Peach Bowl Winner
Mincey on a victory lap at the Peach Bowl in 1950. Photo courtesy GARHOFA
Another of Charlie’s early rides was a car Roy Shoemaker, the owner and promoter of the Peach Bowl, bought from an unknown source in 1954 (Charlie could not remember where the car came from but Steve Shoemaker, Roy’s son, believes it came from NASCAR racer and Peach Bowl veteran Bobby Johns).
Charlie remembers winning 21 or 22 features in the 24 starts with the car. At the Peach Bowl on Wednesday nights, he was unbeatable in the car.
On four Saturday nights in a row, they traveled to the quarter-mile asphalt Columbus Super Speedway in Columbus, Georgia. Because they were newcomers, the handicapping system had them starting out front the first two weeks. Charlie nearly lapped the field. The third week, the track made Charlie start last, but he still won. The fourth week, he started last again and won his fourth race in a row.
They were told not to come back.
Up at Boyd’s Speedway in Chattanooga, Charlie and Roy had to argue with the track officials for two hours after everyone else left for home before they got paid for their win. This was after proving that the car was legal and wining a post-race protest, not to mention the feature event.
After 24 races, Roy told Charlie the car had been sold to “Country” Cole Avery of Cumming, Georgia, with the understanding that Charlie could continue to drive it.
Mincey takes the checkered flag for one of 22 out of 25 feature races he won in his Roy Shoemaker owned 1934 Ford. This photo was taken at Gainesville's Looper Speedway, which is now under the waters of Lake Lanier.
The next race was at Max Looper’s Gainesville Speedway (which is now under Lake Lanier). During the feature event, the highly potent Flathead Ford engine blew and scattered around the big half-mile.
“It’s a shame,” Charlie said. “I think that was Coley’s first race car.”
Charlie got on his lid only twice in those early days. Curtis Turner had driven a 1954 Oldsmobile for Horace Ingram at Darlington, South Carolina, and was supposed to drive it at Macon.
“He didn’t show, so they asked me to drive it that day,” Charlie said. “We flipped the car over but it wasn’t hurt. So we rolled it back over and I continued on. About 10 laps from the end it ran out of gas. While it was sitting on it’s top, enough gas spilled out that we could have finished.”
The very next weekend at Hickory Flats, near Canton, Georgia, Charlie was driving a brand new racecar for three guys.
“It was a 1934 Ford coupe and it was the first race for the car,” Charlie said. “I was lapping a slower car when we both crashed. We flipped all the way from the first turn to the second. I wasn’t really hurt, but I couldn’t stand up for some reason. I crawled away from the car because I smelled gas. Both cars burst into flames but I hadn’t seen the other fella get out. They told me he got out before I did, but both cars burned up.”
Charlie has raced against every name in Georgia you can think of. If they came to North Georgia, they raced him. He considers Jack Smith and Bud Lundsford as two of the best. Smith because of his style and aggressive nature, and Lundsford because he was so smart.
“Bud loved those little mud holes, but he proved he could win on asphalt at the Peach Bowl,” Charlie said. “He always came to the track ready to race and never really worked on his car at the track.”
During this time, Charlie ran second to Lundsford quite a bit at the Peach Bowl. Generally, Charlie ran Boyd’s Speedway in Chattanooga on Friday nights, Cleveland Speedway in Cleveland, Tennessee or Athens Speedway in Athens Georgia on Saturday nights, and then at the Peach Bowl on Sunday nights, all while driving for C.P. (Curt) Shaw out of Athens, Georgia.
Mincey returned to racing in 1965 when C.P. Shaw asked him to drive this 1932 cutdown Ford sedan at Athens Speedway.
In 1964, Charlie took a pause in his racing career due to a slight case of burn out. In early 1965, Curt Shaw called to see if he would come down to the Athens Speedway for a race. Athens was running a hybrid class of super modifieds with all steel-bodied cars with a two-barrel carburetor.
When Charlie arrived, there in the pits was a sleek new 1932 Ford two-door sedan that Shaw, Shorty Vincent and Charlie Odum had put together. The car was painted black, which was Charlie’s choice for racecars at the time, and was numbered 16, the same number the team had run it 1960, 61 and 62. Plus, the car had Charlie’s name on it.
“It is yours to drive but if you don’t want to, we’ll understand,” Shaw told him.
Charlie not only drove it that night, but in just a few weeks they had a win. Then they won six races in a row, including a 100-lap feature on July 4 and then a couple more events a few weeks later on double feature night. In all, they won seven races in Athens that year after starting about a month late.
The team ran the car not only at Athens but also at the Peach Bowl in 1965 and 1966. They won many features at Athens and the Peach Bowl during this time, but the picture of racing was taking a big change in North Georgia. The car was parked after the 1966 season and Charlie started driving late models, which had become the class to run. Open wheel modifieds had all but died in North Georgia, and across the south.