Myths of racing: NASCAR & the Moonshiners

Myths abound in motor racing. One that seems to have rolled right along for years upon years with scarcely a challenge is the one that places Southern moonshiners square in the center of the creation of NASCAR and without whom it would have never happened. A corollary is that until NASCAR and the efforts of Bill France and his associates the South/Southeast was a vast racing desert.

Most here at TNF are somewhat familiar with the events in the Southeast prior to the Great War and the planked board tracks which were built in the region at Laurel, Pineville, and Miami. Plus, there was the beach and road course at Daytona. However....

In 2002, the Journal of Southern History published an article by Randal L. Hall entitled, "Before NASCAR: The Corporate and Civic Promotion of Automobile Racing in the American South, 1903 - 1927." It is a good article and its focus is upon many of the events familiar to some of us, with the welcome addition of some additional research of course. The problem is that his coverage ends when it would be most beneficial -- the racing in the South during the 1920s and 1930s and the early-1940s.

Contrary to popular belief and carefully cultivated myth, there was racing in the American South during the period of these almost completely ignored decades. It is also dificult to conceive that while the folks dealing in the untaxed alcohol business were involved to some extent, that they were the entirety of rank and file of this racing -- which seems to be the staple of the NASCAR myth.

When you begin to dig even just a tiny bit into a source such as the Allan E. Brown book on American Speedway, you begin to find that there were more than a few speedways scattered about the South and in use during this period. Glance through a record book of the AAA Contest Board from the late-1940s and you will find listings for track records for speedways in such places as Wilson, Greensboro, Spartanburg, Macon and Columbia -- many set during a Big Car tour of the region in October 1940.

So, has someone done any work on this topic? Like so much of American racing, it seems to be a subject that has either been scarcely touched or the material hidden away somewhere and out of the mainstream -- or at least out of obvious sight.

What has prompted this is that several weeks ago I downloaded the Hall article and finally got around to reading this evening. Plus, I have been pondering this topic for some time, but with so many other things on my plate I just set it aside until I read the article. I never cease to be amazed at just how poorly the history of American racing is handled and how little interest there seems to be in the subject. But, then, I always say that....

At any rate, I think that when you begin to peer closely at the era in question, the fewer "moonshiners" you will find and folks who are more akin to those racing in California and the Midwest than those hauling illegal liquor -- not that they weren't involved, of course.....

Isn't it the myth behind the reality that makes for a good story!

M.L. Anderson

That's the trouble with one-dimensional depictions of history, isn't it? There's always more to the story, and far more interesting perspectives that tend to get lost in the narrative.

Red Vogt did build the best moonshine cars in the south. Raymond Parks bankrolled him and their best driver -- Lloyd Seay, who many still insist is the best stock car driver who ever lived -- was shot and killed in a dispute over a sack of sugar. Junior Johnson was indeed a moonshiner. He did Federal time at Chillicothe during his NASCAR career (not before, as the story is usually told) and after landing a Ford factory ride. These are all facts and there is no disputing them.

But if you don't understand the south, you can never understand who these people really were, or that they didn't represent the sport as a whole, let alone southern culture of the era. People forget that the South was (and is) the heart of the Bible Belt, occupied for the most part by teetotaling, God-fearing Christians. For every Junior Johnson or Lloyd Seay in stock car racing there was also a Lee Petty or a Ned Jarrett. Moonshining only existed and flourished because so much of the south remained dry even after Prohibition ended.

Stock car racing was not an outlaw or criminal culture, although in polite southern society it was certainly frowned upon. Stock car racers were seen in some quarters not as criminals so much as "white trash," associated with fairgrounds, filling stations and the underclass. Jarrett did his early racing under an alias for that reason. To this day a Petty car will not carry alcohol signage or run in an event with an alcohol-related title sponsor. Meanwhile auto racing in the south was not born with NASCAR. The sport took root in the south just as it did across the rest of the country, and at the same time. Ormond and Daytona beach, the Savannah races, the big board track in Charlotte...

Points well made, McGuire!

In his later years, didn't Big Bill France call Seay the best driver he'd ever seen?

Somewhere I read that moonshine manufacture was driven by the profit motive: it was the best way to make a decent amount of money from corn. The net income per load was considerably greater.

As a native New Englander, I grew up with the impression that Southerners possessed low intellect, drooled chewing tobacco, married their cousins, and talked funny. When I moved here >40 years ago, I was amazed to find that they actually walked upright, had opposable thumbs, and were often a darned sight smarter than a lot of Yankees...

Our project in Augusta has now been blessed by the Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame Association (GARHOFA) and they have a wonderful magzine called "Pioneer Pages". I have borrowed one of the photos from a recent copy and the above mentioned Red Vogt is shown. This is a mid-40's photograph.

This organization is attempting to preserve exactly what Don is saying.

Racing in the south invented NASCAR and it was not the other way around. A member of our group has photos dating back to the 1920's which indicate racing was alive and well in the Augusta area. I am sure this was the case throughout the south.

Henry

Don, I for one would love to see a book about the origins of southern racing. A fascinating story of which I know only a fragment.

Growing up in Virginia, the principal form of racing was the small dirt tracks or bullrings as they were called in those days. Ranging anywhere from 1/3 to 1 mile in length they dotted the landscape in the South of the late 1950's and into the 1960's.

In my hometown, the track was Southside Speedway which was out in middle of nowhere at that time. Races were run there every Friday or Saturday evenings as Richmond was one of the larger cities on that rota of tracks.

There were several "racing circuits" with the drivers who competed at Richmond racing their Modifieds and Super Modifieds almost every night of each week at South Boston, Martinsville, Winston-Salem, Fredricksburg, Norfolk, Bristol and a dozen others. Others were centered around Atlanta, Alabama, etc. with drivers moving from tour to tour occasionally. There were races for these guys four or five times per year at some of larger tracks such as Richmond Fairgrounds and Martinsville which also hosted the Grand National races of the period. Some of the promoters were very colorful as well. It was not at all uncommon to see the rivalries and frustrations of having a bent race car result in fisticuffs between the drivers after the race.

For those who remember, it was always doorhandle to doorhandle racing with a take no prisoners attitude as each driver, each a free agent and at most a team of one or two people, literally lived off of their winnings. A few moved up to Grand National but generally without much success as they earned more on the Modified circuit that was their specialty.

As a boy of 8 to early teens, it was great racing to watch sitting there on the old wooden bleachers with a rusty chicken-wire fence separating the spectators from the dust and noise of the cars listening to the barely audible PA system.

Such a long time ago now.

Has this site ever been mentioned here?

Racing in the south invented NASCAR and it was not the other way around. A member of our group has photos dating back to the 1920's which indicate racing was alive and well in the Augusta area. I am sure this was the case throughout the south.

The problem with nailing down the story of Southern motor racing during the period from 1903 until to 1947 is, as mentioned, the big gap covering the 1920s, 1930s, and most of the 1940s. As Henry points out, there is much evidence that racing was going on during this period, only that the materials are scattered hither and yon and no one has had any reason motivation or inclination to pull it all together in some form.

McGuire points something that seems to be less than a blinding flash of the obvious to those whose information on the American South of this period is more a product of the movies and bad novels: while there were Moonshiners and money from illegal liquor involved in Southern racing, this element was most certainly on the fringes of "polite" society. Not completely since there were those whose were in the cusp such as Raymond Parks who had a foot in each camp.

