When the ARCA/Menard series makes its Lime Rock debut it will be the latest in a long tradition of stock car racing. NASCAR’s Busch North Series (and its successors) was a regular fixture from the early ‘90s into the 20-teens, but that’s not where our story begins.

In the mid 1960s NASCAR had just one national touring series, the Grand National division (now we call them Cup Cars). They ran a demanding schedule of upwards of 50 races on everything from 1/5 mile bullrings, to dirt tracks, to superspeedways. They even made a few rare road course excursions (Riverside in Californian, Bridgehampton on Long Island, and Watkins Glen, the only survivor of the three). Lime Rock however was not even on their radar.

If you look at 1964 there was no TransAm series, and IMSA wasn’t even a dream. But Lime Rock was forever inventive when it came to trying something different. In New England there was Harvey Tattersall’s United Stock Car Racing Club. Best known for promoting pre-1940 “modifieds” at the tiny asphalt oval inside the Riverside Park amusement park in Agawam Mass., United also had a traveling series for full-bodied late model stock cars called the Grand American Championship. They raced at places like Riverside Park, Plainville Stadium, New London Speedbowl, the Big E Expo Center in Springfield, and Empire Raceway (Menands NY).

The Grand American cars covered an odd mix from apparent junkers with hastily spray-painted numbers that came from the very back row of questionable used car lots to Ford Galaxies built by Ford’s semi-official racing branch, Holman & Moody in Charlotte. The Galaxies had massive 427 cubic inch engines as powerful as a locomotive. But like a locomotive the Galaxies were not nimble at changing direction, and at 4000 pounds getting them slowed down on tiny drum brakes took a lot of foresight.
Regardless, the United drivers, true legends of New England racing, were on-board to take on the unique challenge of Lime Rock’s undulating terrain.

United’s Grand Americans raced at Lime Rock 60 years ago, 1964 and 1965. Sports car fans and stock car fans were more provincial then so the experiment was ahead of its time, but these images give us a glimpse into those pioneering days.