Back To Georgia
Wise and the first modified he built.
During the winter of 1956-1957, Herman returned to Toccoa with his 1940 coupe and took a full-time job with the Telephone Company. But the car just was not competitive. At first, Herman tried to drive the car but he turned the chores over to Frank Burcham. Neither had any success with the car.
At the time, Hugh Jones of Jefferson, Georgia, was the big winner in the amateur class in northeast Georgia. Herman changed all that by consistently winning at Banks County Speedway near Homer, Toccoa Speedway, Twin Lakes Raceway near Elberton and Rufus Tribble’s East Park Speedway in Anderson, South Carolina. Herman ran in the amateur class for about three years.
Next, Herman built a 1932 Ford three-window coupe open wheel race car with a fuel-injected Chevrolet engine. He raced at Athens Speedway in Athens, Georgia and the Peach Bowl Speedway in Atlanta. In 1962, he ran Chattanooga’s Boyd’s Speedway, Cleveland, Tennessee Speedway, and at the Peach Bowl on Sunday nights. When Charlie Mize opened the all new Anderson Speedway northeast of Anderson, South Carolina with open wheel modifieds, Herman raced there in 1963 and 1964, on Friday nights, as well as the Peach Bowl. Herman and his family moved to the Atlanta area while Herman worked at the General Motors assembly plant in Doraville. Here Herman built a true super modified. The car was quite similar to the late Harold Fryar’s car, which has been restored by his brother Billy Fryar and displayed at several car shows.
Being a master welder helped Herman copy Harold’s car, which outran him the most. With the new car he ran open competition races at Chattanooga and Cleveland, Tennessee and the Peach Bowl. Due to dwindling places to run open wheel races in his area, Herman also towed the car to special races throughout the South. This was influenced greatly by Wayne McGuire of Grayson, Kentucky and Sam Irvin of Chillicothe, Ohio. They ran Louisville, Kentucky; Mobile Alabama; Pensacola, Florida; and Memphis, Tennessee, just to name a few.