article on this track and this race, these other drivers were in the race: Billy Carden Joe Eubanks Dell Pearson Ed Samples Gober Sosebee The following other drivers were entered and may or may not have competed: Weldon Adams Jimmy Ayers Sonny Black Red Byron Buck Clardy Doug Cox Walt Crawford Johnny Deaver Wade Fields Frank Grubb Speedy Hudson Jimmie Lewallen Johnny Mantz Cotton Owens E. C. Ramsey Fireball Roberts Charlie Rush Jack Smith Louise Smith Rex Stansell Marshall Teague Jimmy Thompson Roscoe Thompson Speedy Thompson Pappy White 43. Eric posted: 10.07.2019 - 12:53 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) This may be the only cup race on this site still without complete results. 44. possum posted: 10.07.2019 - 9:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @37 - also Fonty Flock, Herb Thomas, and 2 or 3 other drivers. Either a whole convoy of them rushed down the back roads to get to Greenville, or someone with a big airplane (at least 6 seats) gave them a ride, or the date for one of the races is wrong. @42 - I'm a tad sceptical of that list. If it's right, adding in the 15 given on this site would make nearly 50 cars entered, which would be a lot for a short dirt track for that era, and a lot more than the 36 mentioned by the Greenville News. 45. ScottB posted: 10.08.2019 - 12:31 pm Rate this comment: (1) (0) @37 & @44- One of the local newspaper articles linked mentions the race was "held up for some time" waiting for Tim Flock to arrive. That doesn't rule out air travel, but in my mind I can picture Tim Flock calling from a gas station pay phone to tell the promoter "I'm almost there, don't start without me!" 46. Mile501 posted: 10.08.2019 - 2:13 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @45 - Ah, how different times were back in those days! @44 - Other 200 lap dirt track races from 1951 featured field sizes ranging from 15 to 44 cars (not including anyone who may have failed to qualify), so it's certainly not outside the realm of possibility. 47. Spaghetti_Os posted: 10.31.2019 - 8:46 pm Rate this comment: (0) (1) I have watched the S1apShoes videos at least 5 times each now, and I have concluded that this track was completely forgotten by many. In fact, people didn't know that Air Base even existed before 2015 when the SpeedSport magazine came out. 48. MSportRev posted: 11.04.2019 - 9:17 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Per a recent Speed Sport article, Jesse James Taylor led the first six laps before Bob Flock took over the lead for the remainder of the race. 49. MSportRev posted: 11.05.2019 - 9:53 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) Based on the new information, Lead Changes: 1 50. MSportRev posted: 03.04.2020 - 12:27 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @42, I was doing some more research, and the drivers mentioned in the Speed Sport article were in 'the consolation race,' implying they somehow failed to qualify for the main race. 51. MSportRev posted: 04.10.2020 - 5:14 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Thanks to Adam Fenwick posting another clipping from a Speed Sport issue from 1951, qualifying was held the day before the race due to '60 - 65 expected entries.' 52. Thunderstrike_YT posted: 05.11.2020 - 4:43 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) Based on what I have seen, this track seems like an odd one. When people went to the tack, it was dirt, and because information on this race is hard to find, we may never know anything more about this race. Another thing that confused me is the number for Erick Erickson. He was number 1-X. Was there another driver with that same number, or was this common then? Lets hope more info is found soon, because I'm really eager to find out all the info on this race. 53. possum posted: 05.11.2020 - 7:19 pm Rate this comment: (0) (0) @52 - numbers like that were common back then - there was no rule on numbers, and many drivers got creative with numbers like "B-52". Probably the best was Bill Blair, driver of the #41 1/2. 54. BOBO83329521 posted: 06.06.2020 - 2:04 am Rate this comment: (0) (0) First time in NASCAR history that brothers won back to back races. Tim Flock won round 22, brother Bob won round 23. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Post a comment:* Your comment may not appear immediately - all comments must be approved by the moderator. Name: Comment: