Brandon Reed

By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 12/30/11

With the New Year now upon us, it’s time to take a moment and thing back to some of the things that occurred during the 2011 racing season.

It was, without a doubt, one of the most interesting seasons in recent memory.  From the short tracks to the super speedways, it was certainly one to remember.

Let’s start with NASCAR.  Nobody knew what to expect in Daytona when a rookie scored his first win in his first start in the biggest race of the year.  Piloting the famed Wood Brothers’ Ford, Trevor Bayne shocked the racing world by putting the No. 21 in victory lane.

But for just a few more car lengths, however, it could have been different.  A mistake by Unadilla, Georgia’s David Ragan in switching lanes to early cost him the lead and an almost sure victory in the Great American Race.  The question of “what if” would dog him until the series returned to Daytona in July, when he scored his first career Sprint Cup win at the 2.5 mile super speedway.  He would also scored two poles, 12 top fives and 20 top tens, cementing himself as a driver to be dealt with.

Fate, however, has dealt him a different hand in another of the big stories of the year.

It was triggered by comments made by Kurt Busch when he didn’t know a fan’s camera was on him.  Those comments led to his ultimate firing from Penske Racing, leading to a land rush for potential drivers.

With his sponsor gone from the No. 6, Ragan asked for a release from Jack Roush, giving him the opportunity to vie for the coveted No. 22 seat.  But that seat ended up going to former open wheel ace A.J. Allmendinger instead.

Allmendinger’s departure from Richard Petty Motorsports meant the seat in the famous No. 43 was now open.  With the laid back, respectful manners that Ragan possesses, it seemed like the perfect match up.

But word came late in the going that Aric Almirola, armed with a sponsor, was the front runner for the Petty ride.  That leaves Ragan as the odd man out in the scenario, though rumor has it he may be heading for a Nationwide Series ride with Jr. Motorsports.  News is expected on that front shortly after the New Year.

For the open wheel folks, the season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the IndyCar Series was meant to be a major event.  It ended up being an unfortunate disaster.

A multi-car crash just 13 laps in sent four cars airborne, and ended with the death of defending Indy 500 winner Dan Wheldon.

It proved to be one of the darkest days in racing in many years.  Hopefully, IndyCar can learn something from the tragedy and make such an occurrence a rarity for the racing world.

On the home front, Senoia, Georgia’s Bubba Pollard went on a tear this season, scoring a total of 19 wins in 43 Super and Pro Late Model starts while driving for Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Ronnie Sanders.  It was one of the best seasons we’ve seen somebody have in a long time, and hopefully, Pollard and Sanders will see a lot more success in 2012.

It was a great year for the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame, as we saw unprecedented growth at the facility in the first full year under the control of the new Hall of Fame Board of Directors and all of our volunteers.

Unfortunately, we also saw great sadness in the Georgia Racing community, with the loss of young driver Beau Slocumb, along with Georgia Racing Hall of Fame member Jimmy Summerour, Gary Brantley, Garland Glaze, Red Langford, John Henry Maddox, Geneva Milam, Betty Mosteller, David Pritchett, Shorty Tanner and Hubert Platt.

But now, the green flag is set to drop on a new year, with new challenges and lots of new memories to see.  I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get started!

Brandon Reed is the editor and publisher of Georgia Racing History.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Email us!

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame or the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. All content is the intellectual property of the individual authors. All opinions are those of the individual authors. Please do not repost images or text without permission.

Brandon Reed

By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 12/16/11

With the big raceways sitting silent and fans counting the days to the start of the major racing seasons, the question comes to mind as to just why we see so little racing in the winter months.

The obvious first answer is the weather.  Traditionally, NASCAR and other larger touring series have always taken the winter months off to keep teams and fans from having to deal with cold winter weather.

But that’s not necessarily true.  Yes, usually December has been a quiet month for the stock car set, but racing used to continue throughout November and pick back up in January, even in the Deep South.

In fact, a look at the history books shows that, in the case of 14 NASCAR Sprint Cup series seasons, the first points paying race of the season took place during the previous year.

1954 NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) champion Lee Petty scored the first win of the 1955 season - which happened to be run in Nov. of 1954. Photo courtesy GRHOF

The first time this occurred was in 1955, when the first points paying race of the season actually was held on Nov. 7, 1954 at Tri-City Speedway in High Point, NC, with Lee Petty taking the win.  The second race of the season was held on Feb. 6, 1955 at Palm Beach Speedway in West Palm Beach, FL, with Herb Thomas scoring the win.

