1957 – Five Records Fall in Fair Stock Race

 

Johnny Beauchamp

Cedar Rapids, Iowa (August 13, 1957) – A slim Hawkeye Downs crowd of less than 3,000 saw five International Motor Contest Association world records broken during Tuesday afternoon’s late model stock car program.

Johnny Beauchamp, the “Flying Frenchman,” from Harlan, led the parade with new half-mile, 5-mile, and 10-mile standards.

Joining the IMCA point leader in the record shattering was Don White of Keokuk and the 3.5-mile sprint and Newt Bartholomew of Carlisle in the 4-mile event.

The time trials weren’t 30 seconds old before the Downs’ audience had it’s first record to cheer about. Ernie Derr of Keokuk spun around the newly banked half-mile in 26.55 seconds to break Beauchamp’s old standard of 27.56 seconds set in 1956.

Derr held his record for less than five minutes. Beauchamp unleased his Chevrolet for a 26.48 second clocking to reclaim the mark as the fourth qualifier. The Cedar Rapids track record of 27.61 seconds was trod on by no less than seven drivers. Dick Johnson of St. Paul, Minn., White, Bob Hardy of Beaumont, Tex., Lenny funk of Otis, Kan., and Cedar Rapids’ George Miller all got under the Downs’ standard.

The rest of the records came with ridiculous ease:

•  A yellow caution flag failed to keep Beauchamp from shaving five seconds off his 4 minutes and 48.7 second record in the 5-mile first heat race he set last April at Shreveport.

•  Beauchamp’s third record of the day was in the 20-lap feature. It was the easiest as he breezed to a quarter of a lap victory over Miller in a 1957 Pontiac. Beauchamp was 40 seconds under the old record with a 9 minute and 15.82 second clocking.

•  White, the 1955 IMCA title holder, erased a 1953 record. He went three and a half miles in the trophy dash in 3 minutes and 18.51 seconds, eclipsing the old mark of 3 minutes and 45.53 seconds set by Les Snow at Tulsa, Okla.

•  The Bartholomew record was 3 minutes and 47.53 seconds in the 4-mile consolation, breaking White’s record set in St. Paul, Minn., of 4 minutes and 7.96 seconds.

Results –


Time trials – Johnny Beauchamp, Harlan (26.48)
Heat #1 – Johnny Beauchamp
Heat #2 – Bob Burdick, Omaha
Trophy dash – Don White, Keokuk
Consolation – Newt Bartholomew, Carlisle
Feature –
1. Johnny Beauchamp
2. George Miller, Cedar Rapids
3. Bob Burdick
4. Ernie Derr, Keokuk
5. Don White
6. Chub Liebe, Oelwein
7. Newt Bartholomew
8. Lenny Funk, Otis, Kan.
9. Bob Hardy, Beaumont, Tex.
10.Jerry Draper, Moline, Ill.
11.Dick Pellow, Minneapolis
12.Al Warrender, Harlan
13.Frank Richards, Marion
14.Dick Johnson, St. Paul, Minn.