DeWayne "Tiny" Lund
Atlanta, Ga. (April 5, 1970) – Lakewood Speedway got its 1970 season off with a bang on Sunday. The race, won by Tiny Lund in a Camaro, was literally a smashing success from the start.
A field of 21 cars, led by Lund and Jim Paschal on the front row, was all set for the green flag when Ernie Shaw, who had put his Mustang into the guardrail during time trials, decided he couldn’t make it and pulled into the pit area.
About a minute later, 13 other drivers were wishing they had been as far sighted.
Lund and Paschal took the green in a swirl of dust with Paschal’s Javelin also belching smoke, and by the time Bobby Wilson’s Camaro, in the fourth row, got to the starter, it was impossible to see.
Somehow, Wilson got sideways, and when he got sideways, that was all she wrote – for everyone behind him. The rest of the field charged head-on into the sea of dust and Wilson’s Camaro with the end result being 13 re-designed race cars.
That was only openers. It was that kind of day for the 4,000 race fans at the track.
That, for the most part, took care of Lund’s competition although Ken Rush and Charlie Blanton, also in Camaro’s, led some of the time.
Blanton took the lead late and put the finishing touches on the day’s activities. He got in first by virtue of pit stops by Lund and Rush, who finished second, and for a while it looked like he was going to try and go all the way without pulling himself in.
However, he spun on the fourth turn of the 95th lap, and virtually ran out of gas, roared down the straightaway and into the pits – backwards.
“I thought about stopping and telling him he was going the wrong way,” Lund said jokingly after it was over. He had averaged 75.62 miles per hour for the 100 laps over the one-mile course and collected $1,200 of the $8,600 purse.
Results –
1. Tiny Lund
2. Ken Rush
3. Wayne Andrews
4. Charlie Blanton
5. Buck Baker
6. Jimmy Vaughn
7. T.C. Hunt
8. Frank Sessoms
9. Joe Huss
10.Phil Willis
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