The Short, Intense Racing Career Of Lanier Englett

Former driver Lanier Englett visits with NASCAR racing legend Bill Elliott at a recent function. Englett had quite a racing experience himself back in the sport's pioneer days.

By Eddie Samples
Posted in Feature Stories 2/11/11

First of all, Lanier Englett had to be corralled for an interview by his good friend Jimmy Mosteller, historian Mike Bell and myself, Eddie Samples.

We met in racing hall of famer Mosteller’s home in Mableton, Georgia. Lanier lives in nearby Lithia Springs.

Since the Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Association’s creation in 1997, the 82 year old Atlanta/Mableton native was one of its founding members and major contributors, and Mosteller knew he had a story to tell.

Quiet and humble, we were determined to get him to talk. Once you are gone and it’s not in papers we told him, it goes with you.

Lanier Englett Remembers…

“By trade I’m a electrician. I began Englett Electric in Mableton, Georgia in the 1970’s before turning the company over to my son-in-law a few years ago.

Lanier and Anne Englett at a recent function.

“I was born in 1927 in the Atlanta area of Brookhaven, just the other side of Buckhead, and later grew up near Bankhead Highway between Atlanta and Mableton close to the Chattahoochee River. My Mother’s parents had a seventy acre farm in nearby Douglasville we visited quite often as a kid. Now it’s all just a big ole subdivison.

“In the late thirties we were living around the Center Hill area of west Atlanta. I was still a young boy. There were ten of us kids. We use to go to the old Bankhead Theater, which years later was close to where racing hall of famer Gober Sosebee had his last garage. A nickel for the movie, a dime for the street car, a nickel for a hot dog and another nickel for a three layer ice cream cone. So on a quarter you could live it up.

“My Dad owned Bluebird Laundry Services on Jonesboro Road in Atlanta. So during WW2 we had the advantage of being able to get ample gasoline, being that it was a necessity for his livelihood. So when we went to visit my Grandparents or any other place we’d always use a laundry van.”

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