1958 Jim Mideon 500

Auto race held at Exhibition Stadium in 1958 February 2025 43 37 55 N 79 25 4 W title CUST Race 31 of 51 in the 1958 NASCAR Grand National Series season Jim Mideon 500 http://www.almanac.com/weather/history/ON/Toronto/1958-07-18 1958 Jim Mideon 500 weather information The Old Farmers' Almanac 2011-02-16 http://racing-reference.info/race/1958-31/W 1958 Jim Mideon 500 information Racing Reference 2011-02-16 1958 July 18 1958 31 51 Jim Mideon 500 Exhibition Stadium, Toronto, Ontario, Canada 0.333 0.535 100 33.3 53.5 Chilly with temperatures of 19.3 C F Wind speeds of 18.3 km/h mph 43.184 mph on Rex White Julian Petty Rex White Julian Petty 69 42 Lee Petty Petty Enterprises untelevised none The 1958 Jim Mideon 500 (known officially as 1958-31) was a NASCAR Grand National Series event that was held on Friday, July 18, 1958, at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Children were entertained with a jigsaw puzzle of the Royal Family before the race began. Most of the cars in the race were either Chevrolet or Ford. All of the 19 drivers on the racing grid were born in the United States of America. Admission to the race was 2 for adults ($ when adjusted for inflation) and $0.50 for children ($ when adjusted for inflation). The local bi-laws of the late 1950s allowed only team sports to be played professionally on Sunday. Since stock car racing wasn't included as one of the permitted "team sports," they had to operate the race on a Friday night in compliance with city officials.https://nationalpost.com/opinion/allan-levine-never-mind-ford-nation-hogtown-has-a-long-history-of-drunks-tyrants-and-loudmouths-running-city-hall Allan Levine: Never mind Ford Nation. Hogtown has a long history of drunks, tyrants and loudmouths running City Hall | National Post 2015-05-10 live https://archive.today/20141001125008/http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/10/01/allan-levine-never-mind-ford-nation-hogtown-has-a-long-history-of-drunks-tyrants-and-loudmouths-running-city-hall/ 2014-10-01 Race report Prior to the race, invocation services were held along with the singing of The Star-Spangled Banner and God Save the Queen (Canada's official national anthem in 1958). The first green flag of the race was waved at 8:00 P.M. Eastern Daylight Saving Time (EDT) and the checkered flag was waved at approximately 8:46 P.M. EDT. One hundred laps were resolved in forty-six minutes on a paved oval track spanning 0.333 mi km or; making it a shorter track than Martinsville Speedway. http://racing-reference.info/race/1958-31/W Canadian National Exposition Speedway information Fantasy Racing Cheat Sheet 2011-02-16 The track itself was reported as being nearly a carbon copy of Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2012/08/16/retro-racing-maumann-rwhite-canada-history.html Information about the speedway NASCAR.com 2012-08-06 2018-08-21 Lee Petty (in his 1957 Oldsmobile 88) defeated Cotton Owens (in his 1957 Pontiac Catalina) by racing at speeds up to 43.184 mph km/h or. Rex White earned the event's pole position by qualifying with a speed of 51.406 mph km/h or. Dick Walters received a last-place finish in this race due to an incident with his car's rear end. This race is known for the debut of a young driver at 21 years, 16 days, Richard Petty, in car #142 (triple-digit numbers were legal in NASCAR until the 1970s). http://www.nascar.com/2003/news/headlines/wc/12/31/history_43/index.html Richard Petty's Toronto racing number NASCAR.com 2003-12-31 2011-02-18 Even though NASCAR is usually associated with the Southern United States, Richard Petty's first Grand National Series race was officially on Canadian soil. He finished in 17th place; ten positions worse than he started. It was suggested that Lee Petty intentionally knocked his son out of the race due to racing issues. However, the truth of the matter was that Lee was trying to out-lap his son Richard (who was driving too slow) but used his "chrome horn" to take out the young Petty in his first race. More than 9,700 live spectators were on hand for this race even though heavy rainfall made the track somewhat slippery. The race car drivers still had to commute to the races using the same stock cars that competed in a typical