{"id":2751,"date":"2010-08-27T16:17:29","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T16:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=2751"},"modified":"2010-08-27T16:17:29","modified_gmt":"2010-08-27T16:17:29","slug":"racing-legends-join-five-flags-and-mobile-international-speedway-sprint-car-events","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/upcoming-events\/racing-legends-join-five-flags-and-mobile-international-speedway-sprint-car-events\/","title":{"rendered":"Racing Legends Join Five Flags and Mobile International Speedway Sprint Car Events"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Fans will be in for an added\u00a0 treat at the upcoming Tampa Bay Auto Racing Sprint Car races at Pensacola’s Five Flags Speedway and Mobile (Al) International Speedway on Friday and Saturday, August 27\u00a0& 28.\u00a0 the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa, in conjunction with the tracks, is presenting the “Supermodified Racer’s Reunion” at the high-banked half mile speed plants along with the\u00a0GO 15 ground-pounding, fire breathing sprint cars.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0The supermodifieds, which were the forerunners of the sprint cars, \u00a0were the premier attraction at the tracks two of the five nights they ran weekly in the Deep South during the ’60s under the Speedway Incorporated banner. Most of the open-wheeled cars were home-built and featured wings and unlimited fuel-injected engines. They were replaced locally by the\u00a0then less-expensive late model stock cars which became the premier class.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0Fans will be able to see some of the cars up close and have the opportunity to get autographs from some of the legendary drivers and builders on hand at the sprint car races. Among those who plan to attend are: Ellis Palasini who was the Speedway Inc. champion in 1966 and won many races in the south. Bobby Ward, known in racing circles as the “Arkansas Traveler”, whose\u00a0\u00a0wins all over the country include three victories in the\u00a0 Southwest Supermodified Championship in Amarillo. Texas. The race was regarded by many as the national championship for the class.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u00a0Freddy Fryar who is best known locally as a top-notch stock car driver. Freddy drove many modified races in the south. Buddy Bielarski from Mobile was a driver and builder\u00a0raised in the sport as\u00a0his father promoted races at Pensacola and other venues in the area. Buddy’s nephew is NASCAR truck racer, Rick Crawford. Bill Hite was at the tip of the spear in building the radical rear-engined race cars\u00a0and he was widely respected\u00a0and\u00a0orders came for his\u00a0 innovative machines from every corner of\u00a0 America.\u00a0 he was also crew chief\u00a0at the Indianapolis 500. Driver Hugh Richards, who was reported to have set a world record at Five Flags in 1972 will also be on hand.<\/span><\/div>\n

Ellis Palasini will have his big-block Chevrolet\u00a0powered #V8 supermodified on the track. The car was nicknamed “The Black Widow” and the mild-mannered Mississippi cotton farmer raced under the”Man in Black” moniker. Palasini’s “win it or wear it” styleis well -remembered by many of the area’s fans.\u00a0 <\/span>Bobby Ward will also get on the racing surface with the supermodified #44 which was driven by Ival Cooper. The car set a world record\u00a0 at Jackson (MS) Intl. Speedway in 1970 and with its nickel-plated frame and cage, is considered one of the prettiest race cars around. The car was later campaigned successfully on dirt by the incomparable Tommy Noblin. Both cars will be used as pace cars in the events<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fans will be in for an added\u00a0 treat at the upcoming Tampa Bay Auto Racing Sprint Car races at Pensacola’s Five Flags Speedway and Mobile […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-upcoming-events"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2752,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2751\/revisions\/2752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}