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Summer 2009, Featured Articles, Vintage Racing and Racers
Historic Classic Race Cars: The Hudson Hornet
A look at the Hudson Hornet racers of the early to mid 50s.
Excitement mounts as the cars line up on the hard packed sand race track at Daytona Beach awaiting the starting flag. Who will win this year? Will it be a Ford or a Dodge, a Chrysler, Maybe a Chevy or one of those funny looking Hudson Hornets? Last February, Marshall Teague won the race in one of those Hudsons!
The year is 1952 and the independent auto manufacturer, Hudson, has not only pioneered the low-profile step-down family automobile, the Hornet, but is backing race drivers like Marshall Teague in preparing their cars for NASCAR stock car racing. And they are winning races, although the 1948 design flat-head "Super Six" engine is not the most powerful in the race, the car has the advantage of low wind resistance due to the low profile design of the cars with the resulting lower center of gravity. All that gives the drivers an edge in maintaining speed on curves and manuverabiliity. All of which was why many "in the know" spectators betted on the Hudson to win again this year. And again, Marshall Teague came through for them with another easy win.
Realizing the significance of their showroom stock cars performing well in races will have in terms of sales, the Big Three auto makers quickly jumped on the bandwagon and began sponsoring their own stock cars and drivers. Anything they could do to make their showroom stock cars perform better without violating the strict NASCAR rules, they did.
Chrysler also debuted its new and super powerful 180hp HEMI® engine based on engines they had built for aircraft during World War II, but soon the power of that engine drew the ire of other race car owners and drivers and strict limits were placed on the HEMI®. Even so, the HEMI became the premier racing engine for the next decade, at first in Chrysler 300 models, then in the Dodge Challenger lineup with which Lee and his son Richard Petty became top racing stars in race after race. The HEMI was also sought after for Indy racing, but was declared "too powerful" and was quickly ruled out for Indy cars.
Most people watching that February 1952 Daytona Beach street and beach race did not know the unique position the Hudson would have in the history of not only auto racing, but in automobile manufacturing in general. In retrospective, today, we can look back and see what an impact the Hudson Car Company had on the auto you and I drive today.
Pioneering achievements of the Hudson included the Uni-body welded construction which had no separate frame and bodywork, making possible a lower weight than regular frame and body cars and, by locating the floor pan on the bottom of the main frame component, made a very low center of gravity — lowest of any U. S. standard production car , all of which gave race drivers a strong handling advantage in spite of having a relatively outdated flathead six cylinder engine. Its sleek styling also gave it aerodynamic advantages that served race drivers well while at the same time providing visual appeal to family car buyers. Of course the fact that Marshall Teague won both the 39 lap 1951 and 1952 races in Daytona helped sell cars also. The rear-opening front hinged hood was another Hudson innovation, as were built-in ash trays, automatic stop lights, sealed beam headlights, windshield wipers, foam seat cushions, rear seat arm rests in sedans, courtesy lights in the doorstep, gold-etched lettering on the dashboard and of course, the step-down created by the low placement of the floor. Today, we have become accustomed to most of these features without realizing it was the Hudson Hornet that first introduced them.
A few of the other drivers who raced or won multiple titles in Hudson Hornets at various tracks were Herbert Thomas, Walt Chapman, Dick Rathmann and the brothers Tim and Fonty Flock. Several other drivers won single races to help build the impressive 80 win record for the Fabulous Hudson Hornet. And at the lead was Herb Thomas, who set some sort of record by winning a total of forty (40) of the eighty (80) races won by Hudson Hornets from February 10 of 1951 through February 6 of 1955, after switching from driving a much more powerful Chrysler! +
Winning With Hudson Hornet!
Race Winning Driver Track Date 1952 1 Tim Flock Palm Beach Spdwy 01/20 2 Marshall Teague Daytona Beach 02/10 3 Marshall Teague Speedway Park 03/06 4 Herb Thomas N. Wilkesboro 03/30 5 Dick Rathmann Martinsville 04/06 6 Buck Baker Columbia Spdwy 04/12 8 Herb Thomas Central City 04/27 9 Dick Rathmann Langhorne 05/04 10 Dick Rathmann Darlington Spdw 05/10 11 Dick Rathmann Dayton Spdwy 05/18 12 Herb Thomas Canfield Fairgrnds 05/30 18 Buddy Shuman Stamford Park 07/01 19 Tim Flock Shangri-La Spdwy 07/04 20 Tim Flock Monroe Speedway 07/06 22 Tim Flock PlaylndParkSpdwy 07/20 23 Tim Flock MonroeCntyFairgrnd 08/15 24 Bob Flock Asheville-WeavervilleSpdwy 08/17 28 Dick Rathmann Dayton Speedway 09/21 29 Herb Thomas WilsonCntySpdwy 09/28 31 Herb Thomas Martinsville Spdwy 10/19 32 Herb Thomas N.WilkesboroSpdwy 10/26 33 Donald Thomas Lakewood Spdw 11/16 34 Herb Thomas Palm Beach Spdwy 11/30 1953 3 Herb Thomas Harnett Speedway 03/08 4 Herb Thomas N.WilkesboroSpdwy 03/29 7 Dick Rathmann CentralCitySpdwy 04/26 10 Tim Flock Hickory Speedway 05/16 12 Herb Thomas Powell MotorSpdwy 05/24 13 Fonty Flock Raleigh Speedway 05/30 15 Herb Thomas Five FlagsSpdwy 06/14 16 Dick Rathmann Langhorne Spdwy 06/21 17 Herb Thomas Tri-City Speedway 06/26 18 Fonty Flock Wilson Speedway 06/28 19 Herb Thomas MonroeCntyFairgrd 07/03 21 Dick Rathmann MorristownRacewy 07/10 22 Herb Thomas LakewoodSpeedwy 07/12 23 Herb Thomas RapidValleySpdwy 07/22 24 Dick Rathmann LincolnCtyFairgrd 07/26 25 Herb Thomas DavenportSpdwy 08/02 27 Fonty Flock Asheville-WeavervilleSpdwy 08/16 28 Herb Thomas PrincessAnneSpdwy 08/23 29 Fonty Flock Hickory Speedway 08/29 32 Dick Rathmann Langhorne Spdwy 09/20 33 Herb Thomas BloomsburgFairgrds 10/03 34 Herb Thomas Wilson Speedway 10/04 1954 1 Herb Thomas Palm Beach Spdwy 02/07 3 Herb Thomas Speedway Park 03/07 4 Herb Thomas Lakewood Spdway 03/21 5 Al Keller Oglethorpe Spdway 03/28 6 Dick Rathmann Oakland Speedway 03/28 7 Dick Rathmann N.WilkesboroSpdwy 04/04 8 Herb Thomas Orange Speedway 04/18 10 Herb Thomas Langhorne Spdway 05/02 14 Herb Thomas Raleigh Speedway 05/29 19 Herb Thomas Hickory Speedway 06/19 21 Herb Thomas WilliamsGroveSpdwy 06/17 22 Herb Thomas Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds 07/03 23 Herb Thomas Asheville-Weaverville Spdwy 07/04 24 Dick Rathmann Santa Fe Speedway 07/10 27 Danny Letner Oakland Stadium 08/01 31 Herb Thomas DarlingtonRaceway 09/06 34 Herb Thomas Langhorne Spdway 09/26 1955 2 Herb Thomas Palm Beach Spdway 02/06 Total Hudson Hornet Wins = 80 Quite Impressive!
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