The Legend Of The Peach Bowl


Tragedy on Brady Ave.

Roger Warren sits behind the wheel of his midget at the Dallas Speedbowl. This photo was taken two weeks prior to his death at the Peach Bowl.

Southern Racing Enterprises (SRE) of Atlanta started the 1955 season at the Peach Bowl with midget races on Saturday nights.

A few weeks later, Roger Warren of Dawson County, Georgia, became the second and last fatality of the entire history of the track.

At an event on April 30, 1955 Warren’s car overturned on the backstretch and ran into a guardrail.  He was transported to an area hospital, where he passed away shortly after arrival.  After that, the midgets slowly faded away from the Peach Bowl except for special events in the later years.

Later in 1955, the southern midget circuit was dealt another fatal blow when popular champion Hank Blalock of Decatur, Georgia sustained a bad head injury at the new Toccoa Speedway in northeast Georgia.  He lingered for months, but never recovered, passing away in 1956.

Limited modified racing opened on Friday nights after the midgets opened.  Jack Smith won the first three features before Roscoe Thompson could break his string.  Al Thomy, a reporter for the Atlanta Constitution, said, “Jack had won six races in Birmingham, three in Canton, three at Lakewood and three at the Peach Bowl” by June of that year.

Bob Welborn swept both NASCAR events held at the Peach Bowl in 1955.

Thomas Aiken, of Dallas, Georgia, a nephew of the owner of the Dallas Speedbowl and a second year driver, took over the Sportsman races at the Peach Bowl on Wednesday nights and at other SRE tracks.  He won a 100-lapper on July 4 at the Peach Bowl and received a new Chevy for his work.  He promptly entered the Late Model division of the SRE as well as running the wheels off the Sportsman racers.

NASCAR returned to the Peach Bowl twice in 1955.  Bob Welborn won both races in the Grand National Short Track division.  In the May race, Jim Reed spun Gober Sosebee out while trying to catch Welborn as they were neck-and-neck in the points,  as well as on the track.  Sosebee retaliated by unceremoniously putting Reed in the first turn wall, and then backed into him for good measure.  Needless to say, a few words and a few fists flew.

The second event was held just after the annual Southern 500 at Darlington, South Carolina in September, and provided a good race for the capacity crowd.

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