More Racing And Winding Down
Bobby and the R.J. Sewell Motors Dodge he piloted in 1956. Photo courtesy the Bobby Whitmire collection
“I drove in Macon in 1956 with a late model,” Bobby said. “R.J. Sowell owned the Dodge dealership there in Toccoa. Garland Sheriff and Rufus Tribble (who owned East Park Speedway in Anderson, SC) had a deal for running late models. We drove the car right off the showroom floor. We put the roll bars in right over behind here within 100 feet of Hugh’s place. I towed mine to the races. I never had a trailer until right there at the end.”
When the government built Lake Lanier, they covered one of the best tracks in North Georgia, Gainesville Speedway (sometimes known as Looper Speedway). When the water is low in the lake, as it was in 2007 and 2008, you could see part of the old grandstands out at Laurel Park.
Bobby told us how the new race track, Hall County Speedway, came about.
The Hall County Speedway, located in Chestnut Mountain, Georgia, not far from where Lanier National Speedway and Road Atlanta sit today. Bobby would run his final race here. Photo courtesy the Bobby Whitmire collection
“We had a rules meeting in Cornelia, Georgia. June Robertson was with us. He had been a pretty rough guy that had turned preacher. He told us ‘Blessed God, boys, if they aren’t going to cooperate, we’ll just go home and I’ll build ya’ll a race track.’ I think that was where I drove my last race. Everybody was there, Bud, Harold Fryar, Buck Simmons and I was leading. They had a bad accident but when they lined us up for the restart, they put us in the back, behind all those skeeters. There was no way I could get back around all those cars. I just pulled in the pits. That was it!”
Bobby has been married three times.
“My first wife, Francis, and I were only married about two or three years about the time I went in the Air Force,” he told us. “We married too young. We had one son, Bobby Ray Reynolds, who is a pharmacist, as are all his kids. After the service, I met Joyce, my second wife. She died of cancer. She had a son during her first marriage. His name is Steven Cannon. We had five children, Vince, Darlene, Jenny, Victor and Jody. After Joyce died, an old girl friend named Darlene, from when I was in the service, called. I hadn’t seen her in 30 years. We’ve been married some 25 years.
“I’ve met a lot of people and saw some strange things in my life. I saw a car turn over at the track that was loaded down with rocks. But I have enjoyed it all, and sorry that I had to quit so early.”
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the March 2010 edition of the Pioneer Pages magazine.
Mike Bell is the CEO and historian for the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. (GARHOFA)
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