The Ghosts of NASCAR: The Harlan Boys and the First Daytona 500

13. The Flying Frenchman

13 | The Flying Frenchman O n July 17, 1955, Dale and Phyllis Swanson, George Short and his wife, and several children, including twelve-­year-­old Dale Swanson Jr., piled into Short’s Cadillac for the drive to watch Beauchamp compete in his first IMCA event at the Grand Forks, North Dakota, Fairgrounds, which had a one-­ half mile track. In North Dakota, Don White, the IMCA point leader, gave Beauchamp a rude welcome, initiating some banging and bumping that slowed the Harlan driver and caused him to lose control of his car. Swanson didn’t like what he saw on the track and was not going to be intimidated. He told White, “You better lay off because the Chevy may be lighter but it’s faster down the straightaway and John can take care of you going into the corner.”1 Beauchamp finished fifth, slowed by a loose foot feed, or in mechanic ’s parlance, a throttle arm that came loose from the cross shaft in the firewall. The showdown with White was postponed for another day. Beauchamp continued to perform unevenly the following week in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, finishing ninth in the time trials and second in his heat race. Then, in the feature, he had car trouble and once again had no chance to win. Tiny Lund, meanwhile, was also having mixed results in IMCA. In the same Sioux Falls event, Lund was seventh in the time trials and tenth in the feature race. Don White, from Keokuk, Iowa, and the eventual IMCA champion for the year, dominated the feature. Lund’s luck improved later in the season. In Grand Forks, North Dakota, on July 31, about 3,500 spectators watched a 200 lapper on a half-­ mile dirt track. The hood of Lund’s car came off on the 30th lap, seemingly taking him out of contention. Herschel Buchanan, a past season champion, kept his T-­ bird in front until lap 100, when Lund, amazingly, reclaimed the lead. Eventually , his topless car lapped the entire field. It was his first IMCA win of the season. Still not successful in IMCA events, Beauchamp continued to race at Playland when there was no conflict with the late model events, but the Council Bluffs track had become his second option. Unfortunately, he had The Flying Frenchman | 71 bad luck there as well as in the Dakotas. On July 4, the double flip of Beauchamp ’s car on the north turn added to his misery. Later in the month, after winning his heat race, Beauchamp, trying to avoid Aitkenhead’s car during the second lap of the feature, crashed into the fence and flipped the car again. Beauchamp and his late model car struggled until August 21 at the Wausau, Wisconsin, fairgrounds. Herschel Buchanan once again had the machine to beat, but Beauchamp eventually won the 100-­lap, half-­mile dirt oval race. The IMCA press release reported that “Beauchamp outgunned Herschel Buchanan before a capacity crowd.”2 After the event, the sportswriters gave Beauchamp the moniker, “The Flying Frenchman.” Swanson declared that the “bugs are out of the car and it is performing beautifully.”3 As Swanson’s comment indicates, Beauchamp’s first big win in late model IMCA racing was not entirely because of the driver’s skill. The Swanson car was now mechanically more reliable, and the motor magician had managed to speed up number 55. Swanson had called Doane Chevrolet, in Dundee, Illinois. What prompted the call was his search for a heavy-­ duty axle housing assembly installed on one-­ half ton Chevrolet pickup trucks and police cars.4 They operated with several different ratios of car wheel revolutions to revolutions of the drive shaft. For the half-­mile track, the drive shaft could be set to rotate 6.33 times for every rotation of the wheel. Swanson believed that this half-­ ton truck axle housing offered maximum durability and power for the half-­ mile tracks. The people at Doane Chevrolet, the headquarters for Corvette racing, told Swanson they had three of the half-­ ton pickup axle assemblies, but they refused to sell him one, preferring to keep such racing parts for their competition Corvettes. Swanson then called Chevrolet engineering in Michigan and, at first, they told him the part did not exist. He persisted, insisting the part was listed as a bona fide available GM part and that Doane Chevrolet had three of them, but the engineers wouldn’t help. Swanson hung up the phone...