The 1956 season would get underway late in 1955, with the first four events taking place before the New Year.

The 1956 season opener was run on Nov. 13, 1955, less than two weeks after the conclusion of the official 1955 season.  1955 Grand National (now Sprint Cup) champ Tim Flock picked up the win Hickory.  Fonty Flock would score the win in the second race of the season, held Nov. 20, 1955, at Charlotte.  Chuck Stevenson would win the third race of the season, held at the Willow Springs Speedway road course in Lancaster, CA on Nov. 20.  Herb Thomas would win the fourth race of the season, held Dec. 11, 1955 at Palm Beach.

The first race of 1956 was actually the fifth of the season, run Jan 22 at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix, AZ, where Buck Baker took the win.

The 1957 season saw see three points events occur in late 1956, with Marvin Panch winning at Lancaster, PA in November and at Concord, NC in December.  Fireball Roberts would win at Titusville, FL on Dec. 30, the latest date known in the calendar year for a Sprint Cup event to be held.

Most of the seasons that would hold races prior to the New Year only saw one or two events held.  Two seasons would be the exception, and both would prove to be interesting footnotes in racing history.

Jim Paschal drove a Petty Enterprises entry to victories in two of the first three races of the 1963 season, with Richard Petty winning the third. All three were held in 1962. Photo courtesy the Ray Lamm collection.

For the 1963 season, three events were held in late 1962.  The first points paying race of the season was held on Nov. 4, 1962, just a few days after the 1962 season finale, held on Oct. 28.  Jim Paschal won that “season opener”, which was held at the fairgrounds in Birmingham, AL.  Richard Petty would win the next event, held Nov. 11, 1962, at Golden Gate Speedway in Tampa, FL.  The third race, the final of 1962, would be held at the quarter mile Tar Heel Speedway in Randleman, NC on Nov. 22, 1962, with Paschal again winning.

The interesting part is that all three events were won by Petty Enterprises entries, with the last win coming just up the road from the Petty shops in Level Cross, NC.

The 1964 season would see four events held in 1963.  The first occurred just seven days after the 1963 season finale.  It was held on Nov. 10, 1963, with Ned Jarrett winning the season opener at Concord, NC.

The second event of the ’64 season occurred on Nov. 17, 1963 at the new three-mile road course at Augusta, Georgia.  Fireball Roberts would score the win.  It would prove to be the final of his famed career, as he would be badly burned in a crash at Charlotte in 1964, passing away weeks later.

The third race of the season would prove, retrospectively, to be one of the most important events in NASCAR history.

Wendell Scott became the first African American to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup event by scoring a 1963 season event at Jacksonville, FL late in 1962. Scott was declared the winner several hours after the event following a protest. The incident was recreated for the film "Greased Lightning", and was filmed at the Athens Speedway in Athens, Georgia (pictured). Photo courtesy GRHOF

It came on Dec. 1, 1963, at Jacksonville, Florida.  Buck Baker had been flagged the winner, but after a protest was lodged, officials announced that Wendell Scott had actually won the race, making him the first and to date the only African-American to win a NASCAR Sprint Cup event.

The day was not the triumphant one it should have been, as officials made sure to wait until after most of the crowd and journalists covering the event had left to give Scott the victory.  He never did get the actual trophy for the win.

The fourth race of the ’64 season was held in Savannah, Georgia on Dec. 29, 1963 (second latest date in the year of a NASCAR Sprint Cup event), with Richard Petty taking the win.

1965 would be the first year since ’54 that a season opener would not be held during the previous year.

In 1966 and 1967, the season openers occurred during the previous year.  Two events from the 1968 season would be held prior to the New Year in 1967.

The final year for this practice came in 1969.  The season opener was held on Nov. 17, 1968, with Richard Petty winning at Middle Georgia Raceway in Macon, Georgia.  The second event of the 1968 season was held on Dec. 8, 1968 at Montgomery, Alabama, with Bobby Allison scoring the win.

From there on, all races for a season were held within that calendar year.  In 1972, the season was even trimmed down as Winston came on board to add to the season points fund.

But it goes to disprove the weather theory.  In truth, after such a grueling season, teams and drivers need some down time so they can focus on the task at hand, as they try to win races and championships.

But some of the smaller tracks in the southeast could certainly benefit from some of the warmer weather we’ve seen recently.  I can think of nothing nicer on a relatively cool afternoon than watching some great short track racing here locally, can you?

