October 2, 1966
“Wilkes 400”
Top 5 finishers.....
The man known as “Hutch” led 94 laps and finished first this day. Dick Hutcherson won his 12th career Grand National race—in just 66 attempts. Hutcherson’s car, a Holman-Moody Ford, finished 12 seconds (better than ½ a lap) ahead of David Pearson in his Cotton Owens Dodge. This race might have been a 1-2 finish for the two, but Hutch and The Silver Fox would team up to be a BIG 1-2 punch in the future. Hutcherson served as crew chief for David Pearson in Pearson's championship seasons in 1968 and 1969.
Fresh off his only career Grand National victory at Smokey Mountain Raceway several weeks earlier, Paul Lewis recorded his first of two top five finishes at NWS. Lewis started from the 7th position and finished on the lead lap.
Jim Paschal finished 4th in the race, three laps down. Paschal started the race from the 35th position. The 31 spots he gained is a NWS Grand National race record.
Finishing five laps off the pace in 5th position was James Hylton. Hylton’s first Grand National race came in 1964, but it is not certain when his last might be. He just recently ran in a Busch Series race at Milwaukee, at the tender age of 70. Prior to his driving days in NASCAR, Hylton specialized in preparing cars. From 1959-63, he prepared chassis for Rex White, helping White to the 1960 Grand National title. In 1964-65, Hylton served as crew chief for Ned Jarrett, and Jarrett won the series title in '65.
The race lasted 2 hours, 48 minutes, 31 seconds. There were 5 cautions for 52 laps. Three different drivers exchanged the lead a total of four times. Fred Lorenzen led the most laps—213. He lost an engine and finished 23rd after completing 307 of the 400 laps. Pole sitter, Junior Johnson (21.83seconds/103.069mph—new record) led 93 laps. Johnson also lost an engine. After completing just 129 laps, Johnson finished 28th in the 35 car field.
New to Grand National racing at NWS were Don Biederman and Raymond “Friday” Hassler. Biederman was one of Canada’s most successful stock car drivers of all time. Hassler had the privilege of finishing first at Bristol in 1971—but didn’t get credit for the victory. He was driving in relief for Charlie Glotzbach.
Now the hard part—adding to the list of great names who have raced their last race at North Wilkesboro. The fall race of 1966 would be the last race for Fred Lorenzen, Curtis Turner (6th place finish), and Junior Johnson. In a way, it’s weird that Johnson’s last Grand National win as a driver came at North Wilkesboro in 1965, but also his last career Grand National pole also came at the track just down the road from where he resided.