Thirteen years before the Indianapolis 500 faced competition from a same-day rival, the U.S. 500 at Michigan Int’l Speedway on Memorial Day weekend 1996, the same scenario played out in the Northeastern big-block modified ranks.
Former Reading Fairgrounds promoter Lindy Vicari had resurrected the long-dormant 1.125-mile dirt Nazareth National Motor Speedway two years earlier, and as his crown jewel he scheduled a Columbus Day weekend spectacular in October, paying $50,000 to win in cash — directly opposite Super DIRT Week at the Syracuse Mile, about 180 miles to the North.
The event had no title sponsor, in fact it never really had a name — NSSN’s report labeled it the Lehigh Valley 200, but thousands of bumper stickers merely said, “I’m Going To Nazareth for $50,000 To Win On October 9, 1983.” In most respects the Vicari promotion was a clone of Glenn Donnelly’s Syracuse event. It included a big-money sprint-car race, but instead of the Saturday attraction in New York, Nazareth’s was to run Sunday before the modified event. And it was to feature 33 sprint cars starting in rows of three.
Will Cagle, Jack Johnson and Danny Johnson were the only major names to defect from Syracuse, but Jimmy Spencer, soon to be a NASCAR modified champion on pavement, was there as a teammate to big Tom Hager. With Reading only recently closed, Flemington in its heyday and the still-operating Bridgeport and U.S. 13 Speedways to draw from, there were a ton of big blocks in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Delaware region and plenty of regionally popular drivers. Nearly 150 modifieds took time, along with nearly 50 sprint cars.
A near-capacity crowd watched the sprint-car feature take the green flag. Seconds later, they watched most of the field implode in a mammoth first-turn pileup. Several cars flipped. Remarkably, no one was seriously hurt and the 22 cars able to resume, starting in the normal rows of two. Frankie Kerr, a 23-year-old newcomer, passed Van May with four laps to go to win the $10,000.
The long delay to clean up the sprint-car crash meant the October afternoon was well along when the 56 modified drivers were introduced with full pomp and circumstance. The sun was low in the sky when the 125-lapper was flagged off at a track with no lights.
Pole-winner Harold Bunting and Cagle exchanged the lead early in the event that saw 17 yellow flags eat up 65 of the 125 scheduled laps. Kenny Brightbill took over at the 100-lap mark, but a late yellow flag created more yellow flags and with the green-white-checkered rule in effect, the race was finally finished after 132 circuits, with Brightbill the $50,000 winner in almost complete darkness.
The Fifty Grand at Nazareth remains unique.