The stratification of Southern society was not merely on racial lines -- the most obvious and blatant bit of social and class divisions, but involved the other big one, the gap between "white trash" and everyone else. Long before and long after Federal prohibition, many of the Southern States continued to be at least partly "dry" by having liquor laws which allowed for local option or other such devices to create a crazy quiltwork of liquor regulations not only from State to State but within each State. These restrictions on alcohol were generally accepted by the society at large -- albeit with more than a bit of "wink-wink-nudge-nudge" that was fully in keeping with the generally cynical way large elements of "polite society"dealt with the problems generated by racism and other problems of the society that existed at the time.

Although the definition of "white trash" differs greatly according to whom you ask, it rarely incorporates the yeoman farmers and other such craftsmen of society. The lesser skiled mechanics at the gas stations and those who did other menial tasks that could be otherwise be delegated to African-Americans are generally those who fell into the "white trash" category -- especially if they frequented "road houses."

What gets lost in the shuffle with the myth NASCAR carefully nutures and the realities of the American South of the period is that the story is so interesting and probably parallels much of what was happening in the Northeast, Midwest, and Pacific Coast that I find it difficult that so little has been event attempted, much less produced from this period. I am happy to hear that Georgia has taken at least some steps to preserve the memory of this period.

I am happy to realize that I am not the only one with an interest in this era and region.

The Raymond Park photo above made me smile. "Novelty machine" is of course a euphemism for coin-operated gaming machines (from pool tables to slot machines) and product dispensers (cigarettes, prophylactics, etc). In other words, the machines often found in saloons, road houses, etc.

Traditionally, the routes and territories for the companies which owned and serviced these machines were the province of what passed for, in many communities, as "organized crime." In the big cities of the east and midwest these territories were the property of the major mobs, naturally; in other parts of the country the system was less organized. In any case, one can see how such a network of commercial customers would be an ideal market for a host of specialized products and services.

...and so it is not terribly difficult to connect the dots as to how Curtis Turner could find his way to the Teamsters' Union, of all people, when he ran into financing problems with cost overrruns in the construction of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

As everyone knows, at that time the Teamsters and its pension funds were involved with the mob in financing and operating the Las Vegas casinos. And as everyone also knows, Turner's potential financing reportedly came with strings attached...one being that Turner assist in organizing a driver's union. The mere suggestion of that got Turner an immediate ban for life by Big Bill France (which was later rescinded). For some reason, it is less commonly related that another (alleged) part of the Teamster plan was for pari-mutuel betting on auto racing at Charlotte. Think about it: a driver's union controlled by the Teamsters, with a race track and betting operation controlled by same... raises some interesting possibilities for opportunities in free enterprise, doesn't it?

Please understand I am not charging that Raymond Parks, Curtis Turner, or any personalities in NASCAR were involved in high-level organized crime. I am simply suggesting that folks who travel in certain social circles may happen to make acquaintances with other folks in the same or related circles.

This is an entirely differerent tangent and is in danger of pitching, rolling, and yawing us into another set of possible shoals, but those who waded into the promotion of both the events and the ownership of the tracks in the American South during this period did not come from the aristocracy of the region. Neither were they "white trash." They came from that vague area of the Southern Middle Class which was below the bankers, artisans, and professionals and moreorless lumped in with the country store owners and those who simply were sort of like catfish in that they hovered just above the flounders and below the perch and bass.

However, the problem is addressing the rather sizeable gap in Southern motor racing which falls roughly between about 1912 and the end of 1947. Generally, whenever attention get pointed in this direction, it gets deflected into another area of NASCAR's history. Of course, a scholastic study of NASCAR's labor relations would be an welcomed. Then again the bookshelves containing academic studies of Southern labor relations of this group and era are not exactly plentiful.

How many other Red Parkers were out there and where?

By the way, anyone have something on the AAA Southern swing that Ted Horn and the others conducted in November 1940? It is possible that they raced on the one-mile track at the State Fairgrounds in Columbia for the first time since about 1912 -- somewhat ironic cnsidering that the track had been originally constructed for motor racing in 1910 and then taken over for horse racing.

Well only marginally on topic but it does relate to who owned the tracks and criminal connections. Raceway Park in Blue Island near Chicago which was still racing until just a few years ago, was supposedly owned by a guy named Pete Jenin. But it was actually owned in the 1950s by Tufanelli who ran the South Side mob activities for Al Capone. Tufanelli also owned open wheel race cars and had Indy 500 entries. It was not common knowledge that Tufanelli owned the track but my father knew it because he grew up in Springfield with a whole bunch of guys who ended up being mob guys and he knew Tufanelli very well. He also knew Mike Boyle who was connected to the mob in some way. Boyle owned the Maserati Wilber Shaw won Indy twice in 1939 and 1940.

Sometime in the 1950s Jenin was shortchanging the racers on purse, claiming less attendance than was actually showing up. So the racers got some of the wives to count the gate for about a month as the people came in. Then they confronted Jenin with their statistics and he denied everything. So my dad called up Tufanelli and told him what was going on. This was of course hardball because it might have meant Jenin would take a cement induced ride to the bottom of Lake Michigan if he was doing it on his own and skimming from Tufanelli. Tufanelli was furious and claimed he had no idea. He said he would straighten it out and he did. Jenin stayed alive though and still in charge so I don't know what went on behind the scenes. But it was not always a good old boys club. One of the best drivers, Bob Pronger, who stole cars for the chop shops run by Tufanelli, eventually ended up vanished.

I thought that maybe Allan E. Brown's encyclopedic book America's Speedways might shed some light on this subject and it does, but not a whole lot. At least not for South Carolina.

I checked the entries for SC and nearly all of them are postwar facilities. However, the listing for the Columbia Fairgrounds track is interesting: built in 1910 as a dirt oval and ran cars 'til 1916, but mostly horses thereafter til Oct '40. Last race listed there was Oct '41. No mention of Ted Horn, tho' that certainly doesn't rule him out.

A quick glance at Augusta, GA notes a track I hadn't noticed before: a 1/2 mile dirt track which ran here 1914 - 1929. That one will certainly bear some research at our local library.

More to follow...

Well, here's a start...folks here certainly know how to pick it up and research from here...

Ft. Smith, Arkansas...Barney Oldfield ran here in 1910 and the track survived into the 1950's.

Savannah, of course -- home of the ACA Cup races and then host of the Vanderbilt Cup.

Ormand and Daytona Beach -- the birthplace of speed, as they say. Who was behind those events and why is an interesting story.

Atlanta Motordrome -- a high-banked two-mile dirt oval built by the founder of Coca-Cola, billed as the "Indianapolis of the South." Louis Chevrolet won the first race in 1909 or 1910...sat exactly where the airport is now.

Charlotte Speedway-- a Jack Prince 1.25 mile board track than ran from 1924 to 1926. Banked 40 degrees. This is where Ernie Ansterberg bought it.

Miami-Fulford Speedway, a 50% banked board track built around 1925. One race was held there, won by Pete DePaulo. Done in by fire or hurricane ( ? ) but people tell me the ruins were visible for many years.

Henry Plant Field, Tampa Florida...1/2 mile dirt built in 1921; the big cars ran here. IMCA ran sprints and midgets there well into the late 1970s as I recall.

The Iron Bowl in Birmingham. The IMCA big cars ran there too, and before WWII I am pretty sure. It was no more than one mile dead north of where BHM airport is now, and about ten miles west of Barber Motorsports Park. Another 50 miles down the road there is a gallery at the Talladega Museum & Hall of Fame devoted to area short track racing.

Loiusiana State Fairgrounds, another ancient southern track that ran regular IMCA events into the 1950's.

Lakewood, Georgia...fairgrounds...the track where George Robson punched out.

Wheeling, W. Va. where the AAA ran in 1911 and is still a hayburner facility.

There must be dozens more I can't think of. You could also research from the perspective of drivers from the south who made it big up north.

