Winding Down

Veteran racer Charlie Padgett was always a contender at the Peach Bowl.

The following season, Roy Shoemaker and the Peach Bowl Speedway set the classes that would last until the very last year of operation – Sportsman and Figure 8.  In 1966, 1967 and 1968, Friday nights were Late Model Sportsman and Figure 8 races.  On Sunday nights, they ran a Jalopy or Hobby class and Figure 8 races.  Jalopy/Hobby cars were eligible for Figure 8 races, but they were held separately.

Some new names and some old ones appeared in the winner’s columns each year.  T.C. Hunt, Katron Sosebee, Jack Jackson and Charlie Padgett were some of the older names.  New winners included Bob Leach of Tucker, Larry Lancaster, Tommy Towns, Joe Rutherford, Billy Allen and Jim Bennett.

The Late Model Experiment of 1965 was just that, as all tracks in the Southeast went to a Late Model Sportsman class under NASCAR sanctioning.  Several tracks were holdouts for Modified and Super-Modified racing, but by the end of the life of the Peach Bowl Speedway, these all changed or faded from view.  Neither returned to the Brady Avenue oval.