Video: 1952 NASCAR Motor City 250 — Colorized

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Courtesy of NASCAR All Out, here’s a colorized version of the NASCAR 1952 Motor City 250. 

 

Fans of early NASCAR history will easily recognize our race winner pictured above: He’s Tim Flock (1924-1998), the youngest brother in the fabulous Flock racing family. Winner of 39 Grand National races and the 1952 series champion, in 2014 he was inducted to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. But oddly enough, he’s not even named in this otherwise excellent newsreel feature on the 1952 Motor City 250. Apparently, the winner’s name wasn’t considered important by the news agency, only capturing the excitement and color of the event. Speaking of color: Originally filmed in black and white, the historic footage has been tastefully colorized by the folks at NASCAR All Out.

 

These days, Michigan International Speedway is considered the home NASCAR track for the Detroit automakers, but the facility is actually around 70 miles west of the city. Twice in the yearly years of NASCAR (1951-52) the series raced right in the middle of town, on the one-mile dirt oval at the Michigan State Fairgrounds at Woodward Avenue and Eight Mile Road. (Watch the 1951 race here.)

For us, one great aspect of early NASCAR is the vehicular variety on display: While the series was dominated by Hudsons in ’52 (there were more than a dozen in this event, including winner Tim Flock’s) the field at Detroit included Oldsmobiles, Fords, Nashes, various Mopars, and even a couple of Willys Aeros. (See one Willys narrowly avoid calamity at 1:56,) We don’t have an opinion either way on the historical propriety of colorizing, but we can agree it certainly adds an extra dimension to the action. What do you think? Video below.

 

5 thoughts on “Video: 1952 NASCAR Motor City 250 — Colorized”

  1. I was was just 14 years old that year and had gone the the Michigan State Fair with my parents.My interest in cars was taking on a fever pitch and remember how impressed I was at the new radically designed bullet nosed Studebakers on display(so like the Tucker) as we walked around the grounds. I heard a loud speaker and realized they were having a car race there and little did I realize at the time how significant it would become as the beginning of what would become the huge sporting event it is today.I told my parents I was going to go to the fence and watch some of the race if I could see it at all from there and I was able to get a glimpse of the action and hear the roaring sounds. My dad owned a 49 Hudson then and his next car was a a 52 Hudson Hornet with the duel carbs. Hudson’s earned the bragging rights by the Flock’s brothers in those years and nailed the manufacturer’s representation into the sport so well. Thus, Bill France’s dream come true story of Nascar had begun. Thanks Mac, great piece of history about the Motor City connection.Roger Penske is certainly our commander in chief in the sport these days whom represents Michigan so proudly.

  2. I like the colorized version. As long the original is still in existence, I don’t see the harm. Is that Fonty Flock next to Tim Flock?

  3. Back when stock car racing was actually stock cars! I bet they could have pulled the tape off the lights and drove them home. Would be fun to see stock cars compete like that again, with safety considerations like roll bars, helmets, and racing harness of course.

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