Cameras Rolling
The green flag flies on the Labor Day, 1946 event at Lakewood Speedway. This screen shot was taken from the newsreel of the event.
After identifying the spot of the crash in the photos, I sent copies off to Mike Bell and Eddie Samples for their opinion. I then began doing another search of the internet for information on the crash, hoping for some little extra item of interest.
I had always heard that there might be newsreel footage of the race. It was very possible, considering the field that promoter Sam Nunis had put together for the event, and the fact that it was being run on Labor Day.
But I had never been able to confirm the existence of that footage. I had gone so far as to contact a company in California that specialized in selling copies of old newsreels, with thousands of hours of footage in their catalogue, and they couldn’t even confirm the existence of such a film.
But on this day, I was finally able to not only confirm it’s existence, but found it just a mouse click away.
I had somehow made my way onto a website out of England that specialized in rare footage of automobiles and auto racing.
As I scanned down the links, I discovered one labeled “Tragedy at Atlanta Motor Race, 1947”.
Despite the wrong year, I crossed my fingers and clicked the link.
Sure enough, it was the 1946 Labor Day footage! Running a little over a minute long, it showed several of the cars in question at speed, including DeVore, Horn and Robson.
A rare glimpse from the newsreel of pole sitter Rex Mays, who would lead three laps in the event. He would complete only 19 laps before falling out due to engine trouble.
While it did not show the accident itself, it did show the thickness of the dust at the track that day, and the aftermath of the crash. There was DeVore’s car in the ditch that ran alongside the track. There was Robson’s car overturned.
Perhaps the most haunting moment was the footage of Barringer being lifted out of the crashed Ervin Wolfe Special. You see his mouth moving as he is placed on the gurney, suggesting he was still conscious when rescuers reached him.
While it offered no great revelations, the footage was nevertheless an extremely valuable look at the conditions and events leading up to the crash, as well as to it’s aftermath.
At that point, I felt that I had probably taken my investigation as far as I could take it.
But then came the Lakewood Speedway Reunion at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in Dawsonville, Georgia on August 8, and my introduction to a man named T.C. Chambers.
Mr. Chambers had a very interesting story to share, as he was sitting on the smaller hill on the backstretch at Lakewood Speedway on Labor Day, 1946.