Vintage Stock Car Clash: Pete Adams’ 1960 SCRAM Race Season

Pete Adams just wrapped up his 1960 SCRAM racing season, played with the special holiday print and play set (now available as a printed product). I put together the '60 SCRAM as a parallel set to the real-life Stock Car Racing Pioneers cards, which--my opinion--is the maybe most fun RED WHITE & BLUE RACIN' card set of all! For me, part of the appeal is the assortment of vintage Chryslers, Studebakers, Pontiacs, De Sotos and, yes, even an Edsel, and banging it out on the track. I've always been a car nut, and it was fun to create icon cards for these brands. But aside from that, it was an appealingly different brand of auto racing back then. The cars ran a lot slower, the tracks were a lot less "finished," and the crews often had serious struggles with the equipment. The racing was close-quarters, unpredictable and often heated. It was an entertaining spectacle! I really feel like this set (and, of course, the real-life Pioneers) captures the essence of an era of stock car racing that might be difficult to envision, especially for a more casual NASCAR fan.

Anyway, Pete had a VERY exciting season, and he gave me permission to share his tabletop racing' experience in this blog post...

"Norm Gundy is the 1960 SCRAM champion! He only won two races but finished in the top five eleven times over the twenty-five race series. Joe Cook almost pulled off a last race upset for the championship. For that to happen, Cook had to win the race and Gundy had to finish outside of the top twelve. At 400 miles of the 500 mile race, Cook was in the lead and Gundy was in 16th place. A burnt clutch while leading at 430 miles ended Cook’s day and Gundy finished 9th.

"Burl Exham and Tommy Stoffel each had four wins but lacked the consistency of Gundy. Ed Baillargeon made a huge comeback in the last four races getting a win and moving from 25th to 5th in the point standings. Ross Pettis earned the pole position seven times and had three wins, but struggled at the big track events that awarded the most points.

Pete offered these reflections on his '60 SCRAM season...

"It was great fun to set up a 25 race schedule and imagine the birth of SCRAM. I created a somewhat logical progression across the south, up into the northeast and then working their way back. I tried to follow some of the same dates as the "modern" SCRAM legacy tracks. I used the Indy Champ Car points tables used in the '60s and '70s that only awards points to the top 12 finishers, with higher points awards based on longer races. As an example, a 500 miles race gave 1,000 points to the winner, where a 100 mile race gave 200 points to the winner.

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Travis Jansen provided this link to the points system referred to above by Pete…)

"I used a slightly different method to determine who raced each weekend. First, I read the liner notes for each driver and then gave certain drivers a condition for whether they entered the race or not. If they did not met my pre-set condition, I then used the number next to the Trophy symbol with a die roll equal or lower meant they entered the race. As an example, pre-set condition for Aaron Burke was that he entered all dirt races and short tracks a mile and under, but rolled a die to determine if he entered other events.

"I limited the starting field for dirt tracks to 30 which made qualifying exciting. Occasionally a big name missed the show.

"The non-optional duel requirement made it a rough and tumble season. It really helps portray the beating and banging that goes on at a short track.

"Gord McGreevey’s option for the HEAT quality of choosing to duel instead was a lot of fun as it was a 50% success rate and he had a 7 ESCAPE rating!?! He was very lucky but created a lot of feuds along the way as the drivers he challenged seemed to fail their ESCAPE ratings. His run-ins with Kenny Worthington ended Worthington’s championship hopes late in the season.

"Attrition was a big factor in the championship as the majority of drivers had E Repair ratings."

Very cool! I thought Pete did a great job of envisioning and executing his '60 SCRAM season! It's a classic tabletop success story, and I'm grateful to Pete for sharing it!

For those who'd like to borrow Pete's 1960 SCRAM Schedule for their own tabletop project, here it is...

Event 1 • Arizona State Fair 100 (Arizona, 1 mile dirt); track card, Rural County Fairgrounds.

Event 2 • Gulf Oil 301 (Gulf Coast, 1.366 mile paved); track card, Gulf Coast Speedway.

Event 3 • Sun King 300 (Florida, 1 mile paved); track card, Sun King Speedway.

Event 4 • Augusta 100 (Georgia, .5 mile dirt); track card, Deep South County Fairgrounds.

Event 5 • Greenville 100 (South Carolina, .5 mile dirt); track card, Small Town Speedway.

Event 6 • Southern 500 (South Carolina, 2.5 mile paved); track card, Southern Super Speedway.

Event 7 • Dot Cola 100 (North Carolina, .4 mile paved); track card, Dixie Regional Raceway.

Event 8 • Dogwood 500 (Virginia, .5 mile paved); track card, Eastern Seaboard Speedway.

Event 9 • Commonwealth 500 (Northern Virginia, .526 mile paved); track card, Commonwealth Speedway.

Event 10 • Bridgehampton 200 (Long Island, 2.5 mile road course); track card, California Road Track.

Event 11 • Mohawk 100 (Upstate NY, .5 mile dirt); track card, Ozarks Raceway.

Event 12 • Heidelberg 100 (Western PA, .5 mile dirt); track card, mall Town Speedway.

Event 13 • Mountaineer 100 (West Virginia, 1 mile dirt); track card, Rural County Fairgrounds.

Event 14 • Tar Heel 300 (North Carolina, 1 mile paved); track card, Heart O' Carolina Speedway.

Event 15 • Firecracker 250 (South Carolina, 2.5 mile paved); track card, Southern Super Speedway.

Event 16 • Sandlapper 200 (South Carolina, .5 mile dirt); track card, Deep South County Fairgrounds.

Event 17 • Plantation 100 (North Carolina, .4 mile paved); track card, Dixie Regional Raceway.

Event 18 • Old Dominion 500 (Virginia, .5 mile paved); track card, Eastern Seaboard Speedway.

Event 19 • Asheville 200 (North Carolina, .626 mile paved); track card, Metropolitan Motor Speedway.

Event 20 • Wilson 100 (North Carolina, .5 mile dirt); track card, Ozarks Raceway.

Event 21 • Lakewood 100 (Georgia, 1 mile dirt); track card, Rural County Fairgrounds.

Event 22 • Cardinal 500 (Northern Virginia, .526 mile paved); track card, Commonwealth Speedway.

Event 23 • Heart O' Carolina 400 (North Carolina, 1 mile paved); track card, Heart O' Carolina Speedway.

Event 24 • Gulf Oil 500 (1.366 mile paved) Gulf Coast; track card, Gulf Coast Speedway.

Event 25 • Sun King 500 (Florida, 1 mile paved); track card, Sun King Speedway.