Yes, NASCAR has overshadowed much of the early narrative, but then NASCAR pretty much overshadows everything these days. The history is there; you have only to go out and find it.
No, there is no definitive book about southern racing pre-NASCAR. Only a few hundred people would buy it, and you anoraks would just pick it apart anyway. Looks like an excellent niche for some writer/historian -- one of you ought to go for it. Put me down for two copies. Me, I would title it "Before there was NASCAR." You will sell 15,000 copies AND gaurantee decent retail distribution just by putting NASCAR in the title.

Originally posted by Buford
He also knew Mike Boyle who was connected to the mob in some way. Boyle owned the Maserati Wilber Shaw won Indy twice in 1939 and 1940.

That would be "Umbrella" Mike Boyle (very snappy dresser), who was business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Chicago local. Someone should start a thread called Chicago racers.

Broadly related to this interesting thread is the story I read somewhere about some "good ol' boy tuner" who recalled in an interview that he prepared cars both for the moonshiners and for the (?) "Feds" who were pursuing them.

Asked by his interviewer who got the better engines the old tuner replied "Well, the moonshiners paid cash on the nail"!

PdeRL

I concur. Some folks ought to be getting out and interviewing all those old Living Legends like Buck Baker, Junior Johnson, Rex White and lesser luminaries for their pre-NASCAR stories. Another decade or so and they won't be around to relate that first-hand history.

I recently heard a Medal of Honor recipient describe his thoughts during his heroic actions: "If not me, who? If not now, when?"

If I weren't still gainfully employed 50 hours/week, I'd be inclined to grab a tape recorder and try it myself...

Originally posted by Don Capps
Myths abound in motor racing. One that seems to have rolled right along for years upon years with scarcely a challenge is the one that places Southern moonshiners square in the center of the creation of NASCAR and without whom it would have never happened. A corollary is that until NASCAR and the efforts of Bill France and his associates the South/Southeast was a vast racing desert.

Don, first...as usual, a very well written passage.

The heart of this myth lies with the mainstream media, who continually perpetuate and reinforce it at every turn. NASCAR's "new popularity" (which actually means those within the non-racing media have "discovered" it) has led to a marked increase in items and stories in print and broadcast mediums done by those who know nothing about the subject. This for a variety of factors - their lack of factual or actual knowledge, lack of effort, and in many cases lack of interest. When those are coupled with poor research ability, one is left with the old, convenient stereotypes to fall back on. And if one does research within "mainstream" ranks, one will only find these sort of references. Moreover, as you wrote in another thread Don, it's easier to simply repeat what the last one did.

The reinforcement and entrenching of this myth gets deep, deep into media stereotypes and attitudes. Their beliefs and attitudes, which should be labelled what they know - because they are firmly convinced it is this way - interfere with facts. Of course, NASCAR could have made an effort to dispell this, much the way Charlotte Motor Speedway once sent out press releases on crowd surveys attempting to dispell the myth of redneck and "white trash" spectators (I suspect a Mr. Wheeler had a role in those) - but NASCAR chose to accept the cash. No one is worse about this than their broadcast partners - Fox and NBC, not so much in content but in amount. To them, it's promotion. One of many reasons I have such a disdain for contemporary NASCAR. Marketing and facts apparently are mutually exclusive to them.

Quite a change of attitude in the front office at Daytona. I still recall reading a letter to Sports Illustrated from "Big" Bill France complaining about the stereotypes and errors in a piece they ran on the 'Daytona 500'.

I can cite several recent examples of this sort of thing, but there isn't space for more than a couple. A Fox Sports magazine show on how NASCAR is "now not Southern anymore" and how Kasey Kahne coming from the far-off outpost of Washington state proves this. Certain sportscasters in Los Angeles can still be counted on to affect a cartoonish, outlandishly stereotypical "Southern" drawl while reading "highlights" of NASCAR events at least a couple of times each year. And what to make of it when they do this while showing Greg Biffle from Oregon and Kevin Harvick from California? (well, other than they fact they are complete twits). And, by the way, only a few of these sportscasters are from the Los Angeles area, they are simply repeating what they've seen others doing (at one point less than 10 years ago, there was only one sportscaster on any Los Angeles station who grew up in the area). Sportscasters and sports directors from large metropolitan cities like Chicago, New York and Boston have created a tremendous amount of this - which again, is constantly perpetuated. It's a vicious circle.

The old saw about repeating a myth enough and it becomes a fact comes to mind. I wanted to mention a great piece written by Joyce Standridge that applies, but that's for a later post. This was stream of semi-consciousness enough

And it hasn't veered off Don, because this truly is the crux of the matter.

Take it up with them...I'll be here, offering empathy. Been there, done that. Don Quixote and Sisyphus come to mind.

Originally posted by Lotus23
I concur. Some folks ought to be getting out and interviewing all those old Living Legends like Buck Baker, Junior Johnson, Rex White and lesser luminaries for their pre-NASCAR stories. Another decade or so and they won't be around to relate that first-hand history.

Sadly, Buck Baker has already passed. There aren't many pre-NASCAR racers still with us. The meeting at the Streamline Motel on Atlantic Avenue in Daytona Beach was in December 1947...so that was erm, 57 years ago. Every time I'm in town I stop and take a photo... I always expect the next time I arrive the place will be gone. Smokey's shop on Beach Street is coming down this year, I understand. Best Damn Garage in Town. He called it that partly to get under the skin of Big Bill, who owned a gas station nearby. BTW, France was a bit of a carpetbagger himself -- he wasn't from around those parts. I better stop here as I am already sideways with Capps for highjacking his thread. I blame all of you for getting me started.

Back to the idea of moonshine and southern racing... I believe they once busted a still on the grounds of the Macon Raceway in central Georgia.

Also, I must say that here in the south, distinct social groups still exist, and some of the groups are kind of rough; perhaps not the white trash you reference, but certainly fitting some modern definition. SCCA was always nice, with no problems other than the normal bickering. Such was not the case in my circle track experiences. I've been threatened with a tire iron in the pits at a track here in the Atlanta area, and a friend of mine had his ankle broken in a fight in the pits at that same speedway, just last year.

Kart racing in the south has the worst reputation. When a guy who races with a hunting knife on his belt, and who is missing half of his teeth and sporting a "skullet" (see urbandictionary.com) tells you to "watch out, this track is eat up with rednecks", you know you've descended into a whole new level of hell. Rules? "We do whatever is right at the moment."

Quarter midgets weren't much better at times. The track in Atlanta in the early 90's was built next door to a prison. One kid's father used to cheer her on from inside of the fence just up the hill. I saw numerous fights, involving both kids and their parents. Best of all was the cold shoulder I received because they assumed I was from "the north". Upon finding out that I was born in North Carolina and raised from an early age in Atlanta, they forgave me, but were very clear that with my wife hailing from Pennsylvania, they considered my marriage to be a "mixed marriage".

As has been said though, this hardly represented the majority of those I encountered. The Bible Belt indeed it is, and I cherish some of the dear friends I've made over the years in racing. Still, that rough element was always there. To this day, if I'm on my bike in traffic and find myself smelling the mixture of unburnt gas, burned oil, and cigarettes, it definitely takes me back. It's quite a different life from the slightly stuffy and conservative arts community in which I earn a living, and I've always been careful not to mix those two aspects of my life.

Originally posted by Jim Thurman
The heart of this myth lies with the mainstream media, who continually perpetuate and reinforce it at every turn.

Journalist's artifice. It's a simple and colorful story, easy to tell, and the ideal hook for lazy sportswriters who can't think up a lead or thesis of their own. They can also throw some awful southern eye-dialect into the piece to go with this twice-told tale. Tars, ya'll.

