GEORGETOWN, Del. — Standing tall on the Georgetown Speedway backstretch is a 30-foot billboard adorned with the Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company logo and a prominent number 49.
Each year, the Northeast dirt modified season kicks off in March with a 49-lap race paying homage to Melvin L. Joseph, the man who designed and constructed the Sussex County half-mile track in 1949 and hosted its opening just over 70 years ago in 1950.
The Melvin L. Joseph Memorial is set to kick off the Georgetown Speedway and Northeast dirt modified season this weekend. The weekend pinnacle is the 49-lap, $10,049-plus-to-win Bob Hilbert Sportswear Short Track Super Series opener for the Velocita-USA South Region Saturday. This event boasts a $33,889 minimum pay structure ($490 to take the green) plus plentiful bonuses, special awards and certificates.
Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company has added $49 per lap, a total of $2,401, which will be distributed through the top-seven running order during the event. The Saturday program also includes the STSS Crate 602 Sportsman Belmont’s Garage South Region opener plus 12-lap features for the Little Lincolns, Delaware Super Trucks and Delmarva Chargers.
Friday night kicks off the weekend with small-block modifieds headlining the program. Also competing on Friday are the RUSH Late Models, Southern Delaware Vintage Stock Cars, Delaware Super Trucks and Delmarva Chargers.
The business and racing legacy of Joseph, who passed away 16 years ago, will be on display during the weekend. Joseph founded Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company in 1940. However, it was the year 1949 that proved to be a turning point for him in business. His first major contract came in 1949 and he also became a partner in the Ford dealership in Georgetown. From all the good fortune that year, he declared ‘49’ his lucky number.
Joseph was also responsible for paving the majority of the roads in Delaware’s Sussex County, the expansion of Summit Airport, and overseeing many projects locally and abroad.
Joseph approached auto racing with the same determination and drive he had for business. His passion for speed began on the back roads of Sussex County in his Mercurys. That love led to the beaches of Florida. In 1955, his cars won both the NASCAR sportsman and modified events on the sands of Daytona Beach, Fla., with drivers Banjo Matthews and Vince Conrad.
Joseph became a pioneer in the development of NASCAR and developed a close relationship with Bill France Sr. In 1959, Joseph’s car – driven by Banjo Matthews – won the race by three miles in the first NASCAR modified race on the newly built Daytona Int’l Speedway.
Perhaps the most notable – and controversial – “win” for Joseph in NASCAR came at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston Salem, N.C., on Aug. 6, 1971 with Bobby Allison as his driver. At the time, sponsorship money was reduced from the ‘Big Three’ Detroit auto manufacturers, leading to less-than-full fields at some of the smaller purse events.
To bolster car count, NASCAR allowed teams from the Grand American Series – and their pony cars – to compete against the more powerful Grand National Series cars.
Allison opted to drive Joseph’s No. 49 Mustang, much more nimble than the bigger Grand National counterparts, on the quarter-mile oval and took the checkered with a three-second advantage over Richard Petty. Ultimately, NASCAR did not credit Allison with a Grand National victory, but as a Grand American victory, and that event, to this day, does not have a recognized Grand National (Cup Series) winner in the sanctioning body’s record books.
“I am trying to get that (win) reinstated,” Allison said during an appearance at Georgetown Speedway in 2018 at the Melvin L. Joseph Memorial. “There are a couple of reasons. One, Melvin Joseph deserves credit for it. And also, that would put me one win ahead of Darrell Waltrip (on the all-time NASCAR Cup win list, where Allison and Waltrip are tied for 84). I need that!”
Allison and Joseph developed a friendship that withstood the test of time. To this day, Allison watches the races at Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway from the Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company suite.
“I was dragging an old Modified around with my pick-up truck going up and down the road,” Allison said. “I went out of my way coming from New Jersey to come by Georgetown Speedway and Melvin Joseph’s company, just to see the thing with my own eyes. That was before I even knew him, before I got to know him.
“Melvin Joseph was my hero.”
When the time came to develop a NASCAR facility in Delaware, Joseph led the way. He utilized his established rapport with NASCAR leadership to construct Dover Int’l Speedway. Melvin L. Joseph Construction Company was contracted to build the one-mile speedway, which hosted its first race in 1969.
Appropriately, during the 2018 edition of the Melvin L. Joseph Memorial event, the State of Delaware placed a Historical Marker at the entrance of Georgetown Speedway, recognizing its legacy in the First State.