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| NED JARRETT (11) KEEPS JUST AHEADOF TIGER TOM PISTONE AT HICKORY. (SMYLE MEDIA PHOTO) |
(NOTE: This story appeared in the Hickory Daily Record in 2013.)
Pistone still has a TIGER in his tank
By Tom Gillispie
Tiger Tom Pistone was a practical
race-car driver.
In 1960, he wore a life preserver and
an oxygen tube in his car while racing at Daytona. Tommy Irwin ran into the
lake in the middle of the speedway (but did not drown) during the first
qualifying race that year, and Pistone was afraid of running into the lake and
drowning.
Pistone says the highlight of his
relatively short career was getting his first NASCAR victory, at Trenton, N.J.,
in 1959.
But mostly he remembers the people,
especially his best friend from North Carolina.
“There was Junior Johnson; we were
friends all the way from the '50s,” Pistone said. “Junior was an innovator, a
car builder, and a great driver. He could do it all, on dirt and asphalt, and
he would help you. There were also guys like Curtis Turner and Neil Castles. A
lot of guys helped me on my way up. Without them, I couldn't start racing.”
He recalls flying to races with
Turner, a pilot and one of the nuttier drivers.
“I went to races with Curtis, and we
used to go to tracks and land on straightaways; we landed on the racetrack,”
Pistone said. “Back in them days, they used a map. That’s how we flew; we flew
low and followed the highways.”
The late Joe Weatherly stood out
among Pistone’s friends.
“He was a clown, joked around a lot,”
Pistone said. “He was a very enjoyable person.”
Pistone paused before adding, “They
were all great, great, great friends.”
Pistone, a native of Chicago, started
out racing at Soldiers Field, a sports venue made famous by the Chicago Bears.
“It was similar at Bowman Gray
(Stadium),” he said, talking about another tiny racetrack built around a
football field. “Bowman Gray reminds you of Soldiers Field.”
“In 1955, Soldiers Field went
NASCAR,” he added. “I won three championships (in a row) there, so they more or
less booted me out, and I went south. Andy Granatelli (later of STP fame) was
in charge back; he was the promoter. (He was) the greatest promoter beside Bill
France Sr.”
Pistone started his racing career
Soldiers Field, Rockford, Ill., and Milwaukee, Wis.
After coming south, he also raced at
a tiny dirt track in Newton, N.C. He ran six NASCAR Grand National races at
Hickory, finishing 31st, fifth, 20th, 22nd, 20th and seventh.
His favorite memory of Hickory, he
said, was “Winning the first asphalt race there, a 300-lap race, Late Model
Sportsman.”
His worst memory?
“When Bobby Isaac died at the
racetrack,” he said. “He was driving one of my Late Models.”
Pistone, a member of the Racers'
Reunion Hall of Fame, said that he raced on tracks all around North Carolina
and felt comfortable on them.
“I was born and raised on that kind
of track,” he said. “I raced Bowman Gray, North Wilkesboro, Hickory,
Martinsville, Asheville-Weaverville, Augusta Speedway, Greenville(-Pickens),
Charlotte, Concord. I ran most of the North Carolina races.”
He also raced in the first World 600
(now Coca-Cola 600) in 1960 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“The whole track came apart,” he
said. “I was leading the race, too, and broke my A-frame.”
He finished 31st among 60 drivers in
the first 600.
Pistone’s first Grand National (now
Sprint Cup) race was in 1955 at North Wilkesboro; he started 28th and finished 27th in his only race that year. He wound
up running just 130 races over 11 years, with both of his career wins in 1959
(Trenton and Richmond, Va.). Those 130 races would just cover four years on
NASCAR’s current Cup schedule.
He also ran 34 NASCAR Convertible
Series races and won two of them.
He eventually decided that racing
wasn’t the way to go.
“There was no money in it,” he said.
“You couldn't make no money. In my whole racing career, I made $44,000
(actually, $45,683 in the Grand National Series). The money started coming in
in the '90s.”
After his career ended in 1968, he
dove full-time into his chassis and parts business, which he’d started in 1955.
“I’m still doing it,” the 83-year-old
Pistone said recently.
He says he goes to “five or 10” Cup
races and “all the Legends races” each year. He mentors young drivers, and he
sells car parts to small Cup, Nationwide and truck teams, as well as teams that
run Legends cars, Bandoleros, Thunder Roadsters and Late Models.
He’s also trying to help his
grandson, 37-year-old Tommy Pistone III, get his racing career off the blocks.
If all works out, his grandson will be racing the Camping World Truck Series
next year.
“I’ve got the truck; we’re just
trying to find some sponsorship,” Pistone said. “He started racing with me when
he was 21. We started racing Legends cars, and he ran two Craftsman Truck races
back in (2002, 2003).”
Looking back on six decades of
racing, he says the ’70s and ’80s were the best era of stock-car racing. He
says the costs of the cars and engines have gotten way out of hand.
“They need to make the cars more
stock, go back to what the cars are supposed to look like,” he said. “They need
to go back to the stock design, like it used to be.”
That would
certainly save on car parts.
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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com BLUESKY: PROFILE
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