weekend's race through a policy of homologation (and under their own power). This policy was in effect until roughly 1975. By 1980, NASCAR had completely stopped tracking the year model of all the vehicles and most teams did not take stock cars to the track under their own power anymore. Qualifying Grid No. Car number Driver Manufacturer Owner 1 44 Rex White '57 Chevrolet Julian Petty 2 7 Jim Reed '57 Ford Jim Reed 3 42 Lee Petty '57 Oldsmobile Petty Enterprises 4 6 Cotton Owens '57 Pontiac Jim Stephens 5 99 Shorty Rollins '58 Ford Shorty Rollins 6 23 Johnny Mackinson '57 Mercury Ken Corman 7 142 Richard Petty '57 Oldsmobile Petty Enterprises 8 57 Billy Rafter '57 Ford Billy Rafter 9 74 L.D. Austin '56 Chevrolet L.D. Austin 10 17 Howard Phillippi '57 Ford Howard Phillippi Post-race consequences The purse of the race was 4,200 ($ when adjusted for inflation). https://www.canadianracer.com/nascarincanada1.asp 1958 Jim Mideon 500 information (second reference) Canadian Racer 2011-02-16 To this day, this is the only event in the modern-day NASCAR Cup Series to take place in Canada, and the last event in the series outside the United States until 2025,https://www.nascar.com/news-media/2024/08/27/cup-series-to-make-history-with-mexico-city-event-in-2025/ Cup Series to make history with Mexico City event in 2025 Zack Albert NASCAR August 27, 2024 August 27, 2024 as the track itself was later torn down to make way for newer development. http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/hall-of-fame-profile-richard-petty-part-3-of-5/ The Fate of the Canadian Exhibition Stadium SpeedTV 2011-02-16 2011-07-16 https://web.archive.org/web/20110716115017/http://nascar.speedtv.com/article/hall-of-fame-profile-richard-petty-part-3-of-5/ dead The site of the race track is now a soccer stadium and fairgrounds. NASCAR would eventually return to a more prepared Canada in the 21st century. However, it would be to Montreal's Circuit Gilles Villeneuve for the Nationwide Series in addition to various small-town tracks for the "local" NASCAR Canadian Tire Series. Cayuga Speedway (now Jukasa Motor Speedway) wanted to host the first-ever Nationwide Series race in Canada but was turned down by NASCAR at a later date.The Simcoe Reformer - June 8, 2006 Since then, the track has been on hiatus. In 2010, Exhibition Place hosted its first NASCAR-sanctioned race since this race, the Jumpstart 100, on a temporary street course spanning 1.721 mi km, for the Canadian Tire Series as part of Honda Indy Toronto weekend. Finishing order Pos Grid No. Car number Driver Manufacturer Laps Laps completed Laps led Number of laps led Winnings Time/Status 1 3 42 Lee Petty Oldsmobile 100 29 $575 0:46:16 2 4 6 Cotton Owens Pontiac 100 0 $480 Finished on lead lap 3 2 7 Jim Reed Ford 100 0 $305 Finished on lead lap 4 5 99 Shorty Rollins Ford 100 0 $275 Finished on lead lap 5 6 23 Johnny Mackinson Mercury 99 0 $220 +1 lap 6 8 57 Bill Rafter Ford 99 0 $210 +1 laps 7 1 44 Rex White Chevrolet 98 71 $190 +2 laps 8 12 79 Tiny Benson Chevrolet 98 0 $175 +2 laps 9 11 711 Bill Poor Pontiac 97 0 $180 +3 laps 10 17 95 Bob Duell Ford 96 0 $150 +4 laps 11 10 17 Howard Phillippi Ford 94 0 $160 +6 laps 12 9 74 L.D. Austin Chevrolet 93 0 $120 +7 laps 13 16 93 Ted Chamberlain Chevrolet 92 0 $115 +8 laps 14 14 33 Al White Ford 86 0 $105 +14 laps 15 18 13 Peck Peckham Chevrolet 86 0 $95 +14 laps 16 15 41 Neil Haight Chevrolet 69 0 $105 +31 laps 17 7 142 Richard Petty Oldsmobile 55 0 $115 Terminal vehicle damage 18 13 83 Lennie Page Ford 22 0 $90 Ignition problems 19 19 18 Dick Walters Ford 18 0 $60 Missing rear end Timeline Section reference: Start of race: Rex White started the race with the pole position. Lap 18: The rear end of Dick Walters' vehicle was problematic, forcing him to exit the event early. Lap 72: Lee Petty takes over the lead from Rex White. Lap 90: Lennie Page withdrew from the event due to problems with his ignition. Lap 115: Richard Petty had a terminal crash; forcing him to withdraw from the race. Finish: Lee Petty was officially declared the winner of the race. References 2 Jim Mideon 500 Jim Mideon 500 Jim Mideon 500 Category:Former NASCAR races Jim Mideon 500 Category:NASCAR races at Exhibition Stadium Category:Sports competitions in Toronto