The Legend Of The Peach Bowl


SRE, MARC and T.C. Hunt

Ted Chester (left) and Alf Knight (right) promoted two NASCAR events at the Peach Bowl in 1957. Both men are now members of the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame. Photo courtesy GRHOF

The beginning of 1957 saw some changes at the small oval at the corner of Howell Mill Road and Brady Avenue.  Southern Racing Enterprises ran three classes of cars under the Midwest Auto Racing Club (MARC) banner – Late Model, Pro-Sportsman and Modern stocks – throughout Georgia.

Late Models were just what you think – cars similar to what was seen on the street, but year models no older than 1955.  Pro-Sportsman was the class that evolved from NASCAR racers.  Modern Stocks were year model cars 1949 through 1954.

Norm Ash promoted Modern Stocks at the Peach Bowl without MARC/SRE sanctioning.  The SRE ran them and the other two classes all over North Georgia.  When summer began, Ash ran them twice a week, on Wednesday and Friday nights.  That was until mid-summer, when SRE leased the Peach Bowl for their Wednesday night Pro-Sportsman races.

Alf Knight and Ted Chester promoted two NASCAR races at the Peach Bowl that year.  A convertible series event on June 7 was successful in every way.  Bob Welborn started on the pole and led 200 caution free laps to collect the win.  Jack Smith finished second, two laps down, in a car also owned by Welborn.  A Welborn owned car also finished third, with Possum Jones behind the wheel.

In late August, Knight and Chester put on what they would be quoted in the paper as their “last Grand National race ever” at the little oval.  To even have a field of a dozen cars, three local drivers, Calvin Bagley, Andy Buffington and Billy Carden were allowed to start their MARC Late Models, while Fireball Roberts let Marvin Panch drive his personal street car and Johnny Allen let mechanic Bill Crawford start Allen’s tow car.

Eddie Pagan, of Lynwood, California, won the race.  It was held about a week before the Southern 500 at Darlington, South Carolina, and both promoters held true to their words.  Through the local papers, the two promoters let it be known that they were very unhappy with NASCAR and most of the top drivers from the circuit. Both races at the Peach Bowl pulled in over 5,000 fans and were financial successes.

T.C. Hunt pilots his famed #88 at the Peach Bowl.

By buying a 1934 Ford sedan from Harold Fryar of Chattanooga, Tennessee, T.C. Hunt was able to make a late season rally and win the MARC Southern Division Pro-Sportsman championship in 1957.  At one time, he won eight out of nine races in a row, though not all were at the Peach Bowl.  SRE sanctioned Pro-Sportsman races in Canton, Cornelia, Toccoa and Dallas, Georgia as well.

The T.C. Hunt domination through 1958 with the Pro-Sportsmen on Friday nights, and the Modern Stocks (Amateurs) on Wednesday nights, both now under the Southern Racing Enterprises promotion and MARC sanction.  By late summer, the SRE went the way of every other promoter – Pro-Sportsman became Modified and Sportsmen.  The SRE also broke their union with MARC.

Southern Racing Enterprises held a season ending Late Model race, called the Blue and Gray Classic, which had previously been held at the Lakewood Speedway on the south side of Atlanta.  Roscoe Thompson won the 200-lap grind and claimed the 1958 SRE point championship in the Late Model division.

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