Going Racing

One of Bobby's early race cars. It's a flatback sedan with the Hulsey Brothers and Pirkle Tire and Recapping on board as sponsors. Photo courtesy the Bobby Whitmire collection

When we talked about how Bobby got started in racing, he said “I saw my first race at the old horse track at the fairgrounds, located where the old Blue Ridge shopping center is now in Gainesville.  My dad helped build the fairgrounds before the war.  My dad had race horses and I used to take a truck and drag some fence around got the track smooth as glass.  But the race cars used to tear it up.  The fairgrounds was built before the war, but cars didn’t run there until after the war.”

Bobby also remembered the old Jackson County Speedway, located between Jefferson and Arcade.

“I used to go there as a spectator, but I did drive two races down there.  That was in the late forties before I went in the service.  The first race I ever drove was at the horse track in Central City Park in Macon.”

“Me and ‘Bulldog’ Waters had dates up at he Cleveland Deluxe when they were filming that movie ‘Climb The Highest Mountain’,” Bobby continued.  “We were in my car sitting out front with two Brenau girls.  We were drinking beer and Bulldog went back in to get another round.  William Lonegan asked him if that was us sitting out there in that car.  He asked if he could join us.  We were going to get him a date and go trout fishing the next day.  This ‘Bulldog’ Waters was Gene Waters, the older one.  There were two ‘Bulldog’ Waters.  Some called the other one ‘Little Bulldog’.

A pack of cars go at it at the old Gainesville Speedway (sometimes known as the Looper Speedway). Photo courtesy the Bobby Whitmire collection

“Anyway, Veteran’s Cab had built a car for Carl Dukes to dive, a one-armed man.  I think he lost his arm in World War II.  Well, he tried to be a race driver.  He wrecked it both times at the old Looper Speedway (in Gainesville).  We were supposed to get a date and go trout fishing when the cab company called me Sunday morning and asked if I would drive their car that day.  I told them what the heck, I’ve never even drove a car around a track, but I’ll go.

“I called Bulldog to tell him what I was doing, and liked to have had a fit.  ‘You would rather go drive some car than go fishing with me and William?’  We took the car down to the Railway Express and loaded it up.  When we got to Macon, we found a gas station near the track, backed the car onto their grease rack, and lowered it down.  After the races, we went back there and loaded it up that way.

“It was a ’40 Ford two-door.  I went back down there about two years ago and that station was still there.  Duke went out there and asked if they would give me some practice laps.  They told him they would give me three laps because they were running late with the program.  I took those three laps, qualified eighth, started sixth in the heat race and ran fourth.  Then I started eighth in the feature and ran sixth.  The only three drivers there than I can remember were Charles Tidwell, Doug Wells and Barney Smith.  They were the only three cars that lapped me more towards the end of the race.”