Raymond Parks: A Life At Speed


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Roy Hall leans against his “Hemphill Service Station” Ford. Legal problems hampered him from having en even more successful career.

With the war over, Bill France, Sr. and Raymond Parks renewed their friendship and a common alliance…stock car racing.  The two had become acquainted through mutual friend Red Vogt years before.

On Labor Day, 1945, racing returned to Lakewood.  France won the pole with Howard Farmer on the outside, and, as the paper noted, “Gober Sosebee of Dawsonville driving a shiny ’42 Buick, with all the accessories…starting third.”

They further stated that Roy Hall, driving his ’39 Parks Novelty Special, drove around a few laps but refused to qualify because “he didn’t want to overwork his new engine.”

Apparently it was a good idea, because the next day the Atlanta Constitution reported, “Hall, a noted Dawsonville bootlegger, won the race at a speed far tamer than he has set in liquor chases through the city streets.”

It was further noted that “the public-owned facility would no longer let known liquor haulers race here.”  So the likes of Bob Flock, Carson Dyer, Jack Cantrell, Ed Bagley, Howard Farmer, Glenn “Legs” Law, Hall and others left racing at the popular track or returned with imaginary aliases.  Seems the post war government had no fond memories for Raymond’s defending national champion.

Raymond (driving) and his brother-in-law, Ralph “Bad Eye” Shirley (in the passenger seat), leave an Atlanta service shop in 1935 in Raymond’s new Hudson and a fresh $400 set of tires. Friends since 1932, the two have done and seen it all.

Parks’ longtime business associate and brother-in-law Ralph “Bad Eye” Shirley told us, “Raymond and I have worked together since 1932.  When he got in racing I went along with him.  If you check some of the old programs, I drove that number 14 car several times out of state, and did quite well with it.”

“In truth, I never raced a day in my life, but for namesake I helped out Roy Hall quite a bit,” Shirley continued.  “We went to Daytona in 1941 and Carson Dyer wasn’t supposed to leave Georgia.  I ran that race too,” he added, laughing.

Noted Atlanta sportsman and former driver Sam Knox told us that for every action, there is a reaction.

“The decision by the city led to the privately built New Atlanta Speedway just south of Atlanta in Morrow, Georgia,” Knox said.  “Financed by Charlie Mobley (Bob Flock’s brother-in-law), and others of influence, the half-mile dirt track operated successfully for the next few years.”

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