AUGUSTA INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY - AUGUSTA GA
Located next to the 1/2 mile oval of Augusta Speedway was the Augusta International Raceway. The track itself is a 3-mile long banked road course with 21 total turns. The width of the track is 45 feet. The track elevation change is 120 feet with the highest point being at pit exit and the lowest point on the "backstretch" where the spring fed infield lakes drain into Spirit Creek just outside the track. Joe Weatherly called this part of the track "Alligator Hollow". The "Augusta 510" was run on November 17, 1963, at the road circuit with a noon start time and a 5:00 PM end time. The race actually covered
417 miles because of the time limit. The raceway was one of the fastest road courses in the country. This event was the second race of the 1964 NASCAR Cup season. The pole sitter was Fred Lorenzen with a speed of 89.545 mph. He would only run 12 laps before engine failure forced him to retire. Fireball Roberts started second and would lead the first three laps. David Pearson would next lead, but would fall out on lap 115 when his power plant gave out. Richard Petty had a strong car and had led 56 laps; when on lap 94 his had a gear problem putting him out of the event. Marvin Panch was there to pick up the lead and led for the next 35 laps. At that time his transmission failed and he would head to the pits, done for the day. Roberts assumed the lead after Panch retired and led the final 11 laps until the race reached it's time limit. Lorenzen, Fireball Roberts, and sports car star Dave MacDonald were teammates for the Augusta 510 and MacDonald's 2nd-place finish gave Holman Moody the top two spots. 36 cars started the Augusta 510 and the fast track proved to be tough on equipment as only 16 cars finished. The event lasted for four hours and fifty minutes and the average speed was 86.32 mph. There were 10 lead changes during the event. The total purse for the event was $50,620. The expected turnout was to be 75,000 fans. Only 15,000 actually attended. The top seven finishers were; Fireball Roberts, Dave MacDonald, Billy Wade, Joe Weatherly, Ned Jarrett, Jimmy Pardue and Larry Thomas. 1964 was a terrible year for tragedy in NASCAR. Six of the top seven finishers in this race would lose their lives before the next racing season began: Glenn "Fireball" Roberts, Dave MacDonald, Joe Weatherly, Billy Wade, Larry Thomas, and Jimmy Pardue all would parish. McDonald would die in the Indy 500; while the week before Roberts would receive burns in the World 600 that he would die from on July 2nd. Wade would parish from a tire testing crash at Daytona, while Pardue would die testing tires at Charlotte in September. Joe Weatherly would die in a race crash at Riverside and Thomas died in an automobile accident while on his way to a tire test. His car ran off the road and he died instantly.
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