September 2, 1946
Billy DeVore in shock after his Indy car wreck at Lakewood Speedway. DeVore suffered a broken collarbone, which happened when his car flipped into a creek when rammed by George Robson's faster moving racer. A.C. Byrant, an Atlanta policeman who worked the Speedway events for years, is at DeVore's left. Photo courtesy Eddie Samples
Three months later, on Labor Day, Sam Nunis promoted an Indy car race at Lakewood Speedway sanctioned by the AAA – the same folks that overlooked the Indy 500 at the time. Nunis had taken over the Ralph Hankinson circuit of AAA races east of the Mississippi when Hankinson died unexpectedly before the war years. (Ironically, prior to the war, Hankinson had tried to beat Bill France out as promoter of the stock car races at Daytona Beach, but failed to do so).
The feature event that fateful day of Sept. 2 was stopped at lap 98 of a scheduled 100 due to a wreck that took Robson’s and Barringer’s lives. The accident occurred due to dust obscuring the view on the track, along with a slower competitor, Billy DeVore, whose engine had soured. DeVore was trying to ride out the last few laps for some cash.
Atlanta resident Sam Knox attended the local race.
“The dust at Lakewood was always bad. I remember that one because it was such a highly advertised event for weeks.”
Knox, who himself once raced at the beaches of Daytona in the thirties, noted, “I couldn’t even see the competitors late in the event. After several miles it was just a big bowl of dust down there. The clay was just too worn out.”
It was concluded that Robson simply could not see DeVore’s slow moving car in time to avoid the crash. Barringer and Bud Bardowski soon plowed into the carnage. Robson and Barringer died shortly thereafter at Grady Hospital in Atlanta. DeVore broke a collarbone and shoulder, while Bardowski was only cut and bruised. The race was stopped as the huge crowd of nearly 40,000 headed home.
Ted Horn, who won the event, stopped and tried to slow down the oncoming drivers.
“I saw George (Robson) ram into DeVore,” he said at the time. “I pulled off the track to signal the others. The dust was just too bad.” Horn went on to also win the 1946 AAA National title.