The People of NASCAR: Tim Flock
Saturday, December 23rd, 2006 9:38pm CST
By Frank Morrison, Thunder Lounge
Published on Thunder Lounge.
[thumb:387:l] Sorry this is late but we got 3 ft of snow here in Denver so just got done digging out thanks to my fellow Gulf Coasters who sent the storm to us anyways on to Tim Flock. If you look up the school of hard knocks you will find Tim Flock as the most distiguished graduate.
Julius Timothy Flock was the 1952 and 1955 NASCAR Grand National Champion and the youngest of the Famous Flock Brothers. His older brothers Bob and Fonty and even sister Ethel Flock Mobley all drove in the NASCAR Strictly Stock and Grand National Circuits. He worshiped this two older brothers when they were driving but they said he would never amount to a competitive driver. His one asspiration when he became a driver was to beat Fonty because he wouldn’t allow him to drive as a kid.
His determenation to get behind the wheel was flamed by his older sibblings objection. Bruce Thopson let Tim drive in a modified race when he turned 18 at North Wilkesboro, NC (Tim’s favorite track). With the name Flock every young driver in the race wanted to swap paint with Tim. Tim got a DNF when the Rear of the car froze up because of the damaged it received.
Bob and Fonty finally gave in and began Tutoring Tim so he would survive on the track. One weekend they took Tim to Lakewood Speedway and showed him all their tricks. The brothers would swap paint and show Tim what it would feel like foing through the fence and how to keep his composure when getting fustrated with other drivers.
In 1952 Tim hooked up with car owner Ted Chester and won the NASCAR Grand National Championship. In 1953 he was well on his way to winning his second title when a freak accident laid him up for a several weeks. A dealer didn’t see Tim napping in the infield and backed over his head.
On his return in 1954 he won the Daytona Beach Road Course but was disqualified because of a non approved carburetor. Tim quit NASCAR in disgust and opened a gas station in Atlanta.
In 1955 Tim came back and drove for Carl Kiekhaefer. Tim won an unpresidented 18 races and 18 poles. He easily won the Championship in 1955.
In 1956 he bailed on Kiekhaefer citing health issues. The issue was he couldn’t take Carl’s drill sergeant attitude any longer. Tim only ran part-time for the remainder of his career. His final win came on Elkhart Lake beating Kiekhaefer’s team on their hometown track. Tim Flock and Curtis Turner were kicked out of NASCAR in 1961 when they tried to get the drivers to join the Teamster’s Union.
During his brief career Tim had 188 starts, 39 wins, 102 top five’s, 129 top ten’s, 39 poles and career winnings of $109,656. Not bad stats for somebody who only drove 6 full seasons.
See Ya’ll on Monday with highlight of 1957 and next people of NASCAR wil be Carl Kiekhaefer.
Filed Under: Features, Frank Morrison, Guest Authors, Nascar, The People Of Nascar
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Wow. That snow must have been blinding because you can really see the Alabama in you on this one.
Shall I quote? Aight then…
Luke said this on December 24th, 2006 at 7:43 am
Yeah. You asked for that one buck-o.
Luke said this on December 24th, 2006 at 7:44 am
no not blinding just finger numbing
Frank Morrison said this on December 24th, 2006 at 10:44 pm
to add insult to injury we got another 6 inches today will post both on Tuesday taking a day off tomorrow
Frank Morrison said this on December 24th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
I know… I’ve mentioned before that I don’t possess the same psychic abilities as one Daphne Moon, but I’m having a psychic vision at the moment.
It’s 24 hours from now, and the “tide” has been “poked” back out to sea.
Luke said this on December 27th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
Wow. 2 for 2 on my psychic predictions.