As you say, it is ironic...for years NASCAR did all it could to shed the moonshiner image and the hick demographic. Have you ever noticed that country music NEVER plays as bumper music on the TV broadcasts? Those are the orders from on high, at International Speedway Blvd. But then...at the beginning of the new 3-D Imax movie, they have this dreadful setup piece with two drivers playing 'shine haulers, and Mike Helton and Gary Nelson playing two rev'nooers chasing them. Pathetic.

At the Talladega spring race this year, NASCAR PR put out a big statement about "NASCAR dads" (the media buzz that news cycle) insisting its fans represented a cross section of American life and thought, not stereotypical good old boys. Later that day, 50,000 beer cans fell out of the stands on Jeff Gordon. Whoo-hoo.

The above mentioned Buck Baker at the never to return 1/2 mile Augusta oval and wonders of what he could have told this group. I discovered today there "was/is" another track, "Speedway Park", just a few miles from our project that is now covered by a four lane highway.

Henry



Who will do what needs to be done for those that are not yet here?

Originally posted by HistoricMustang
I discovered today there "was/is" another track, "Speedway Park", just a few miles from our project that is now covered by a four lane highway.

Henry



Who will do what needs to be done for those that are not yet here?

Speedway Park was a dirt quarter mile in Martinez which closed in 1964

Originally posted by McGuire


That would be "Umbrella" Mike Boyle (very snappy dresser), who was business manager for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Chicago local. Someone should start a thread called Chicago racers.

Right - and my dad was an electrical contractor. They sat in Boyle's first turn box at Indy in 1939 and went to the victory party in a downtown Indy hotel that year.

Just to give an idea of what might be missing.....

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In 1916, the following were AAA events in the Southern part of the USA:

No. 969 / 4 September 1916 / Benning Race Track / Washington, DC / one-mile dirt
No. 991 / 14 October 1916 / Fair Grounds Track / Richmong, VA / one-mile dirt
No. 1000 / 30 November 1916 / Bennings Race Track / Washington, DC / one-mile dirt

**************************************

From the AAA Contest Board Official Record Book that was published at the end of the 1950 season, some Southern track records, pre-February 1948/pre-NASCAR:

Arlington Downs, TX / one & 1/16-mile track
2 November 1947
-- 1 lap/ Duke Nalon & 95 laps/ Ted Horn

Lakewood Speedway -- Atlanta, GA / one-mile track
4 July 1938
-- 5 laps/ Tony Willman
7 July 1946
-- 50 laps/ Ted Horn

State Fair Grounds -- Columbia, SC / one-mile dirt
26 October 1940
-- 1, 5 & 15 laps/ Ted Horn

High Point Motor Speedway -- High Point, NC / one-mile
20 October 1940
-- 1 lap/ Duke Nalon
-- 10 & 40 laps/ Tony Willman

Charlotte, NC / half-mile dirt
19 October 1940
-- 30 laps/ Joie Chitwood

Clarksburg, WV / half-mile
13 August 1939
-- 1, 10 & 25 laps/ Mark Light

Greensboro, NC / half-mile
23 June 1946
-- 25 laps/ Ted Horn

Jacksonville, FL / half-mile
16 November 1947
-- 1 & 20 laps/ Ted Horn
-- 8 laps/ Joie Chitwood
-- 10 laps/ Walt Brown

Keller, VA / half-mile
31 August 1947
-- 1, 8 & 20 laps/ Ted Horn
-- 6 laps/ Len Koenig

Macon, GA / half-mile
30 November 1947
-- 1, 8 & 20 laps/ Ted Horn

Raleigh, NC / half-mile
14 October 1939
-- 8 laps/ Lee Wallard
-- 10 laps/ Ted Horn

Richmond, VA / half-mile
28 September 1940
-- 30 laps/ Ted Horn
12 October 1946
-- 8 & 20 laps/ Ted Horn
11 October 1947
-- 1 lap/ Ted Horn

Shelby, NC / half-mile
10 October 1936
-- 10 & 30 laps/ Frank Beeder
27 September 1947
-- 8 laps/ Mark Light
-- 16 laps/ B. Warke

Spartanburg, SC / half-mile
14 October 1939
-- 30 laps/ Tony Willman
13 October 1940
-- 1 & 10 laps/ Mark Light

Wilson, NC / half-mile
2 November 1935
-- 30 laps/ Vern Orenduff
9 October 1937
-- 1 lap/ Frank Beeder
19 October 1939
-- 10 & 25 laps/ Joie Chitwood

Winston-Salem, NC / half-mile
5 October 1940
-- 1, 10 & 30 lap/ Joie Chitwood
5 October 1946
-- 8 & 20 laps/ Hank Rogers

Houston, TX / quarter-mile
1 November 1940
-- 75 laps/ B. Rackley

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Okay, since there seems to be relatively little AAA action in the the South during the 1920s, 1930s, and prior to February 1948, who "sanctioned" the events? IMCA? How did the promoters organize the events? Who ran in the races?

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Let us not forget that ARCA, of all people, did hold an event in the American South during this period -- their road race at Memphis in conjunction with the 1936 Cotton Festival.

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On 25 November 1920, there was a AAA-sanctioned road race in Savannah over a course approximately three miles in length. There were two events, one 30 miles and the other 45 miles, both CLass D Free-for-All. C.B. Humbert, driving a Packard, won both events. In the second evert, mechanician Neal Bolton died when the Dodge driven by Copps wrecked on the 10th lap.

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Some of the relevant tracks mentioned by Gordon White in Lost Race Tracks.....

-- Iron Bowl / Birmingham, Al
-- Jenny Lind Track / Fort Smith, AR
-- Miami-Fulford Speedway / Fulford, FL
-- Plant Field/ Tampa, FL
-- Atlanta Motordrome / Atlanta, GA
-- Louisiana State Fair Grounds / Shreveport, LA
-- Central Carolina Fairground / Greensboro, NC
-- Charlotte Fairgrounds / Charlotte, NC
-- Columbia Speedway / Cayce, SC
-- Wheeling West Virginia Fairgrounds / Wheeling, WV

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From the Allen E. Brown (1994) book, a quick skimming for relevant tracks....

Alabama
-- Andalusia Fairgrounds
-- Anniston
-- Dothan Fairgrounds
-- Alabama State Fairgrounds/ Birmingham
-- Idle Hour Speedway/ Phenix City
-- Iron Bowl/ Birmingham
-- Gulf Coast Fairgrounds/ Mobile
-- Montgomery Fairgrounds
-- Lee County Fairgrounds/ Opelika
-- Sumiton Speedway

Arkansas
-- Arkansas State Fairgrounds/ Little Rock
-- Blytheville Fairgrounds
-- Fort Smith Fairgrounds
-- Jonesboro Fairgrounds
-- Little Rock Speedway
-- Rodeo Arena Speedway/ North Little Rock
-- Round-Up Midget Race Track/ North Little Rock
-- Texarkana Fairgrounds
-- Whittington Park Speedway/ Hot Springs

District of Columbia
-- Benning Speedway
-- Bennings Race Track
-- Capitol Speedway
-- Washington Stadium

