CUMBERLAND – What is now a shopping plaza that includes a Stop & Shop and a McDonald's holds a noted place in American auto racing history: It is the site of the first sanctioned stock car race in the United States outside the South.
Not only would the first stock car races in the North be held in ***** berland, but the national championship would be decided there.
On Oct. 26, 1947, Fonty Flock, of Atlanta, won the national championship race on the one-third-mile, high-banked, paved oval track of the Lonsdale Sports Arena off Mendon Road on the bank of the Blackstone River, just downstream from Pratt Dam.
A crowd of 18,000 watched the seven races that Sunday afternoon, part of a program sanctioned by National Stock Car Circuit head Bill France, who, a couple of months later, would become head of the newly formed NASCAR, the governing body of stock car auto racing.
Only days before the history-making auto races, Lonsdale Sports Arena made history in another sport: The bowl-shaped arena hosted 32,000 spectators in what was the largest football crowd ever in Rhode Island at that time, as Cranston High School beat La Salle Academy, 20-2. The huge crowd snarled traffic for hours in the area.
#auto #cumberland
Not only would the first stock car races in the North be held in ***** berland, but the national championship would be decided there.
On Oct. 26, 1947, Fonty Flock, of Atlanta, won the national championship race on the one-third-mile, high-banked, paved oval track of the Lonsdale Sports Arena off Mendon Road on the bank of the Blackstone River, just downstream from Pratt Dam.
A crowd of 18,000 watched the seven races that Sunday afternoon, part of a program sanctioned by National Stock Car Circuit head Bill France, who, a couple of months later, would become head of the newly formed NASCAR, the governing body of stock car auto racing.
Only days before the history-making auto races, Lonsdale Sports Arena made history in another sport: The bowl-shaped arena hosted 32,000 spectators in what was the largest football crowd ever in Rhode Island at that time, as Cranston High School beat La Salle Academy, 20-2. The huge crowd snarled traffic for hours in the area.
#auto #cumberland
2 months ago
