A few facts regarding the Sportsman Division and the races at Bristol.
Sportsman cars had to have stock bodies and were limited to 330 cubic inch engines and 1 four barrel carb. Ours had a '62 Chevy 327 engine that driver Bud Rambo built. It was purchased from Cup driver Jack Smith, winner of the first Bristol race. It was raced in Cup Division (Grand National), as a factory backed car.
The Sportsman cars raced every Saturday night along with Modified Division cars. Modifieds at that time used mostly '36 and '37 Ford coupe and sedan bodies with some body alterations allowed. Fenders had to cover the tires. Engine modifications were basically unlimited, with even superchargers allowed, although I never saw or heard of one being used. Multiple carburetors were common and fuel injection on the faster cars. The modifieds were a couple seconds quicker than the Cup cars.
Races consisted of qualifying heats of twenty laps to determine the starting order for the 100 lap feature. There would be a ten lap trophy dash for the fast four time trial times. Often there would be a five lap Grudge Match race between two drivers the track would pick.
There was a track championship with points given for the feature races. The track champion got a guaranteed starting position at the Daytona Permatex 300. Our car finished third.
One night a guy named Ralph Earnhardt showed up and raced. Dad's car finished second to his third. He had won the national sportsman division champ. so we were proud of beating him. You know him as Dale, Sr's. father.
