Look Homeward Lakewood

   A lot of motorsports history will be recalled this weekend in New York state and Georgia.
   This weekend's Sprint Cup Series schedule takes NASCAR's top stars to Watkins Glen, N.Y., where racing began on public roads and city streets in 1948.  The action was moved to the present 2.45-mile road course atop a mountain in 1956, and that's where the 90-lap Centurion Boats event is set for Sunday.
   NASCAR first visited The Glen in '57 with Buck Baker winning, returned in '64 and '65 for victories by Billy Wade and Marvin Panch.  Then came a hiatus until 1986, when the flamboyant Tim Richmond triumphed, and the series has been visiting the picturesque Finger Lakes region each August ever since.
   History of much longer standing will be observed in Dawsonville, Ga.
   On Saturday, the inaugural Lakewood Speedway Reunion will be held at the Georgia Racing Hall Of Fame, located in the Dawsonville City Munincipal Complex.
   "We're hoping for--and expecting--a great turnout, including attendance by many of the men who raced there," said Brandon Reed of Dawsonville, a volunteer at the hall of fame.  "That includes A LOT of people."
   I'd say!
   The first race was held at Lakewood, a one-mile dirt track southwest of Atlanta, in 1917!
   That's just six years after Indianapolis Motor Speedway opened.  It's 32 years BEFORE NASCAR held its first race in Charlotte for what was to become The Sprint Cup Series.    

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   Big Bill France, NASCAR's founder and president, first took his show to Lakewood on Nov. 11, 1951.  To the delight of a crowd of 26,000, home-state hero Tim Flock won the 100-miler, leading the final 86 laps in a Hudson Hornet.
   Lakewood had the reputation of being a very dangerous track, and tragedy struck during NASCAR's first race there.  A promising young driver named Jesse James Taylor flipped his car and suffered serious head injuries.  His wife, who was expecting, lost the baby due to her emotional distress and was hospitalized, too.
   What historians rate Lakewood Speedway's greatest disaster took place in 1946 during an Indy-Car event.
   Dust became so thick from the clay racing surface that the drivers hardly could see.  With just two laps remaining, Billy DeVore experienced engine trouble and was trying to nurse his car back to the pits.  British driver George Robson, the defending Indianapolis 500 champion, blinded by the dust, slammed into the slowed car in Turn Three, and a pileup ensued.
   Robson and Texan  George Barringer lost their lives in the crash.
   They are among approximately a dozen drivers who died in wrecks at Lakewood, and all will be remembered with the unveiling of a plaque on Saturday.  No driver ever was killed in a NASCAR
race at Lakewood, but several were seriously injured.
   Following Flock's popular victory in 1951, the NASCAR winners at Lakewood were: '52--Bill Blair; '52  (second race)--Donald Thomas; '53--Herb Thomas; '53 (second race)--Buck Baker;  '54--Herb Thomas; '56--Buck Baker;  '58--Curtis Turner; '58 (second race)--Junior Johnson; '59--Johnny Beauchamp; and '59 (second race)--Lee Petty.
   The wins by Junior Johnson and Petty hold a special place in Lakewood lore.
   The 1958 chase on Oct. 26 came down to a shootout between two of the era's biggest stars, Johnson and Fireball Roberts.
   "Fireball was really strong that day," recalls Johnson.  "He was driving a '57 Chevy and I was in a '57 Ford.  So the fans who backed each make were goin' crazy in the grandstand.
   "It was a 150-mile race, and I finally got around Fireball with 15 laps to go and then pulled out to a fairly decent lead.
   "After the race the P.A. announcer got Fireball on the loudspeaker and he gave me the greatest compliment I think I ever received.  Fireball said, 'There ain't no human being that can drive a car around these turns like Junior did.'"
   The 1959 race at Lakewood on June 14 was marked by perhaps the most unlikely scoring controversy in NASCAR history.
   It matched Petty vs. Petty.
   Richard Petty, then 21, was flagged the winner in the 150-miler, apparently achieving his first victory.
   However, a protest was filed.  By, of all people, Richard's father, Lee.
   The elder Petty  contended the scorecards were wrong.
   After an hour of checking and re-checking, NASCAR officials declared that Lee was right and he received the winner's share, $2,200.  Richard earned $1,400 for second place.
   (Richard finally broke through and scored the first of his record 200 victories on Feb. 28, 1960 in a 100-mile race on the old Charlotte Fairgrounds dirt track, a half-mile speedway).
   "The dust often got so bad at Lakewood that I don't know how the scorers kept up at all," continued Junior Johnson.  "As I recall, the biggest NASCAR mess they had was in 1954.  I wasn't in that race, so I wasn't involved.  If I had been, I'd still be hollering."
   According to the great motorsports historian Greg Fielden, here's what happened:
   "A crowd estimated at 20,000 cheered Herb Thomas' single-car length win over Buck Baker and Jim Rathmann in a 100-mile race.  But after the race, NASCAR supervisor Johnny Bruner penalized Thomas one full lap for not falling to the rear of the field after making a yellow flag pit stop.  Bruner's decision placed Baker on top.
   "Later, it was brought to NASCAR's attention that Baker, too, had pitted and not fallen in at the rear.  NASCAR then penalized Baker a lap.  But Rathmann was not elevated to the winner's pedestal.  Rathmann was docked a lap because his crew allegedly put fuel in his car while it was still partially on the racing surface.  This seemingly made fourth-place finisher Gober Sosebee the winner.
   "The screaming and shouting was furious.
   "NASCAR officials held and impromptu conference.  Then they made the only decision reasonable men could have--they canceled all the penalties.  The outcome stood as the cars finished the race."
  The 1959 Petty vs. Petty race was NASCAR's last at Lakewood.  However, motorsports events of various sorts were held there until 1979.  And a horse race was staged at the track in 1983.
   The speedway site since has been turned into an amphitheatre.
   For many years, race drivers provided thrilling theater there.
   Oh, what tale-telling Dawsonville's Lakewood Speedway Reunion likely  is to produce.