Background
While the race was officially sanctioned by NASCAR, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) provided support for the event and foreign cars were allowed entry. [2] [3] Ultimately, the race featured 25 American vehicles as well as a Jaguar Mark VII. Hubert Schroeder, secretary of the FIG's sporting arm, served as overseer of the race. The prospect of a NASCAR road race on the challenging new road course attracted particular interest, and due to this, it was attended by several racing executives: NASCAR's Bill France Sr., the United States Auto Club's Duane Carter, and the Sports Car Club of America's Jim Kimberly. At the time, all three organizations were aspiring to replace the AAA Contest Board as the new main United States race-sanctioning body, as the American Automobile Association had withdrawn from involvement in automobile racing the previous year. [4]
Road America had opened the previous year. This was the first premier series race held at Road America. [5] Road America was considered the nation's finest road course at the time, and was regarded as a challenging course, with tight corners and challenging grade changes. Road course racing was uncommon at the time in American stock car racing. [4] The event was promoted as being "America's First International Stock Car Road Race". [6] There was much advanced interest and speculation among how American cars would perform in maneuvering the challenging course. [4] Those seeking to prognosticate how the race would go on challenged by lack of recent precedent of similar races in the United States, with Time magazine writing, "
[The race] was extraordinary because it was held on a road course, a thing so rare in recent American stock car racing that some oldtimers were casting back to the Elgin, Ill. races of more than two decades ago for a suitable precedent. [4]
Race overview
During qualifications, Frank Mundy had the fastest time, having completed three laps of the course in 9 minutes and 27.25 seconds. During the race, Buck Baker drove the car that Mundy had driven for qualifications, [7] and therefore began the race in pole position. [1]
NASCAR made the unusual decision to limit cars to only ten gallons of fuel at the start of the race. [8] An estimated crowd of 10,000 spectators attended, despite poor weather. [8]
The race is considered to be the first occasion in which NASCAR ran a race in the rain. [9] The rainy weather before and during the race impacted it. [10] [11] Shortly before the planned start time for the race, the rain began with a heavy lightning storm that delayed the start by approximately 40 minutes. After this storm ended, the race began. [7] The rain left as much as two-inches of water over portions of the track. [12] After the race, many notable observers praised the racers' handling of their vehicles considering the slick track conditions. [7]
The race saw drivers take frequent pit stops, mostly for gas, but also for tire changes. While, before the race, there had been concerns about how the stock cars' brakes would perform on the challenging course, there were few brake problems. However, several drivers suffered engine problems. [7]
Pole driver Buck Baker led the race from lap one though lap five. Tim Flock then led the race between laps 6 and 12. Marvin Panch then led the race from lap 6 through lap twelve. [1] As the race rounded the 100 mile mark, Panch remained in the lead with Speedy Thompson, Mundy, Flock, and Baker respectively following him. [7] In the 37th lap, Speedy Thompson overtook Panch, and Panch soon after suffered a rear-end assembly failure which forced him to withdraw from the race. [13] Thompson then led the race beginning in the 36th lap. [1] [5] As the race reached its 200th mile, Thompson remained in the lead, with Flock, Billy Myers, Fireball Roberts, Paul Goldsmith, and Joe Eubanks respectively following him. [7] After remaining in the lead through 53rd lap, Thompson suffered engine failure and retired from the race. Tim Flock then led from the 54th lap onwards, winning the race. [1] [5]
Flock was racing for Bill Stroppe in a 1956 Mercury. [1] Flock averaged 71.48 miles per hour (115.04 km/h) in his 3 hours, 29 minutes, and 50 seconds of race time. [7] The race would be the last of Flock's 39 career wins in the premier division of NASCAR (Grand National Series/NASCAR Cup Series). [5] Flock's victory was a 17 second photo finish over fellow Stroppe racer Billy Myers. Fireball Roberts (racing for Pete DePaolo), Paul Goldsmith (racing for Smokey Yunick), and Joe Eubanks (racing for James Satcher) respectively placed third, fourth, and fifth. [1]
Among the 26 drivers that competed at Road America were five racing for Pete DePaolo, three racing for Bill Stroppe, and three racing for Pete Kiekhaefer. [13]
The season-dominant Kiekhaefer team did not see much success in the race. Buck Baker started the race at first and Speedy Thompson started at fifth. [13] While Baker led the first five laps, he ultimately finished eighth and suffering engine problems and dropping out in the 61st lap. [1] While Thompson led between laps 36 and 53, he suffered engine failure in the 53rd lap and retired from the race, ultimately finishing eighteenth. [1] [5] The third Kiekhaefer driver, Frank Mundy, finished fourteenth. [1] Race winner Tim Flock had started the 1956 season as a Kiekhaefer racer, but had left Keikhaefer's team due to disagreement with Keikhaefer's strict management style. [9]
While the DePaolo team's Fireball Roberts finished third, the rest of the team fared less fortunately. [1] DePaolo drivers Junior Johnson and Bill Amick started the race at third and fourth. However, they quickly faced trouble. Johnson placed last, dropping out of the race in the first lap due to issues with his car's clutch. Amick also suffered clutch problems and dropped out of the race in the tenth lap, placing second-to last. [13] [1] The DePaolo team also saw Curtis Turner crash out of the race in the 21st lap after suffering brake failure on the final corner, and ultimately placing third-to-last. [13] [1] DePaulo driver Ralph Moody fared the second-best among DePaolo racers, placing sixteenth, suffering rear-end damage and dropping out of the race in the 56th lap. [1]
The Stroppe team saw two of its racers, Tim Flock and Billy Myers, respectively finish first and second. Its third racer, Bobby Myers, suffered a crash and placed 21st. [1]
While the race was considered a success, [4] NASCAR would not again race at Road America until 2010, when the NASCAR Xfinity Series began racing there. [13] NASCAR's premier division did not return to Road America until the 2021 season. [10]
