New Englanders Hully Bunn and Dick Eagan, teammates in cars prepared by Bob Duffy, were enjoying a successful 1951 season.
A $4,250 purse lured them to the National Sportsman Stock Car Championship at Langhorne (Pa.) Speedway on Oct. 14, 1951.
Promoted by Al Gerber and Irv Fried, it was the first of what became the Race of Champions, for many years the premier modified/sportsman race in the country. It was the culmination of Langhorne’s 25th season.
“We had wins all over the place,” recalls Bunn, now 88. “We won at Stafford Springs (Conn.), Morristown (N.J.), Bainbridge (Ohio). Dick definitely had more wins than I did.”
When they arrived at Langhorne, however, Eagan’s car wouldn’t fire. “Duffy had made some changes in the motor, but never started it up before we left,” recalls Bunn. When the field took the green flag for the scheduled 100 laps, Eagan was a spectator.
Bunn grabbed the lead from New Jersey daredevil Wally Campbell, the polesitter, five laps in. Bill Tanner led the first three before giving way to Campbell. Bunn got Campbell out of four and set in for the long haul.
Duffy wanted to overhaul the engine in the familiar No. X entry because it was “using oil,” but Bunn resisted. “Those old flathead Fords ran the best when they were smoking,” says Bunn. “We had a five-gallon pail filled with oil hanging in the car with a hose going into the fill pipe. We would turn it on and off during the race.”
Langhorne was the 43rd race of the season and the pan on the car had never been dropped.
Bunn and Campbell battled for some 50 laps before overheating problems got Campbell. As lap 63 began, Frankie Schneider was second, but better than two laps behind Bunn.
In turn four Frank Holtzhauer’s car caught fire. Crashing into the pit wall, Holtzhauer’s clothes were aflame when he exited the racer. Pit crews saved Holtzhauer. The fire, however, reached Jack Bellinato’s car resulting in the second yellow flag of the day.
Bunn turned the car over to Eagan. “I felt I owed him that” for the single-file restart. A broken axle on lap 80 ended Schneider’s day. Campbell had climbed back to third, but was four laps down. Suddenly, out of four, an upside-down Don Black skidded into the path of Campbell. Campbell’s car caught fire and the resulting smoke along with the setting sun “obscured” the track. Campbell escaped just ahead of eight cars piling into his disabled racer.
When Black arrived at the hospital, doctors were still treating Holtzhauer’s burns. Six other drivers and a mechanic were also injured.
At that point, NASCAR officials ended the carnage with Bunn and Eagan the winners.
Ken Marriott, Don Bailey, Pee Wee Jones and Bob Myers were second through fifth.