NASCAR, Norm Ash and the Cornelia Comet

Fonty Flock won the NASCAR convertible series event at the Peach Bowl in April of 1956.

In 1956, Alf Knight and Ted Chester promoted a NASCAR convertible race on Thursday night, April 12, and a Grand National Short Track race on Friday, May 4.

Fonty Flock won the open top race in April in a 1956 Chevrolet, outdistancing Marvin Panch in a 1956 Dodge, Don Oldenberg in a 1956 Mercury and Larry Odo, also in a 1956 Dodge.

Bob Welborn of Greensboro North Carolina drove his 1956 Chevy to the G.N. Short Track victory in May.  Bobby Johns, Jim Reed, Rex White and Fonty Flock all followed in 1956 Chevys.

Norm Ash (Ashenfelter) promoted Jalopy races mainly on Friday nights in 1956 until late September.  Winners of feature races included Roy Mincey (Charlie’s father), Calvin Bagley, Mike Price, James Norton and Johnny Huey.

The final race was a 200-lap team race, where one racecar of a team was allowed on the track at a time.  Jack Jackson and Pete Barfield combined for the win.

SRE used Wednesday nights, starting in late July and continuing through late October, for Late Model and Pro-Sportsman races in 1956.

The Pro-Sportsmen were the Limited Modifieds of the previous season, only you were restricted to flathead Ford engines.  Modifieds throughout the country had started to use the overhead V-8 engines that had become more commonly available in street cars.

The Sportsman cars were 1930s vintage Ford coupes and sedans.  After NASCAR left, the fenders came off the Sportsman cars.

Charlie Stone, who would go on to become the 1956 SRE Late Model champion, won one of the Late Model races, as did Chester Barron, from Cornelia, Georgia, who was known as the “Cornelia Comet.”

Jack Smith returned from the NASCAR wars on occasion for a win in the Pro-Sportsman ranks.  Charlie Padgett, Red Green of Canton and Willard Stamey of Cleveland, Georgia, were some of the other Sportsman winners.