Florida
-- Bradley Horse Track/ Fort Lauderdale
-- Bryant Stadium/ Lakeland
-- Camp Foster/ Jacksonville
-- Daytona Beach
-- Deland Midgets Speedway
-- Fernandina Beach
-- Flagler speedway Park
-- Fulford-Miami Speedway
-- Funland Park/ Miami
-- Jacksonville Beach
-- Jacksonville Fairgrounds
-- Journalista Speedway/ Cocoa Beach
-- Kissimmee Stadium
-- Legion Field Stadium/ Pensacola
-- Longwood
-- Miami
-- Miami Motor Speedway
-- New Smyrna Beach
-- Orange Bowl/ Miami
-- Ormond Beach
-- Pablo Beach/ Jacksonville
-- Pensacola Motor Speedway
-- Phillips Field/ Tampa
-- Plant Field/ Tampa
-- Pompano Beach Speedway
-- Saint Augustine Beach
-- Seminole Speedway/ Castleberry
-- South Airport Speedway/ Miami
-- Tangerine Bowl/ Orlando
-- The Shore/ Tampa-Oldmar
-- Tropical Speedway/ Jacksonville
-- Volusia County Fairgrounds/ Deland
-- West Palm Beach
-- West Palm Beach High School Stadium

Georgia
-- Albany Fairgrounds
-- Atlanta
-- Atlanta Motordrome/ Hapeville
-- Atlanta Speedway/ Chattahoochee Speedway/ Dixie Speedway/ Hamilton Speedway
-- Atlanta Speedway
-- Cedartown Fair Speedway
-- Centennial Stadium/ Macon
-- Central City Park Speedway/ Georgia State Fairgrounds/ Macon
-- Columbus
-- Columbus Fairgrounds
-- Dan Bowles speedway/ Augusta
-- Eastman Fairgrounds/ American Legion Fairgrounds/ Dodge County Fairgrounds/ Eastman
-- Gainesville Fairgrounds/ Northeast Georgia Fairgrounds/ Gainesville Speedway
-- Gold Star Speedway/ Savannah
-- Griffin Speedway
-- Habersham Speedway/ Toccoa
-- Lake Winnepansaukie Speedway/ Dixie Speedway/ Ringgold
-- Lakeside Fairgrounds Speedway/ Augusta
-- Lakewood Speedway/ Southeastern Fairgrounds/ Atlanta
-- New Atlanta Speedway
-- Ocilla Speedway
-- Savannah
-- Savannah Fair Speedway
-- Savannah Speedway
-- Savannah Gold Cup Course
-- Sea Island Beach/ Savannah
-- Sessions Lake/ Dublin
-- Skyway speedway/ Calhoun
-- Stockbridge
-- Thomaston Super Speedway
-- Thomasville

To Be Continued.......

Just discovered the CSRA which was a foe of NASCAR. This is a quote:

"Just as a rivals intentions forced Bill France's hand to stage the first "Strictly Stock" race the previous year, the announcement by a rival league, the CSRA, was going to stage a 500 mile event caused France to quickly reconsider. While the planned 500 mile race drew enormous media attention, it did not draw a lot of entrants. There were a couple reasons for that. NASCAR ruled their roost with an iron fist in those days, and any driver competing in race put on by a rival sanctioning body immediately lost all his points accumulated towards the NASCAR championship to that point. Secondly Mason Brenner, head of the CSRA had planned to hold his race at the Lakewood track in Georgia. Lakewood was a rough as a cob one mile dirt track that would have destroyed cars and probably caused the second dust bowl in the rural South. France sat down with Brenner and said he would have no trouble providing enough drivers to fill the field, and thus the planned event was co-sponsored by NASCAR and the CSRA. France was also able to convince Brenner, if there was to be a 500 mile race the paved mile and a quarter track at Darlington was a far more suitable place to hold the event. Brenner quickly agreed and history was made".

Lakewood Speedway had a rich history that pre-dated NASCAR. The other Atlanta track, Candler Field, which now sits below the Atlanta International Airport (Hartsfield) predated Lakewood.

I believe Lakewood holds the snapshot that Don is trying to find. The WWW has very little on either.

In my talks with GARHOFA members the Lakewood Speedway keeps coming up in conversation. Perhaps some answers can be found if we can locate some history. This mention of the CSRA troubles me because my southern heritage does not recall this racing organization.

Modern day Lakewood: http://terraserver.m...y=9330&z=16&w=1

Henry

Lakewood Speedway three part history:

http://www.livingleg..._lakewood1.html

Henry

- Stock car race dates -
The following list was compiled mostly around the "occasional race program being offered at Ebay" (sorry for mentioning Ebay again, but it’s the only source that sometimes delivers something on this topic - some info from the LLOAR site is also included) :

1936, Mar. 8 - Daytona, 250 M., won by Milt Marion
1937, Mar. 14 - Daytona, 100 M., won by Tommy Elmore
1938, Jul. 4 - Daytona, won by Lloyd Moody
1938, Sep. 5 - Labor Day Festival, Daytona, won by Smokey Purser
1938 - Lakewood (First Stock Car race on this track), won by Lloyd Seay
1939, Mar. 19 - Daytona, 150 Miles
1939, Jul. 4 - Daytona, 150 Miles
1939, Nov. 11 - Spartanburg
1940, Mar. 30 - Lockhart Memorial, Daytona, 160 M., won by Roy Hall
1940, Jul. 7 - Daytona
1940, Sep. 2 - Labor Day Festival, Daytona
1941, Mar. 3 - „Bundles For Britain“, Daytona, won by Roy Hall
1941, Mar. 30 - Lockhart Memorial, Daytona, 160 M., won by Smokey Purser
1941, May 12 - High Point, 150 M.
1941, May 25 - Lakewood, 100 M.
1941, Jun. 29 - High Point, 150 M.
1941, Jul. 4 - Southern States Fairgrounds, Charlotte
1941, Jul. 27 - Daytona
1941, Aug. 24 - Daytona, won by Lloyd Seay
1941, Aug. 31, High Point, won by Lloyd Seay
1941, Sep. 1 - Lakewood, won by Lloyd Seay
1941, Nov. 2 - Lloyd Seay Memorial, Lakewood, won by Jap Brogton
1946, Feb. 24 - Ralph Hankinson Memorial, Longwood, won by Red Byron
1946, Apr. - Daytona, won by Red Byron
1946, Jun. 30 - Daytona
1946, National Championship - won by Ed Samples
1947, Jan. 26 - Daytona, 160 M., won by Red Byron
1947, Mar. 9 - Daytona (promoted by NCSCA), 100 M.
1947, May 5 - North Wilkesboro, won by Fonty Flock
1947, Jun. 8 - Greenville-Pickens (NCSCA), won by Fonty Flock
1947, Jun. 15 - Greensboro, won by Fonty Flock
1947, Jun. 22 - North Wilkesboro (NCSCA), won by Fonty Flock
1947, Jul. 13 - Trenton (probably organized by NCSCA), won by Fonty Flock
1947, Jul. 20 - Dover, won by Glenn Dunnaway
1947, Jul. 27 - North Wilkesboro (NCSCA)
1947, Jul. - Greensboro, won by Bob Flock
1947, Sep. 7 - Martinsville (NCSCA), won by Red Byron
1947, Sep. 14 - North Wilkesboro (NCSCA)
1947, Oct. 23 - Lakewood, won by Tim Flock
1947, Oct. - Spartanburg
1947, Nov. 9 - North Wilkesboro
1947, Dec. 7 - Jacksonville
1947 (summer) - Charlotte, won by Fonty Flock
1947 (summer) - High Point, won by Fonty Flock
1947 National Championship won by Fonty Flock


notes/questions:

(1) What was the name of the Bill France-run, championship-promoting organisation in 1947? From modern sources I understand it was NCSCC (National Championship Stock Car Circuit), but I’ve seen scans of at least four different program covers, all stating: "promoted by NCSCA (National Championship Stock Car Association)". What about 1946 - I don’t have any material on that.

(2) Was there already a championship in 1941? I have a note on the Charlotte race, that speaks of "championship features", and a scan of an entry form for Lakewood (May 25) that says "All-American championship", but never seen any championship results.

