October 24, 1954
“Wilkes 160”
Top 5 finishers…..
The lead changed hands 4 times between 2 different drivers. At the end of the day Herschel McGriff led 74 laps along with the most important lap—the last one. McGriff started from the pole with a qualifying speed of 77.612 mph. McGriff started driving out west. He drove his first race at Portland, Oregon on Sept. 16, 1945. He ran a handful of races in the NASCAR ranks each year from 1950-53 and from 1971-93, mainly out west. He attempted to qualify for the Brickyard 400 in 1994, at the age of 66, but couldn’t post a fast enough lap. He found himself finishing his career in the Winston West Series in 2002 at the age of 74. McGriff was 58 when he won the NASCAR Winston West championship. In 1976, Big Bill France offered sponsorship to McGriff’s racing team along with another NASCAR team to be the first NASCAR stock cars to compete in the famous 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Herschel McGriff has won NASCAR races in the last six decades and won the Mexican Road Race in 1950. This was McGriff's only Grand National race at NWS.
Coming in second was Buck Baker, the Grand National Champion in 1956 and ‘57. Baker was the driver originally credited with the win at Jacksonville in December of 1963, but after the race, scorers discovered that Wendell Scott had completed 202 laps, two more than the scheduled distance. Scott would later be declared the winner—that’s the politically correct story.
Herb Thomas finished 3rd in the race. Thomas started the race from the 5th position.
Slick Smith finished 4th. It’s good to have a teammate. In the 1953 Daytona Beach race, Fonty Flock led the first 38 laps, but at the start of lap 39, the final lap, Flock’s car ran out of fuel. Teammate Slick Smith realized what was going on and pushed Flock’s car to the pits where he could get fuel. His efforts paid off. Flock lost the win, but manage to still pick up a second place finish.
Rounding out the top 5 was Dick Rathmann in his 1954 Hudson Hornet. Rathmann was the only other driver to lead laps in the race. His 83 laps led were the most that day.
The race was scheduled to go 160 laps, but tragedy struck and the race was called after 157 laps due to a crash which took the life Lou Figaro. Figaro’s car rolled and the roof of the car collapsed on him.
During the early years of late model stock car racing on the west coast, no name was better known than that of the California driver Lou Figaro. Figaro started his racing career in the early 1930’s and drove just about anything. Stock cars were his first choice. He was always a Hudson man. In his 16 race Grand National career, Figaro had one victory, two 4th place finishes and had a total of six top 10 finishes. He ran the Mexican Road Race with a Hudson and nearly lost his life in that effort. In 1954 in North Wilkesboro, NC he had dinner with friend and fellow west coast driver, Hershel McGriff. The next day McGriff won, and Lou Figaro met his untimely demise. Figaro was 34.
Lou Figaro