Ted Edwards

Atlanta's Ted Edwards was a racing pioneer in several forms of motorsports.

Ted Edwards was born in Portland, Maine on April 10, 1907.  Edwards fell in love with motorcycles early on, and picked up his first win on a two-wheeled racer on September 2, 1929 for trick riding.

After winning several titles up north, Edwards migrated to Atlanta in 1940.  He would win two more titles that year, along with being named the American Motorcycle Associations most popular rider award in the U.S. and Canada.  He also started his first Daytona 200 on the famed beach and road course at Daytona Beach in 1940.

Edwards continued racing after the war, and also tried his hand at promoting.  Edwards became a race promoter at the famed Lakewood Speedway, which included the only dead heat finish in AMA motorcycle history between Bobby Hill and Billy Huber.  Edwards himself placed third in that event.  He would also promote several stock car events at Lakewood, which included Hall of Famers Gober Sosebee, Red Byron, Ed Samples and Bob Flock, to name a few.

Edwards was one of the promoters at Lakewood in 1954 when the track hosted the first organized drag races held in the state.  That led him to open the first permanent drag strip in Georgia, the Skyway Airport Dragway in Fairburn. That dragway also played host to what is believed to be one of the first stock car road race events, which was held in 1956.  The event was won by fellow Hall of Fame member Wilbur Rakestraw.

Edwards also was the proprietor of a successful Indian Motorcycle dealership in Atlanta from 1940 until 1950, when the Indian parent company closed shop.  The spot where his shop was is the current Varsity Drive Inn parking lot.

Edwards continued to ride motorcycles until the age of 77.  He passed away in 1987 at the age of 80.

Fittingly, Edwards was unanimously voted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame on June 13 – the same as the number 13 that he always raced motorcycles under.