Strictly Stock
View from the stands of Lakewood’s 1949 Strictly Stock event.
As has been well documented, Bill France started NASCAR in 1947. While the sanctioning body would later become known for it’s “Strictly Stock” division, the first year of NASCAR saw the sanctioning body race modifieds. The first official race for the Strictly Stock division wasn’t until 1949.
Eight races were run on that first schedule in 1949, and it was a big success. Seeing that success, Lakewood promoter Sam Nunis decided to stage a Strictly Stock event at his track after the NASCAR season officially ended.
The move must have worried France. He had not gone to Georgia with his first tour, and was not a fan of the track or of Georgia’s Scots-Irish descended whisky runners.
What a photo! The drivers in the October 23, 1949 Strictly Stock event at Lakewood read like a who’s who of stock car racing. All three Flock Brothers and their sister Ethel started the event, along with Gober Sosebee and Curtis Turner.
The only problem was that the Georgia boys, headed up by the drivers for Raymond Parks, Gober Sosebee and by the Flock Brothers, were consistently the most popular on racetracks throughout the south.
Match that with the fact that Lakewood was one of the most popular tracks in the south with drivers and fans alike, and it was a recipe for success that could challenge France’s flimsy control of the fledgling division. With that in mind, France hurriedly cut a deal with Nunis to be a co-promoter of the race, although it was not a NASCAR sanctioned event.
The race was set for October 23, 1949. 25 drivers, including the Flock brothers and their sister, Ethel, Gober Sosebee and Curtis Turner were set to do battle at Lakewood.
Bob Flock piloted this car for Frank Christian in 1949. Bob was in control of Lakewood’s Strictly Stock event until losing a wheel.
Bob Flock took the lead early, but could not hold off a hard charging Sosebee, as the “Wild Indian” jumped out front. He would hold that lead until lap 103, when Bob again took command. Bob’s lead and his race would go away 16 laps later when a wheel came off his car.
The wheel went into a crowd, striking 11-year-old Buster Henley. Henley escaped serious injury. Fans on the backstretch swarmed the track to get a glimpse of the scene during the ensuing caution, forcing a red flag.
Tim Flock is congratulated by his sister, Ethel. Sam Nunis presents him with the trophy for winning Lakewood’s Strictly Stock event.
On the restart, Tim Flock made his move. Tim, piloting an Oldsmobile for Buddy Elliott, had stayed in the top five all day, saving fuel and his racecar for this moment.
He moved past Curtis Turner, and held on to the top spot for the win.
The race was bigger than anybody had ever expected. Mike Benton, president of the Southeastern Fair, estimated the attendance at 33,000, putting it up against the record 33,000-person crowd that had come out to Lakewood in 1946 to see an Indy car event.
Auditors of the Sam Nunis Speedway Company, however, said the number was closer to 59,000. Nunis himself said it was more like 30,000.
Regardless of just how many turned out, the race was a financial pleasure for all those involved. Instead of issuing checks, Nunis paid the purse in cash from the receipts. Tim came away with $2,650, a greater pay day than any of France’s strictly stock events run under the NASCAR banner that year.
But the real winner was Lakewood, which had been established as one of the premier stock car tracks on the east coast.