Brandon Reed is the editor and publisher of Georgia Racing History.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Email us!

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame or the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. All content is the intellectual property of the individual authors. All opinions are those of the individual authors. Please do not repost images or text without permission.

Georgia's Huston Platt poses with his Funny Car, the restored Dixie Twister. Photo courtesy Racin' Today.com

By Rick Minter-Guest Contributor
Posted in Columns 12/9/11

The phone call on Wednesday, Nov. 30 from Rocky Platt brought sad news. His father Huston Platt, the pioneering drag racer, had died at his Buford, Ga., home. He was 79 years old.

I’d heard of Huston Platt for years, but never actually talked to him until a few years ago, when Rocky invited me to their home to see the “Dixie Twister”, Platt’s old Funny Car that had been tracked down in Nova Scotia and restored by one of his former crew members, Randall Davis.

My main worry that afternoon was how to write a story about Huston Platt and the Dixie Twister and not dwell on the tragedy that occurred March 2, 1969, at Yellow River Dragstrip in Covington, Ga.

On that day, Platt was in the Twister racing Frank Oglesby on a narrow, sandy track. Fans crowded to within a few feet of the track to get a better view of the cars.

Witnesses said one of those fans reached onto the track to retrieve a beer can just as Platt deployed his parachute to slow his car. The opened parachute swept up the man, killing him instantly.

The weight of the victim against the parachute yanked Platt’s car into the spectator area. Twelve people died, and more than 40 more were injured. It remains the worst racing disaster on U.S. soil. Yellow River, one of Georgia’s most popular tracks, never held another race.

Investigators determined that unsafe track conditions were to blame. Racing, as it has done throughout history, had outrun the safety measures of the day. But the incident led to sweeping safety reforms in all types of motorsports. New legislation required tracks to carry insurance, and the insurance companies helped ensure the safety of fans and competitors. Even NASCAR founder Bill France found himself testifying before legislators on behalf of the racing community.

In the years afterward, the Platts were understandably leery of the media, and with good reason given some of the stories written about Yellow River.

But that day turned out to be one I’ll always treasure, and I came to greatly respect Huston Platt.

He seemed to know that to do a credible story about him and his car, I had to deal with the Yellow River issue. He talked openly and honestly about it. But in his eyes, you could see the pain he still carried from that incident.

He never said: “Why me?” but I kept thinking to myself: “Why him?”

He did point out that the race cars had outrun the race tracks of the day.

“It was going to happen,” Platt said quietly the afternoon I interviewed him. “It was just a matter of when and where. There wasn’t a track in 10 states that was qualified to run those cars back then.

“It was a bad thing, but it led to safe racing, if you can say it’s safe.”

Since the Yellow River track, which never held another race and is now the main road of a mobile home park, was near Platt’s hometown, he lived the rest of his life in the same general area as the victims and their survivors. In many ways, he could never get away from the tragedy, even after he gave up racing.

“I’ve got feelings just like everybody else,” he said. “When I gave it up, I didn’t want to talk about it. The only time racing ever came up, it was always about Yellow River. I just shut it out completely. …

“I got my mind on other things, worked, played golf. I didn’t even think about racing or watch it on TV until a few years ago.”

But seeing the Dixie Twister, which wasn’t seriously damaged in the Yellow River crash, back in full racing trim seemed to lift a great weight off Platt’s shoulders.

When he accompanied the Twister to public events, the conversations with fans almost always were about the happy times, times when was racing all over the country, outrunning the top drag racers of the day and even winning match races against NASCAR stars like Richard Petty.

“I beat ‘em all,” Platt said as he and I looked over scrapbooks from his racing days on the day I first met him.

I prefer to remember that aspect of Platt’s career. I hope others will too.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published at Racin’ Today.com on December 2, 2011.

Rick Minter is an award-winning sports journalist who began covering motorsports for the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 1991, as well as serving as a bureau chief. Minter focused on racing exclusively from 2000-2008 . Minter and his wife Joanne live on the family farm in Inman, Georgia. In his spare time he collects and restores antique tractors and trucks.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Email us!

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame or the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. All content is the intellectual property of the individual authors. All opinions are those of the individual authors. Please do not repost images or text without permission.

Brandon Reed

By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 11/25/11

It’s not been very often that a good, solid friendship between the Georgia racing scene and television has come together.

