|
Lloyd George Rollins, nicknamed "Shorty" was born on the 3rd of April 1929 in Granbury, Corpus Christie, Texas, the same hometown as future NASCAR champions, brothers Terry (1984 and 1996) and Bobby (2000) Labonte. He started racing in Corpus Christie where his success led him to Fayetteville in North Carolina and to the NASCAR Grand National Series (now the Sprint Cup). NASCAR races were often held at small, dirt bullrings, in front of a few thousand fans, with purses paying just several hundred dollars to win. This was the type of track owned by co-owners Len Briggs, Lloyd Williams, Jerry Frank, and Don Frank, near Jamestown, Virginia. The owners booked a NASCAR sanctioned race to be held at Stateline Speedway, on July 16, 1958. They were hoping that many of the big names in Speedway would be there including the likes of two times Grand National Division champion, Buck Baker and five times NASCAR Short Track champion, Jim Reed. Unfortunately, none of the big names appeared and according to the Jamestown Post-Journal who gave an account of the race, “Hard luck continued to dog the Stateline operators, who felt they had a complete NASCAR show signed, sealed, and delivered. Several top drivers, however, failed to show. A rain-shortened program at Raleigh, NC, which broke open an argument over pay, is said to have delayed most of the NASCAR stars who remained in the southern city to continue their efforts to collect." One driver that did turn up was premier driver, Lee Petty who made his presence immediately known by being the fastest in the qualifying time trial, taking the pole position.
 Shorty Rollins Shorty went on to win the first official title of 1958 NASCAR Rookie of the Year title. His victory at Stateline Speedway was the only career Grand National win by Shorty.
The following year, in 1959 Bill France opened his massive, two and a half mile, high-banked superspeedway at Daytona. Shorty had registered his convertible 1958 Ford for the Daytona 500 in the Grand National Division when he noticed that there was a lack of cars registered for the very first competitive event ever contested at the new facility which was a Convertible Division race taking place on February 20, 1959, Taking the roof off his car he reregistered as a Convertible. His decision to change races proved to be successful as he went on to victory beating Marvin Panch and Richard Petty to the finish line to become the first driver to win a race at the Daytona International Speedway. Shorty, Marvin Panch, Richard Petty, and the other drivers in the convertibles were also allowed to race in the inaugural Daytona 500, but the convertibles were not so competitive against the hardtop cars, Shorty’s was running at fifth when his engine blew up. The July 16th race at Stateline was event number thirty on the fifty-one race NASCAR Grand National Division’s schedule of 1958. Shorty Rollins, with his only win coming at Stateline in twenty-nine starts, was fourth in the championship standings in 1958. "He would have been another Richard Petty," said a former crew member, Mike Flannigan of Corpus Christi, Texas. "He could outrun them all and he did outrun them all." Shorty moved his family to Pensacola in 1959 and left racing the following year after seeing some friends die in an accident at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
He ran for just three seasons in the Grand National Series, making forty three starts and only won one race in the Series. He set up a company called Hurricane Fence Industries in Pensacola. Shorty died on the 28th December 1998 and is survived by his widow, Mozelle, a daughter, Debbie Hodivsky; two sons, Tommy and Monty; a sister; two brothers; three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This web page may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This page is operated under the assumption that the pictures on this page represent a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Any text or images that you feel need to be removed please contact me. | Previous Page | page 1 of 1 | Next Page |
References
Wikipedia
Sports Illustrated
NASCAR Comes to Stateline Speedway
CommentsBe the first person to comment on this item You must Login to comment on this item.
|
|
Please wait...
