In clear, beautiful color, here’s classic stock-car action at the 1953 Southern 500 in Darlington, South Carolina. See the early days of NASCAR and watch the sport’s toughest heroes come to life in this great movie summary.
Before Big Bill France built his high-banked speedway in Daytona Beach, Darlington Raceway in South Carolina was NASCAR’s super track, and it was an entirely different kind of spectacle than we know today. A twisted, egg-shaped oval just 1.336 miles around, Darlington hosted the annual Southern 500, a grueling 364-lap endurance contest that featured 60 to 70 entries and could last five hours or more.
In this beautiful color summary of the 1953 event, we’re treated to wonderful close-up glimpses of iron men Dick Rathmann, Fireball Roberts (coolly smoking a cigarette during a pit stop), the Flock brothers, and an impossibly young-looking Junior Johnson. There are priceless views of the track, the pit area, and the grandstands at the historic facility. And watch for Smokey Yunick, here serving as crew chief for the Fabulous Hudson Hornet driven by Herb Thomas.
Thomas had the field covered for much of the race, leading by more than a lap at one point, but after his final pit stop, the Hudson’s big 308 CID flathead six gave up the ghost, allowing Buck Baker to slip past in his ’53 Oldsmobile V8 with only a few laps remaining and claim the win. Watch Backer in victory circle, so exhausted from the five-hour pounding he can barely summon a smile, but somehow he does. Video below.
I really miss the days of fourteen different makes competing on the track.
Thanks MCG, a little before my time, so I missed this era. Not much really has changed. The cars, of course, but auto racing really packed them in, as with today. They had to have different classes, as I thought I saw a little Nash down low. When stock cars were just that. Sure did lack the safety gear and procedures. Modern safety personnel probably shudder when they see films like this. Taking off the burning air cleaner and a leather strap holding the door closed. Great stuff.
How much faster or reliable would modern ‘stock’ cars be than these cars from 62 years ago? Though the tyres should be better than the cross plies those blokes were on.
The modern front drive prams would be a real handfull at those speeds too for that long.
Standard seats are far better and if you get hot turn on the AC
Probably burn out a R/F tyre every 30 laps though.
Would be fun to see,, but I am sure the manufacturers would hate it.
As a Hudson owner, I cannot imagine how a cork faced clutch went 500 miles under those conditions. I also doubt that the trophy still has a four door Hornet at the top. I am glad they pushed the envelope with these cars as the legacy was the 7X program, which some use to this day as a blueprint for tuning. Twin-H is as exotic as mine gets, and it will do 100 miles per quite comfortably.