Ronnie Faith
Ronnie Faith of Benton, Ky., thought he should be the winner of the Tri-City Buggy 100 – the feature race. Buck Simmons of Baldwin, Ga., left Kentucky thinking he had won. The track announcer told the crowd that Simmons had won, causing many of them to leave angry. Larry Moore of Dayton, Ohio, informed of his apparent third place finish, wondered why he wasn’t first.
“This is the most confusing thing I’ve seen in a long time of racing,” said Moore, a full-time professional. Several drivers commented afterwards but Moore’s was the only printable remarks. And some hot-under-the-collar pit crew members who squared off in a shoving and sometimes punching match – mostly just shoving, though – in the middle of the track after the race didn’t do the English language any favors either.
It was a dirt racing fan’s dream, though. There was enough dust to fill the cuffs of every pair of Levi’s in the pits. And after the dust settled, Faith had a heart-to-heart talk with Robert Smawley, president of the National Dirt Racing Association, which put on the 100-lap, $30,000 purse race. The talk was far from cheap. Faith’s verbal effort, coupled with his performance on the dirt, earned him the $5,000 top prize.
Many of the 4,000 people who watched six hours’ worth of loud, dusty oval bumper-tag, departed thinking Simmons had won, although most of the regulars at Charles Harrison’s speedway didn’t believe it was right or fair.
Neither did Smawley, the Kingsport, Tenn., promoter who is credited with bringing dirt track racing toward national respectability with his 14-stop NDRA championship series. When the race ended, he and his associates huddled over the lap sheets and declared Simmons the winner. But after hearing Faith, who contended that he and other drivers felt Simmons had been allowed to bend the rules and take unfair advantage of a caution flag, Smawley said Faith was the winner.
That pushed Moore into second place and made him the NDRA’s new point leader this season. There was other pushing. Faith and Moore creased each other’s bumpers four times in the frenzied last 10 laps, but apparently came out smiling at each other over their “I’ll spin you out” duel.
Trouble stalked the NDRA throughout the weekend beginning with the weather. They got Friday night’s qualifying races in, but rain on Saturday morning turned the infield and pit area into a hog wallow and postponed the 50-lap consolation and 100-lap main event until Sunday afternoon. Dirt racers and vampires have similar feelings about daylight.
“This dust is murder,” said Mel Morris, the 45-year-old driver of the Tri-City Buggy, a brand-new Camaro unveiled for the race by the Rock Island, Ill., parts and car-building company that sponsored it. “You’re afraid to charge because you can’t see what’s ahead of you in the dust. It’s too bad they had to run in daylight.”
An apparent lapse by Smawley during a rulebook controversy on lap 34 started it all of the confusion. Smawley’s snafu occurred when he went to the track following a smashup involving the four lead cars, one of which was Simmons. When it appeared that NDRA officials were going to go along with some of the other driver’s wishes, Simmons told Smawley if that was his decision, he was going to the pits to put water in his overheated radiator.
Smawley later agreed with Faith that Simmons should not have been permitted to pit. While he was in the pits, Simmons also replaced a faulty shock absorber. In the meantime, the NDRA that only the driver whose pinout caused the caution should be relegated to the rear of the field. So, when Simmons emerged from the pit area freshly watered and shocked, he, Moore, and Don Hobbs of Whiteland, Ind., went back to the front.
From there on, Simmons showed why he had been a three-time NDRA winner and point leader. He charged through the pack and twice was approaching half-lap leads when caution flags bunched up the field.
Faith, who started in the middle of the 24-car field, used his skill and knowledge of the track to edge up on Moore and set up their bumper duel. When the checkered flag dropped – before the protracted haggling that followed – the finish had appeared to be Simmons first, Faith second and Moore third.
Results –
1. Ronnie Faith, Benton, Ky.
2. Larry Moore, Dayton, Ohio
3. Billy Thomas, Columbus, Ga.
4. George Coonrod
5. Noel Witcher, Indianapolis
6. Bobby Thomas, Phenix City, Ala.
7. Jerry Inmon, Bruce, Miss.
8. Billy Hasselle, Marion, Miss.
9. Pete Parker, Kaukauna, Wis.
10.Don Hobbs, Whiteland, Ind.
11.Gary Keeling, Paducah
12.Charles Jett, Paducah
13.W.T. Harris, Evansville, Ind.
14.Leon Archer, Griffin, Ga.
15.Charles Schwartz, Portsmouth, Ohio
16. Larry Walston, Benton, Ky.
17.Mel Morris, West Liberty, Iowa
18.Ira Bastin, Solsberry, Ind.
19.Ken Walton, Viola, Iowa
20.Rodney Combs, Loveland, Ohio
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