(3) LLOAR on the 1947 championship season: "After a short career in AAA cars, Byron returned to stock cars in 1947 and won half of his 18 races. Although he competed in less than half of the races that year, he finished third in points." - this means: 37 championship races at least, so my list is still very incomplete. Who can fill in the gaps?

(4) Who ran in the races? How about this for a start:
"Here we have some REAL Pre Nascar History. Before NASCAR was formed, Bill France was involved with a Stock car assoc called NCSCA National Championship Stock Car Assoc.. Race program is for a modified car race at North Wilkesboro North Carolina Speedway for Sunday Sept 14th 1947. Early Race programs did not have alot in them, a few local ads a few pictures, This one has 12 pages and a NSCCA Stock Car Points Standing Sheet !a list ofprobable entries that included..FRed Mahon,Fonty Flock,Glen Dunaway,Cotton Owens,Harry Brown,Ed Samples,Jack Smith,McMichel,Buck Baker,Jack Etheridge,Buddy Shuman,Marshall Teague,Bill Sockwell,Gwyn Staley,Billy Carden,Carson Dyer,Red Byron,Bob Flock,Wild Bill Snowden,Henry Weevil,Louis Taylor,red Vogt,Skimp Hersey,Bill Blair,Olin Allin,Joe Eubanks,Guy Walker,Lucky Sauer,Johnny Rogers,George Montooth,Johnny Grubb,Robert Durham,Louis Hawkins,Harold Ballard,Hugh Langford,Lee Morgan,Lee Powell,Micky Finn,Jimmy Lewellen,Bernard Mitchell,Buck Mathis,Norman Wrigley,Raymond Parks,Paul Sandborn,E T Powell."
(copied from Ebay, without changing or correcting anything).

(5) I’ve heard that Speed Age did some coverage of stock car racing starting in 1947. It’s a bit hard to get over here in Europe...so, does anyone have it? I’d also be interested in the 1948 season - always thought the break was the introduction of the Grand National/Strictly Stock-Championship in 1949. The 1948 season was probably very similar to the two preceding years, just the name of the organisation had changed, and results from 1948 are also quite hard to get.

(6) Who ran in the races, part II - Entry list from Daytona, July 7, 1940:

Slightly off-topic: Jim, you are correct about the Boston media. There are sports stations which make a point of not showing racing highlights on sportscasts, while not far away in places like Hartford, Springfield, or Portland it gets much more attention.

The 2 races in New Hampshire have brought some more publicity - Newman blasting the new points system (which I agree with!) was a headline on a quiet post-4th sports monday. Unfortunately a couple years ago the big sports radio station spent a day at the track - and it happened to be when Kenny Irwin was killed.

High Speed at Low Tide and Volume I - "The Beginning" 1949-1958 (the latter being the first part of his series on the history and record of NASCAR's Grand National Division) by Greg Fielden are among the very few readily available books which even discuss this era in any depth or understanding.

What seems to be my take on much of this topic is that few have really bothered to "write it down" or "haven't done much with it and probably won't" or "not much interest by folks and other things to do" -- these being the responses I received when I looked into this many years ago, about the time Greg Fielden produced his first books on the subject.

As 'hinnershitz' demonstrates, quite a bit of racing going in the American South in the immediate pre & post-WW2 years. "Stock car" was something that the AAA Contest Board had dabbled with during the 1920s and 1930s -- and well before that, of course, with events at such venues as the Atlantic City board track, Mines Field, and Elgin.

I have the first few years of Speed Age -- complete -- and they are quite a nice source for getting an idea as to the pulse of American racing in the period starting with 1947 and the first moments of NASCAR -- as NASCAR -- in 1948 and beyond. Bill France was very, very active on the racing scene as a promoter well before NASCAR saw the light of day.

The lack coverage and interest in the period and region we are turning over rocks and peering at what is found there is typical of what most of us already know, only a very few really care about history, especially if it involves a story that is perhaps more interesting than the myths and legends that are being peddled. One great disappointment of the 50th anniversary celebration of NASCAR was the dearth of books that actually added much to the true roots of NASCAR. Then again, consider the struggle it has been to make folks understand that American racing did not begin with the 1911 International Sweepstakes event at Indianapolis.....

Originally posted by Lotus23
Somewhere I read that moonshine manufacture was driven by the profit motive: it was the best way to make a decent amount of money from corn. The net income per load was considerably greater.

Well, slightly off topic, but that was exactly the issue that led to the first big internal crisis of the United States, the Whiskey Rebellion. It was MUCH MUCH cheaper and easier for farmers in the far away lands of Western Pennsylvania to ship their corn over the Appalachian Mountains in liquid form to eastern ports. Even then, government was allergic to people making and keeping money, and started taxing the heck out of whiskey.

I think that shipping was not as big a deal in the 1940s as it was in the 1780s

Oganizations in that are attempting to do as we are discussing:

The previously mentioned Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame Association (GARHOFA)

Alabama Auto Racing Pioneers

Williams Grove Old Timers

Garden State Vintage Stock Car Club

National Sprint Car Hall of Fame

Georgia Vintage Racing Association

Bowling Green Speedway Preservation Society

Living Legends of Auto Racing

Vintage Stock Car Racing Association of Kentucky

Old Timers of Racing (North Carolina)

Maine Vintage Race Car Association

I am sure there are more.

Henry

Originally posted by hinnershitz
What was the name of the Bill France-run, championship-promoting organisation in 1947? From modern sources I understand it was NCSCC (National Championship Stock Car Circuit), but I’ve seen scans of at least four different program covers, all stating: "promoted by NCSCA (National Championship Stock Car Association)". What about 1946 - I don’t have any material on that.

When in 1935 Malcolm Campbell found the beach course between Daytona and Ormond no longer suitable for record attempts and relocated to Bonneville, city fathers saw their tourism dollars disappearing and sought ways to recoup. So the first stock car race on the beach in 1937 was promoted and sanctioned by the AAA for the city of Daytona Beach, which lost its shirt to the tune of $20,000. The AAA then departed. From there the event was picked up and promoted by Bill France and his race car sponsor, a local restauranteur named Charlie Reese, with the help of local civic organizations beginning with the Elks. By 1939 France was operating three events per year on the beach, which continued through '40 and '41, but naturally ended after Pearl Harbor.

After the war (1946) France approached the AAA about placing stock car racing under the umbrella of their authority and prestige. When they told him to take a hike he formed the NCSCC. Its first champion in 1946 was Fonty Flock. (Fonty Flock was of course the older brother of Tim Flock, who with Curtis Turner later attempted to form the Federation of Professional Athletes -- the NASCAR driver's union...in order, it is said, to provide Teamsters financing for Charlotte Motor Speedway, then being developed by Turner and Bruton Smith. While Turner's lifetime suspension was later rescinded, Flock's never was.)

The purpose of the famous meeting at the Streamline Motel in December 1947 was to bring together the NCSCC with all the other regional sanctioning bodies and promoters then operating throughout the south. While the effort was extremely successful in establishing a central authority, a number of independent organizations continued to operate with varying degrees of coooperation (or not) with France and NASCAR. Including NARL, CSRA, and NSCRA (National Stock Car Racing Association) which was operated by none other than Bruton Smith. A lot of these relationships go back a very long way...

Originally posted by ggnagy


Well, slightly off topic, but that was exactly the issue that led to the first big internal crisis of the United States, the Whiskey Rebellion. It was MUCH MUCH cheaper and easier for farmers in the far away lands of Western Pennsylvania to ship their corn over the Appalachian Mountains in liquid form to eastern ports. Even then, government was allergic to people making and keeping money, and started taxing the heck out of whiskey.