That has not been the case, however, when it comes to Dave Wiley and this Commerce, Georgia based TV station, JBTV-54.

Dave’s channel has become a favorite of the locals in and around north Georgia.  While it is carried solely on Windstream cable, Dave sends his programming all over north Georgia, including high school football, gospel music programs and other local based programming, including races from Gresham Motorsports Park.

Wiley has become a strong supporter of Georgia racing in the last two years, and has worked tirelessly to promote not only the racing scene, but the hometown heroes behind the wheel as well.

I first met Dave working on the sidelines of an East Jackson High School football game.  During halftime, we were talking, and I invited him to come out and take a look at some of the racing action at what was then known as Peach State Speedway in nearby Jefferson.

Dave was pretty busy with various high school sports coverage (which, at a small town station, will be your bread and butter), so he wasn’t able to make it out that year.

Shortly after the track held its first event under the new name Gresham Motorsports Park in 2009, I happened to meet up again with Dave, this time at a local restaurant.  We sat and talked about the local sports scene, and I again invited him to come out to the track.

This time, he made it out, bringing his flagship program, the Lewis Sanders Show, out to GMP to do an interview with track general manager Dan Elliott.

Dave Wiley does an "anti-rain dance" in the stands at Gresham Motorsports Park to try to run off any rain clouds in the area prior to a 2010 event. Photo by Brandon Reed

From that came a great partnership between Dave and the speedway, which has gone a long way to help promote Georgia racing.

Each week, Dave would bring his cameras out to GMP to film “Garage Talk”, a 30 minute recap and preview of local racing action.

In addition, Dave began filming each event at Gresham Motorsports Park, giving the local heroes even more exposure for their racing exploits.

In the meantime, Dave would come out to film interviews with the NASCAR drivers that would come to GMP to test.  He was the first to ask Kurt Busch about the move to the Pennzoil No. 22 (a story that had broke just two hours before he interviewed Busch).  He exchanged some funny quips with 2011 Sprint Cup champ Tony Stewart.

The NASCAR drivers seemed very at ease with Dave, who was very much an everyman, asking questions that the mainstream racing media didn’t.  The racers seemed to enjoy their time with Dave, and Dave very much enjoyed his time at the track.

But Dave didn’t want everything to be about the “big time drivers”.  For every NASCAR driver he would interview, Dave interviewed three local drivers, giving them a chance to have their moment in the spotlight, which not many get these days.  Dave stayed on top of what was happening on the local racing scene, and made sure those drivers got their moments in the sun as well.

Dave and I have been friends for several years now.  It’s always been a delight to see him at the race track.  Dave is quick with a joke or a story on his rock and roll days on the road.  It’s always made my day to see him coming up the grandstands, camera and equipment in hand, ready to brave the elements from high atop the Beau Slocumb Scoring Tower at GMP.

Dave has also always been one to go the extra mile.  At one race, he brought out three cameras, putting camera operators on scissor lifts in the first and second turns to try to catch all the action.  All this from a man who edits his own footage on the fly.  That’s hard work, take it from me.

He’s also been willing to do things away from the race track.  He once traveled with me to Baldwin, Georgia to film what turned out to be the last interview with Georgia Racing Hall of Fame member Tommie Irvin.  He allowed me to film portions of last year’s Athens Speedway Reunion for a project that, unfortunately, never came to light.

He has also been a great friend to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.  On more than one occasion, he’s been willing to step up and help with filming segments for the Hall of Fame banquets, which would not have been possible without his help.

Through it all, Dave has always had a good time, and has always kept a smile on his face.  He had helped bring so much attention to racers and racing in the area, and has proven to be a true friend to Georgia racing.

Unfortunately, Dave has hit upon hard times.  For a myriad of reasons, not the least of which being the illness of his wife, Dave is having to let JBTV-54 go dark.  On this week’s installment of the “Lewis Sanders Show”, Dave said very clearly he only intends this to be temporary thing until he can get situations under control.

I certainly hope so.  The Georgia racing scene can not afford to lose great friends like Dave Wiley.  We need to do what we can to help those friends, especially when they’ve done so much to help us.

No matter what, Dave Wiley will continue to be a great friend.  Here’s hoping his absence from North Georgia’s television scene will be a very, very brief one.

Brandon Reed is the editor and publisher of Georgia Racing History.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Email us!

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame or the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. All content is the intellectual property of the individual authors. All opinions are those of the individual authors. Please do not repost images or text without permission.

