Fifty Years Ago at Knoxville and the Nation
Wednesday, June 1, 2005
June 1956 - The Knoxville Season in Review
A continuing series of articles covering the events of 50 years ago
By Bob Wilson
On June 1, Marilyn Monroe turned 30. Future Beatles, Paul McCartney and John Lennon met for the first time at a church bazaar in Liverpool, England. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, one of America's favorite comedy teams, split. Mickey Mantle, 24, was reportedly earning $30,000 a season. Charles Dumos, 19, made history in the L.A. Coliseum with the first official high jump greater than seven feet (7' 1/2") Two airliners collided over the Grand Canyon killing 128 passengers and crew. Monday nights on ABC television you could watch Topper, TV Reader's Digest, Voice of Firestone, Dotty Mack and Medical Horizons. The top single from The Hit Parade was "Wayward Wind".
June 6 - Sonny Helms of Des Moines captured his first career feature event win at Knoxville in the 15-lap main. The eight-event program saw the A-Main event pay, $40-30-20-15-10-6. If a driver claimed fastest time in the qualifying time trials he could expect and extra $5 in his nightly earnings.
June 13 - Ottumwa, Iowa diver Jack Delano won the 15-lap Main Event. Ten drivers dashed under the existing track record during qualifying time trials with Sonny Helms setting the standard at 27.07.
June 20 - The last Wednesday running of Knoxville's weekly racing saw Dean Sylvester take the 15-lap win. With a $500 purse Sylvester took home a cool $52 for his efforts.
June 23 - Sylvester made it two in a row when he won the feature event on Saturday night. Al DeCarlo from Des Moines, Delano from Ottumwa, Angelo Mascaro from Des Moines and Les Turner also from the capital city followed.
June 30 - Dean Woolheather of Des Moines took the 15-lap main event in front of a record crowd of 3,000. The additional spectators raised the total purse to $600. In the trophy dash, Sonny Helms suffered severe cuts on his forehead and right arm when he was thrown from his car after his safety belt came loose in a wreck. Three other race cars struck the Helms' auto and sheared off three of the four wheels. Helms was back racing at Knoxville by early July.
(Watch here for Knoxville Raceway year in review in July.)
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