Hardly off-topic at all. As you say these tensions go back centuries, and were only greatly heightened by the Civil War and its aftermath. This is why local authorities allowed moonshining to flourish whle the Federal government sought to stamp it out. While the southern denizenry might not have approved of bootlegging, they would never take the side of Federal authority under any circumstances.

Originally posted by McGuire


Hardly off-topic at all. As you say these tensions go back centuries, and were only greatly heightened by the Civil War and its aftermath. This is why local authorities allowed moonshining to flourish whle the Federal government sought to stamp it out. While the southern denizenry might not have approved of bootlegging, they would never take the side of Federal authority under any circumstances.

I spent a couple years in the South, not that deep, but deep enough that I saw an assembly line for doubling wheel centers, and a few vanilla-looking five-seven Fords whose shocks didn't pass the bounce test, since my 16 stone couldn't deflect their corners.

I also sipped a little Mason-jar juice, and learned that the effect eliminated perception of a gawdawful rotten garbage odor before a third swig.

It all seemed pretty novel and dramatic to a young feller, until a barracks-mate lent it a new perspective. He told of his uncle, slightly younger than Jack's then-sixteen, and how he was one of many strong backs totin' jugs through the woods in Alabama one midnight. He whipped out his Zippo to light a cigarette, didn't miss a step, but whacked and broke his jug against a tree trunk and was immolated in the resulting firestorm.

When I was Old Enough To Understand Such Things, my Dad (b. 1913) told me of similar adventures when he was a semi-wild youth during Prohibition. Moonshine operations were alive and well nationwide during those days.

I thought it was interesting to note some of the places where Helle Nice drove during her barnstorming exhibition tour in 1930:

11 October, Winston-Salem (half mile)
12 October, Concord (half mile)
24 October, Kinston (quarter mile)
25 October, Wilson (quarter mile)
1 November, Spartanburg (half mile)
12 November, Richmond (half mile)

Sorry I missed this thread last summer, but happy to see it resurface.

Living in Nashville, TN, I've tried to document the early days of racing on the one and one-eighth mile dirt track at the State Fairgrounds. The first race was held there on 14 June 1904. From "The Nashville Tennessean" of that morning:

"Rules: Awarded in a race of 3 miles, an open event for regular stock road-equiped touring cars with full compliment of passengers, the car to be driven by the owner.

The winner of the cup must hold the trophy subject to such rules and regulations as may be established by an automobile club."

So if I understand the rules, you put your cooler in the trunk, load your buddies into the car, and you all go racing! Kinda gives a new meaning to the term "riding mechanic".

The article then went on to list what we would call the class structure for each event. Due to the fact there weren't many cars at the time, the 11 races that made up the event alternated between cars and motorcycles. Most of the cars classes were by weight of the car, ie less than 1800 pounds, between 800 to 1500 pounds, more than 1000 pounds. The rules for race number 8 specified that the "motor to be started after the starting signal".

To paraphrase a long story, the paper reported that 2,000 spectators attended the races. The first race for cars was won by John W. Chester in an Oldsmobile. I guess using horse races as the standard, all race times were listed in "fifths". Such as the time for the first motorcycle race was given as "14 minutes, 31 and two-fifths seconds" (for a ten-mile race).

The "races came to a halt after the 7th event". Jack Suth was leading the motorcycle race. The race organizers forgot there was a race going on (!) and gridded the cars for the next race. Here comes poor Suth down the front straight with his head tucked down, and "going full speed, about 45 mph, struck an automobile standing in front of the grandstand." So the cars are gridded for their next race and the leader of the motorcycle race runs into one! Suth was thrown 30 feet. Luckily, the car he hit belonged to a doctor. Suth suffered a broken wrist and bruises. The doctor who owned the car put a splint on Suth's wrist and sent him on his way.

The cars returned for a second event in September of '04, just after the World's Fair in St. Louis. It appears there were races held during the State Fair every September well into the 1960's.

If there is any interest, I'll be glad to post more details and results from both '04 events and some stories from other races.

-Russ

"It is also dificult to conceive that while the folks dealing in the untaxed alcohol business were involved to some extent, that they were the entirety of rank and file of this racing -- which seems to be the staple of the NASCAR myth."

Having grown up through the 50's and '60's in the swamps along the SEast Texas/SWest Louisiana border, I always saw it as a just a myth and dismissed it.

btw: The famous restaurant scene in Easy Rider was filmed not far from here along Hwy 12. Remember the guy in the "CAT" cap delivering the famous line, "Looks lak sumthin' frum ah goRILLA luv in!"?


(funny now, but quite real and terrifying then, I might add)

The earlier reference to a car builder preparing cars for both moonshiners and revenuers must be the interview with Smokey Yunick which is part of the UK TV "The Power and the Glory" series.
Many years since I attended NASCAR races but I well recall the 4 guys in the Richmond Fairgrounds parking lot who were going to make my day go downhill because my car had yankee plates - but became best buddies on learning I was from England. Strange happenings elsewhere around that time. Wasnt a bomb found in Jim Stacy's Cadillac outside a Charlotte motel when he was the car owner of the Dale Earnhart Monte Carlo in his rookie year?

Originally posted by Racestats
If there is any interest, I'll be glad to post more details and results from both '04 events and some stories from other races .

YES!

Viewed Captain America on the tube a few nights ago. Totally different perspective 35 odd years later!

Peter Fonda had the coolest sun glasses (?). They could be worn today and still be in style.

Henry

I just went back and re-read Neal Thompson's Driving with the Devil.

One of the things that Thompson touches upon which makes the book worthwhile to read is his depiction of the stock racing scene of the late-30s and early-40s in the Southeast as well as the immediate post-war years.

In my personal view, Thompson seems to be more than somewhat obsessed with seeing illegal liquor -- "moonshine" -- as the basis of examining Southern society and its relationships. It certainly played a role and it certainly was a factor, but he also seems to ignore any number of other issues that would lead men to race cars besides being 'Trippers.

It is difficult to consider this book as history in the sense some of us do, Thompson being a journalist with a story to convey rather than history to relate, but there is enough there to perhaps help others expand the search for answers that could help better establish the origins of this type of racing.

I will admit that one aspect of the book that I do find myself in agreement with is its portrayal of Bill France.

What is needed is "the rest of the story," since it becomes evident that racing, whether by using stock cars or otherwise, was widespread in the region. Not necessarily commonplace, but racing automobiles may have been more frequent than realized.

Oh, the Moonshiners were there and played a role, even a leading role in many cases, but others were also involved who were not in the whiskey trade, their roles being overshadowed by the more dramatic and colorful elements involved.

Don, my father came from the clay hills of SE LA near the state line of MS. He returned from the Korean War and was drawn to fast cars for excitiment. He drag raced at first later tuning cars for friends at various "outlaw" dirtracks in the area. These stock cars were mostly '57 Chevys and were tough cars as were the men who drove them. My dad never hauled moonshine or anything like that. He was a guy who like to race.

Originally posted by Lemans
Don, my father came from the clay hills of SE LA near the state line of MS. He returned from the Korean War and was drawn to fast cars for excitiment. He drag raced at first later tuning cars for friends at various "outlaw" dirtracks in the area. These stock cars were mostly '57 Chevys and were tough cars as were the men who drove them. My dad never hauled moonshine or anything like that. He was a guy who like to race.

I was born and raised in Northeast Texas during the 60's and I never knew a race car existed that wasn't a 55-56-57 chevy until I was old enough to venture out on my own .

