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I recently finished
reading a book titled “Driving with the Devil”, written by Neal Thompson
and in my estimation it is probably the most accurate account of the early
days of stock car racing, moonshiners and its true roots in the South
Eastern United States.
While in Canada,
many now defunct, racetracks such as Chippawa, Brantford, Ancaster,
Stamford, Speedway Park, Pinecrest and CNE were part of our racing
history, they really do not illustrate our racing heritage prior to 1950
in fact, Canada’s oldest continuous operating track, Merrittville Speedway
in Thorold, Ontario dates back to 1952.
The point that I am
making is that stock car racing was already a sport of some 17 years in
the Deep South.
The Irish- Scotch
descendants who emigrated to the U.S. south in the 1800’s settled in the
foothills of the Appalachians brought many of their customs and tenacity,
as well as their cultural recipes of poteen, we now know as moonshine, and
this is where our cast of players descend.
We all know that
Bill Elliott is the most heralded racer from Dawsonville, Georgia, but
back in the 1920’s, and 30’s especially during prohibition and later the
Great Depression, Dawsonville, Georgia was better known as the Moonshine
Capital of the U.S.
During the
Depression it was hard to make a living farming, especially in the already
depressed South, but farmers learned that they could add value to their
corn crops if they used their Irish-Scotch recipes to make “poteen”
moonshine and sell it to a public, thirsty for alcoholic beverages, during
prohibition, especially if it could be carefully delivered to nearby
cities such as Atlanta, Georgia.
In fact, to
illustrate just how big a deal moonshine had become, there were over 6,155
still seizures in Georgia, compared to 3,287 in North Carolina back in
1923-24. A young Raymond Parks was one such individual who back in those
years, found that by loading his Model T with moonshine in Dawsonville and
quietly running with local traffic towards downtown Atlanta, that he could
solve part of the distribution problems with moonshine. However, as the
market grew, so did the surveillance by A.T.F. agents, (Alcohol, Tobacco
and Firearms) tracking and raiding illegal moonshine stills.
By the early 1930’s,
Henry Ford helped solve the problem by introducing his flathead V8 powered
coupes in 1932. In fact, Ford had a huge assembly plant in Atlanta.
While Raymond Parks worked as a 16 year old mechanic at his Uncle
Millers’” Hemphill Garage” in Atlanta by day, he would deliver moonshine
by night driving the ever treacherous 60 miles from Dawsonville to
Atlanta.
While Raymond Parks
was amassing a fortune delivering moonshine by night, he bought his Uncle
Millers’ garage and would trade his 4 cylinder Fords for new V8 models.
He even hired two of his cousins and employed family members to operate
his own stills
his cousins, Lloyd
Seay and Roy Hall learned quickly how to drive brand new V8 Fords from
Dawsonville to Atlanta. Even with prohibition ending in 1933, many of the
southern states and counties, would remain alcohol free and all the while
tax revenuers would keep the pressure on trying to stop the tax free trade
of alcohol. In order to stay ahead of the U. S. tax agents, Raymond Parks
hired a well known mechanic by the name of Red Vogt who helped balance and
modify flathead Fords for moonshine delivery.
All the while,
during this period, most auto racing in the U. S. was conducted in the
Midwest and Northern states, under the sanction of the American Automobile
Association or A.A.A., headed by promoter Sam Nunis. The Indianapolis 500
was the “crown jewel” while tracks such as Langhorne, PA were staples for
open wheel racing.
By 1936 the AAA was
the main organizer of auto racing in America, stock car racing was highly
unorganized, with Bill France Sr. trying to organize racing speed trials
with the city of Daytona Beach by 1938. Business men such as Raymond
Parks decided to enter their moonshine cars and drivers in loosely
organized events at a track called Lakewood Speedway near Atlanta. From
the mid to late 1930’s moonshiners such as Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall became
not only entertainment for local southerners but local folk heroes racing
their cars on fairground horse-tracks and hastily carved out ovals, with
the big races happening at Lakewood Speedway near Atlanta, Georgia,
working for cousin Raymond, delivering moonshine during the week and
racing moonshine cars on the weekend.
Raymond Parks
purchased brand new 1939 Fords for his cousins to race with and had Red
Vogt modify them for speed and handling, using many of the tricks used
when modifying them for moonshine delivery.
Bill France noticed
this and while not a moonshiner, raced with them as events sprung up in
the south and he needed the moonshiners to come to Florida, to help fill
the field of modified stock cars for Daytona Beach’s ,sand-events.
Lloyd Seay,& Roy
Hall, would put on driving displays in their new meticulously prepared
Fords that had people all over the southeast talking, while law makers and
church elders condemned the racers as being law breaking criminals, the
sport continued to grow in popularity amongst blue collar people.
The world was
changing and while the rest of the world was involved in World War 11, the
U. S. was not, and continued in its peace time activities, including
moonshine and stock car racing, until one fateful day in 1941, when
Woodrow Anderson, a cousin of Lloyd Seay shot him dead, apparently over a
dispute on a sugar bill, for ingredients for the moonshine still. As
shock rang out through the south of Seay’s’ death, Woodrow Anderson was
sentenced to life in prison.
The AAA was still at
it’s peak in open wheel racing but they saw the up start stock cars as a
threat. Moonshiners Lloyd Seay, Roy Hall, Bob and Fonty Flock had huge
success at northern tracks such as Allentown, PA with Bill France winning
at Langhorne, PA. In fact, Bill France had accumulated enough points in
1940 to be declared stock car champion. The AAA declared all southern
stock car drivers to be banned from northern tracks. So instead of
arguing, whether, the racing stock car hub was either Lakewood Speedway-
Atlanta, Georgia or Daytona Beach, Florida. It was now AAA north vs.
southern stockcar moonshiners. A young racer from Colorado, Robert Byron
was racing AAA open wheel cars and racing in the upstart Alabama Stock Car
Association and after Lloyd Seay’s’ death, Raymond Parks needed a new
driver and Red Vogt recommended Byron for the job. There was one problem
and that was the U. S. had entered the War in 1942 after Pearl Harbor, so
all” race time” activity ceased.
From 1942-1945
Raymond Parks was drafted into the Infantry and Byron to the air corps.
Robert Byron would survive the war, but was wounded by schrapnel while on
a mission in a B-24 bomber, leaving him partially crippled for life.
After the war, Raymond Parks, Red Vogt, Bob Flock, Roy Hall, Fonty Flock
and new driver, Robert “Red” Byron would continue where they left off,
racing and wining against the likes of Eddie Samples, Goober Soosbee and
Buddy Shuman. Bill France had picked up where he left off, promoting
NCSCC races in the south, but he had changed, no longer wishing to see his
once fellow competitors “moonshiners” win, he raced against them, but try
as he might he had to settle for 2nd place behind moonshiner Roy Hall at
Lakewood Speedway where 30,000 people attended the first race, since the
office of Defence Transportation had officially lifted its wartime ban on
sporting events.
From 1945 to 1947,
the AAA “Elitist contest board” dabbled in stock car racing as well as
open wheel racing, so it was Sam Nunis vs Bill France and his loosely
organized NCSCC. France knew that if he was going to gain control of stock
car racing and spread north and west, it would have to be a dictatorship
and not a democracy in order to become organized.
Bill France Sr.
placed an ad in Speed Age magazine, inviting all participants, car owners
and mechanics to a meeting at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach on
December 14, 1947.
Would this meeting
lead to the birth of organized stock car racing?
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