The Legend Of The Peach Bowl


From Two To One

Roy Shoemaker tried time and time again to bring the Midgets back to the Peach Bowl. Ad courtesy Atlanta Time Machine.com

Roy Shoemaker, as in years past, tried to run two nights of racing in 1960, but with short crowds on Friday nights, he called a halt to the second night by early June.  He even tried a second night of modifieds on Thursday, but called them off also.

Also, Shoemaker always tried to bring back Midget racing to the little oval that was built for them.  USAC showed up with 12 cars on a Wednesday night in mid-July of 1960, and Roy had over 3,500 fans in the stands.  He was assured by USAC that more would show the next night, so they were held over for another evening.  Only one more car showed, and Shoemaker told everyone to go home; he didn’t put on races with only 13 cars.

When Atlanta International Raceway scheduled an Indy car race in July of 1961, Shoemaker scheduled the Midgets.  This was when some Indy drivers still drove Midgets at night on little quarter-mile asphalt tracks.  USAC called off their race at AIR due to unsafe track conditions, so Shoemaker called off his Midget show as well.

Charlie Mincey took the Skeeter opener at the Peach Bowl in 1962.

On Sunday night, May 1, 1962, the new season opened at the Peach Bowl.  Shoemaker went with the term Super-Modified when advertising the races.  He had not done that the year before, but that is essentially what they ran.  In Cleveland and Chattanooga, Tennessee, the races were wide open.  Wayne McGuire and his famous Pontiac powered Super was cleaning house.  He even ran the Peach Bowl some, but had just too much horsepower.

Charlie Mincey took the opener before some 4,000 fans.  Mincey won the next week, but no driver dominated victory lane.  Katron Sosebee of Lawrenceville, Georgia, Johnny Suddeth, Leon Sells, T.C. Hunt, Tootle Estes and Howard Corbin of Duluth, Georgia, all won at least one feature race at the little asphalt oval in 1962.

In Alabama, NASCAR had several tracks running under the NASCAR division of Modified Special, which were open wheel cars with steel bodies dating back to around 1932.  Bobby and Donnie Allison, along with Red Farmer, dominated the programs.

Shoemaker tried to scheduled full-bodied Modifieds (or what Super-Modified people could call full-bodied) on Wednesday nights.  crowds must have been pretty slim, as Shoemaker dropped them by mid-June.

In late June, the Peach Bowl returned to their Friday night Jalopy races.  Nothing fancy, just pay a dollar, sit your butt in the stands and watch.  The crowds and the cars grew all summer.  Dan Pitner was said to have won a lot of races on Friday nights, as well as the companion feature on Sunday.

Johnny Suddeth won the Super-Modified championship in 1962.  He won some four or five features en route.

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