My dad was more a motorcycle person , but he was a car guy as well and we spent many a night at the races and he knew all the local drivers and car owners . I remember the guys all being rather rough and tough and it was mostly relegated to "outlaw dirt tracks" , which is one reason there isn't much history to research on racing in the south . Racing has been treated with "stepchild" status by the media for many years and just wasn't reported on around here . There weren't many "marquee tracks" , most being built by some guy who owned the land and a dozer .

It has long been a concern of mine that this racing has for the most part been forgotten . I have a load of photo's from my time at the local bullrings in the 70's and 80's that I plan on doing a webpage on someday . There was some great racing and I saw it steadily progress from "outlaw" to more "proffessional" surroundings .

I saw someone mention this track

Loiusiana State Fairgrounds, another ancient southern track that ran regular IMCA events into the 1950's.

If that is the same one from Shreveport La. , I know it was still in existence into the 80's , you could see the track from the main highway , grandstands and all , though I don't think it had been used for racing since the late 70's , but I'd have to check with sources to be sure on that date . Sadly , it has had the bulldozer taken to it , I believe sometime in the 90's .

Well, sort of missed this thread (perhaps having to do with the title containing those six letters...), but a chance find led me to reading it all now and, phew, I think I have sumfin' to add...

Before that, just the info that last night, coincidentally I found out about a "AAA Southeastern Circuit" in 1936, producing the final standings:

1 Bob Sall, 210 pts, 5 races
2 Frankie Beeder, 208 pts, 5 races
3 Monk Tadlock, 138 pts, 5 races

And yes, this is "Big Cars", Sprint Cars in today-speak! Going through my data, I guess the following races should've been qualifying rounds:

Apr 19 Tampa, FL (15 miles, won by Vern Orenduff)
May 10, Atlanta, GA (50 miles, Mauri Rose)
Jul 4, Atlanta, GA ???
Jul 4, Charlotte, NC ???
Sep 7, Atlanta, GA (no info)
Oct 3, Richmond, VA (Frankie Beeder)
Oct 10, Shelby, NC (15 miles, Frankie Beeder)
Oct 10, Wilson, NC (no info)
Oct 17, Spartanburg, SC ???

I will have to go through some other sources again, because I recall several allusions to a "Southern Dirt Track Championship" that may or may not have been "outlaw". Btw, the term "outlaw", much like the moonshiner legend, traditionally has had folks in fits just because of the word and its connotations, when in reality there is nothing at all "romantic" about an "independent sanctioning body"! More anon...

Before I go on with the "data", a few words about the interesting "social" background: I can only speak for OW racing, but the number of "shady" characters that motor racing attracts has always been fascinating to me, to say the least! It's always a guilty form of fascination, I'll readily admit, because people like Boyle or Tuffanelli certainly weren't some harmless crooks with a "thing" for racing, and you could easily extend the line to the van Rossems and the Lüthis of the nineties, but there's more than one story left to be told about their employees: did people like Cliff Woodbury, Cotton Henning or Charley Pritchard accept their background, or simply "black out"? What about the drivers? Sure, racing is expensive, and if you ask too many questions you may end up with empty hands... or concrete shoes!

I have to say that the twenties are, so far at least, still a bit of a grey area for me, but throughout the thirties there was plentiful Big Car racing in "Dixie", and much of it AAA, i.e. "class A" stuff, with the best drivers of the country, and the best cars from California to New England! Most of these races were promoted by Bill Breitenstein, either on his own or as representative of Hankinson Circuits. This continued well into the fifties, now with Sam Nunis promoting, and many of those tracks switched to URC with him.

IMCA, number two sanctioning body during the inter-war era, also had a permanent presence in the South with the Tampa (FL) races that started early in the twenties and lasted well into the seventies; we just recently had a thread going on about these. In the late thirties, IMCA collaborated sometimes with the CSRA (the Sprint Car body from Dayton, OH, not the Stock Car organisation mentioned earlier in this thread) which was coming on strongly in the South, and there may have been some co-sanctioned events promoted by Alex Sloan.

There was also a "Savannah Speedway Association", led by Jack Donkar, promoting races mainly at Savannah, GA, but probably also elsewhere. Here info becomes sketchy, but there must've been some sort of co-op going on with CSRA around 1938/9. More of that later.

As for drivers and car owners, the South was well alive! Apart from some more famous names, like Joie Chitwood, Jud Larson, Buddie Rusch or Frank Luptow (the latter, admittedly, starting out in Michigan), there was a huge reservoir of Big Car drivers with various backgrounds, most starting out as independents, of course, but many also registering some success with the major bodies, AAA, IMCA and CSRA. I will try to go through my records in chronological order...

Johnny Gerber mentions in his "Outlaw..." book a series of AAA races in the Tex/Okie area in the mid-twenties, but the Midwest is perhaps a topic of its own, with a very lively scene in Kansas/Missouri which would, technically at least, count as "South"? I don't really know, perhaps not, so I'll concentrate on the East side of the big river, where we start with Alabama (the chronological approach is too awkward, I'm afraid).

The State Fairgrounds in Birmingham have, apparently, been a mainstay for IMCA since the mid-twenties, with a small tour of other fairs in the area (Louisiana, Tennessee) at season's end, but my info on IMCA is not very rich. I also have an isolated AAA race at Montgomery in 1934 (July 15), then the CSRA at Birmingham in 1942 (July 4 - one of the last, if not the last before the ban, won by Chitwood from Holland and Hinnershitz), and finally USAC at Montgomery (July 6, Linden) and Birmingham (Apr 18, O'Connor) in 1956, then Birmingham again (Mar 22, Branson) in 1959. USAC ran a largely forgotten Southern Championship in its inaugural year, with Don Branson nailing the title from Pat O'Connor and Bob Sweikert...

I have nothing on Mississippi, and not much on Tennessee: the aforementioned stop of the IMCA fall tour (usually Memphis, I think), and a few isolated AAA events, the State Fairgrounds in Nashville (aka Cumberland Park) in 1937 (Sep 25 pp 27, the famous "peanut race"), also USAC in 1959 (July 12, Branson), and Warner Park in Chattanooga in 1948 (May 23, Holland). There was also a State Fair race in 1932 (Sep 24), possibly IMCA or even AAA but most likely unsanctioned (open comp in today-speak). Kentucky yields just a single event, CSRA at Owensboro in 1954 (presumably May 30, won by Bert Hellmueller who was, I believe from Maryland, but lived in KY).

Florida:

1936-04-19, AAA, Tampa, 15 miles, Vern Orenduff
1937-11-07, CSRA?, Jacksonville, Joie Chitwood
1939-01-31, CSRA, Tampa, Tony Willman
1947-11-16, AAA, Jacksonville, 10 miles, Ted Horn
1949-12-04, AAA, Tampa, 10 miles, Bill Schindler
1949-12-11, AAA, Tampa, 7 ½ miles, Bill Holland
1951-11-25, AAA, Tampa, 15 miles, Tommy Hinnershitz
1951-12-02, AAA, West Palm Beach, 15 miles, Jimmy Bryan
1951-12-09, AAA, Tampa, 15 miles, Bill Schindler
1952-02-06, NASCAR, Daytona Beach, 1 mile (!), Buck Baker
1953-02-12, NASCAR, Dytona Beach, 2 miles, Buck Baker
1953-10-??, CSRA, West Palm Beach, Don Carr
1954-10-??, CSRA, West Palm Beach, Homer Claytor
1956-02-05, USAC, West Palm Beach, 10 miles, Bob Sweikert
1956-02-12, USAC, Jacksonville, 10 miles, Chuck Weyant
1956-02-19, USAC, Miami, 6 ½ miles, Pat O'Connor

and, of course, lots of IMCA...