Lanier’s Racing Niblets – “I remember one time…”
Greenville-Pickens, South Carolina, 1947. Pictured left to right are Billy Carden, Ed Samples, Bob Flock and Fonty Flock. Fonty was driving Louie Brooks' 'Modern Motors' purple/cream "Easter Egg" Ford (note the circled B on the door for Brooks).
“Billy and I spent some time hanging out at the old Springlake Inn south of Atlanta, the last place before Stockbridge on Highway 42. It was owned by Louie Brooks who owned Modern Motors and the old Easter-Egg race car driven sometimes by Fonty Flock. Carden was spending time with Louie’s daughter, Doris. Ole Louie was a tough guy and quick with a knife. Two or three other places along the way were Knotty Pines and the Silver Slippers and such. Rough places back in the day.
“Further south of the Springlake Inn was a track in Thomaston, Georgia. I went with Billy who was racing one weekend day. I remember Jap Brogdan was leading and ended up driving off of the track because the dust was so thick. Every car followed him out through the field, then back onto the track.
“A guy down there at Thomaston had a car and he wanted Fat Hill to drive it. Well, Fat wasn’t that good of a race driver, but he knew how to make some bucks. He took up a pot of money from people to see him roll it down the straightaway. Poor guy lost his car over that deal never knew what happened. Fat told him something just snapped and he went to rolling.
“One time I jumped into another one of Carden’s suggestions at Lakewood. The car wasn’t that bad but it had a 9:41 rear end. Well, that would be a great gear for a 1/2 mile track, but not a flat mile oval. By the time I was a quarter a way down the backstretch, the engine was pegged. Just couldn’t race it and we didn’t have another gear. I ran a couple of laps.
“Later I drove a car for a guy in Warner Robbins. It was a mud hole from raining and they had everybody and their daughters out there driving around trying to dry the thing. Well, when we lined up for the feature and was getting started, we ran out of gas. Nobody thought about topping it back off.
Another racing perk for Lanier was that Roscoe Thompson (pictured) and his brother Tiford had a shop beside Lanier's father's laundry business on Jonesboro Road in the Lakewood Heights section of Atlanta.
“I towed Emmett Mitchell’s car down to South Georgia one time to race it. Emmett could build some fast cars and had won with Harold Kite. But he just told me to take the car. Our laundry was between his place and Roscoe Thompson’s tire shop out at Lakewood Heights. Emmett had ‘Miss Martha’ painted across the roof of the car to make his wife happy. She didn’t like him spending all their money on them, so I don’t know if painting her name on there helped or not. When I unloaded the car it sounded so strong, they wouldn’t let me run it. So I had to tow the thing back. Those South Georgia boys told me that the car didn’t sound stock enough for them.
“One time I drove a race car for Billy Teague up to Warner Park Speedway in Chattanooga. It needed breaking in before Billy raced it so we put a tag and tail light on it and off I went. People don’t drive them to the tracks anymore.
“Another time we were at the Charlotte Fairgrounds and a fellow needed a driver. He came to Carden and of course Carden said to let me drive it. I needed seat time so I agreed. I knew it was a long race and was just pacing myself and actually doing pretty well. Unfortunately, about halfway through the race, the battery fell out on the track.”