Mike Bell
By Mike Bell
Posted in Columns 2/26/10
In automobile racing, as in any sport, there are those people that work behind the scenes to make the racing program happen. Generally, they are never known to the general public nor most of the fans. The better the show goes, the less you think about who worked the front gate. You just remember the great racing.
Over the years, the really great promoters are sought because you learn that is what makes for an enjoyable race program.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 2/19/10
Plans got underway this week for the third annual Lakewood Speedway Reunion, which is planned for August 7 at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in Dawsonville, Georgia.
The reunion has fast become a favorite gathering for many of Georgia’s racing heroes. During the first event, around 400 people came out to take part, telling stories, shaking hands and remembering good times at one of the greatest race tracks in history.
Rick Minter
By Rick Minter-Guest Columnist
Posted in Columns 2/5/10
Georgia’s had more than its share of famous race tracks over the years, but few have had the enduring magic of the one known as the Peach Bowl.
Last Sunday, for the 21st straight year, drivers, mechanics, owners, fans and friends of the Peach Bowl gathered in Riverdale for a gathering that is more like a family reunion than a racing affair.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 1/22/10
There are people who move into and around your life that always have a significant impact on you.
Kenny Turk is one of those people for me. A life long race fan, Kenny was an influence on my life for the better part of 20 years.
A native of Oakwood, Georgia, Kenny attended his first race at the old Jefco Speedway (now Gresham Motorsports Park) in 1968 when the Grand National series (now Sprint Cup) made their first stop there. Cale Yarborough won that race. He was there again one year later when the late Bobby Isaac took the win.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 1/15/10
The NASCAR nation has been all abuzz this week with word that the accursed “Car of Today” may soon begin to resemble the cars of yesteryear.
NASCAR is reportedly flirting with the notion of losing the IMSA style rear wing from the back of the car, replacing it with a more traditional looking spoiler. Word has been that they may also do away with the front splitter in favor of a more traditional air dam, giving the car an older style look that hopefully will be more pleasing to the fans.
Rick Minter
By Rick Minter-Guest Columnist
Posted in Columns 12/24/09
Down here in the real world, around my home county of Fayette, the racing buzz isn’t about Jimmie Johnson or Danica Patrick. It’s about the layer of clay being applied to Senoia Raceway.
Up at Glenn and Cheryl Morris’ muffler and sign shop in Fayetteville, Glenn, the veteran Late Model driver, is making plans to return to the track where he started racing years ago, the same track where his father, the late Bob Morris, once was one of the few faithful Ford chauffeurs in the Chevy-dominated starting fields.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 12/18/09
As a race fan, I’ve been a very fortunate man.
I’ve been to a lot of races over the years, and several of them ended up being historic moments not only in Georgia auto racing but also in the overall scope of motor racing.
The first race I ever attended was the inaugural World Crown 300 back in 1983 at what is now Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Georgia. I sat with my grandfather and watched Dick Trickle be crowned as the “King of the Short Tracks”.
Ken Stanford
By Ken Stanford-Guest Columnist
Posted in Columns 11/20/09
Editor’s note: This column was first published July 1, 2004 on AccessNorthGa.com before many of the NASCAR procedures now in place were implemented.
As a longtime racing fan, NASCAR in particular, I am afraid that the most popular of the racing programs is close to shooting itself in the foot.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 11/6/09
I was listening this past weekend to the classic “Prairie Home Companion” radio program on my local NPR affiliate Saturday evening as I drove home from Atlanta. At one point during the show, Garrison Keillor introduced a group that was going to perform the classic Marty Robbins song “El Paso.”
As part of the introduction, Keillor mentioned that along with being a performer on the Grand Old Opry, Robbins was a racecar driver to boot. Keillor made a reference to an incident where Robbins had experienced a particularly hard crash, and sang his way through “El Paso” to make sure he hadn’t suffered any memory loss afterward.
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 10/16/09
It really came as no great shock this past week when the names of the first five inductees into the NASCAR Hall of Fame were announced. From the time it was announced that five would be whittled down out of the 25 possible inductees, it was pretty much a pre-conceived notion who the first five would be.
Four out of the five were right on the money, they being Richard Petty, Dale Earnhardt, Sr., Bill France, Sr. and Bill France, Jr. The only wildcard appeared to be if it would be Junior Johnson or David Pearson who would make it in. Johnson, once dubbed by writer Thomas Wolfe as “The Last American Hero”, won out.
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