Racing Days
Carden and one of his race cars sometime in the 50s. Photo courtesy GARHOFA
Carden started out racing the southern circuit in 1946 with Bill France Sr., two years before France founded NASCAR, and continued with him on and of through the first part of the sixties. But throughout his career, while working a regular job, it made sense to run as many races close to home as possible.
He became a mainstay at such tracks as Atlanta’s Peach Bowl and Lakewood Speedway, winning his share at both.
We asked Billy what he remembered most about Lakewood.
“Well, it was a dangerous track and more people died there than I care to recall,” he said. “When Skimp Hersey caught on fire out there in 1950, some people said the photographer (who took a picture of Hersey and his car burning for the Atlanta Newspaper) should have gotten to Skimp instead of taking pictures, but you couldn’t. It was too hot. You just couldn’t do it.”
Carden said he had many close calls himself in his career, including one at Lakewood.
“I was in a modified race in 1960 and Tiny Lund had gone in the first turn up against the outside rail,” Carden said. “He hit in a way that his car was up on two wheels. Well, I was right behind him and my car came under his as it was dropping back down. It landed and gas spewed and ignited. I started thinking about Skimp’s deal and crawled out my window going down the backstretch. The car never stopped moving, but the problem was my foot got caught in the steering wheel.
This replica of the Al Dyke's owned racer that Billy Carden drove is owned by J.B. Day. Photo by Brandon Reed
“There I was, going down the track hanging out of this blazing car held in by my shoe. Finally, my foot jarred loose and I landed on the track. I was lucky I didn’t burn up or get ran over.”
Billy stopped racing in 1966, concentrating on his transmission business. During his career, he raced in the inaugural Southern 500 at Darlington in 1950 and the inaugural World 600 at Charlotte in 1960, there driving a car replacing Buck Baker.
“Buck had been up drinking the night before and wasn’t up to par, so I drove it for the car owner the first half o the race and was in a position to win,” Carden said. “Baker made a quick recovery, especially when he saw how well we were running. But the track began tearing up on him and caused us problem. We still finished fifth.”
Despite the inauspicious ending to his career, Billy Carden is and will always be remembered as a Georgia racing champion and a great pioneer for the sport of auto racing.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the June 2000 edition of the Pioneer Pages magazine. Billy Carden passed away on October 25, 2004. In 2007, Carden was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in Dawsonville, Georgia.
Eddie Samples is a racing historian and writer, and is the son of champion stock car racer and Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Ed Samples.
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