Mike Bell

By Mike Bell
Posted in Columns 11/18/11

In the beginning of our research on the old days of racing, I found the library at the University of Georgia.  I can’t remember who told me about it, but it was either Joe Cawley or Eddie Samples.

Eddie actually accompanied me on the first trip there.  He wouldn’t make that mistake again.  We stayed for hours.  In the basement of that library were microfilms of almost every newspaper printed in the state of Georgia.  I’ve been told that the only place with more is the Georgia State Archives, which is now located south of Atlanta near Ellenwood.

One of the things I wanted to do was go through the newspapers of the major cities of Georgia from WWII to 1958.  While researching Savannah, I found when Oglethorpe Speedway first opened (motorcycle in March of 1951).  Then there was an ad for races in Waycross a few months later.  At a later date while researching Waycross, I came across references to racing in Douglas and Ocilla.  The Douglas site is now the location of the Douglas Motorsports Park.

But the Ocilla track was what intrigued me.  Why Ocilla?

Newspaper ad for the opening of the Ocilla Speedway on April 23, 1950. Courtesy Mike Bell

Even after I found articles in the local Ocilla paper, I could not find my answer.  I did find that the track was run by the American Legion there and that Governor Herman Talmadge was to attend the first race.  Not only did this not answer my original question, but instead it gave me more questions.

Then along came Jimmy Alexander.  He joined us in the early days and had been wondering what he could do to help.  With him being from nearby Fitzgerald, Georgia, I figured he might know about the track in Ocilla.

I opened a floodgate.  When I questioned Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Eddie MacDonald’s grandson about Jimmy, he smiled and said, “Yeah, he’s for real and he knows everybody.”

Before the annual picnic in Tifton, Georgia in 2007, I agreed to meet with Jimmy at “the” BBQ place in Ocilla, where the two main highways cross. We even met a gentleman, Fred Hester, who knew where Turner County Speedway was, but that’s another story.

We met so many people, it all became a blur until Jimmy and I rode out of town on US Highway 129 towards Alapaha.  About five miles out, he tells me to turn off the road where there is a big curve to the right.

Sitting there in his pickup was Buddy Green, son of the later track owner, Marion “Buddy” Green, Sr.  We stopped next to a newly plowed field that has a couple of acres in the middle with an overgrowth of trees and such.

I found out from Buddy that there are three ponds in all that overgrowth and has been for as long as he can remember.

Buddy told us that his father bought the property in 1932 and built a store where we had turned off the highway at the big curve.  The DOT (or whatever it was called in those days) then built a new bridge just beyond the property and changed the road (adding the big curve).  You can still see the concrete island for the gas pumps.

His family opened the store in 1936 and lived in the store for several years.  I found that this was a very common occurrence in the “good old days”.

In 1940, the Green family moved into a new home right down the road from the store.  That house still stands but has been moved back on the same property near another small lake.

Mr. Green bladed out the track himself and it was probably about a 3/8-mile layout.  Buddy remembered a big board fence that was built next to the road to keep folks from stopping and watching the races for fee.

A later ad for the Ocilla track, touting some of the drivers expected to compete. Courtesy Mike Bell

How does he remember?  With gallons of red paint and a brush provided by his father.  Buddy painted that fence.  In the small home that sits on the edge of the plowed field, there are rafters in the ceiling that still have that same red paint on them.

The wood for the grandstands, fence and judge’s stand all came from Mr. Green’s pulpwood venture, which he worked as well as the store during the war.

Mr. Green also dabbled in politics and was the local representative to the state legislature about the time of the track’s inauguration.  Buddy even remembered being a page for the local paper for about two weeks when he was 12, and he even sat on Governor Herman Talmadge’s knee once.  A legislator’s son had perks.

The “New Veterans Memorial Track” was dedicated on April 23, 1950.  Governor Herman Talmadge was to attend the ceremonies and races.  But Herman was a no-show and former Governor M.E. Thompson came in his place.

Still some 2500 spectators watched a five-race program that was topped off with James Bennett of Macon winning the 20-lap feature.  He was followed by Billy Sawyer, Roy Bentley, Barney Smith and the ill-fated Bunk Ezzell, who died later in a fiery crash at the Warner Robins Speedway.  Believe it or not, there was a women’s race won by Mr. Lucy Stacks of Fitzgerald.

Buddy says that his father ran a few more races before turning the reins over to the VFW because there was a bad wreck at the track.  No one was killed but his father could see the vast liabilities taking away everything he owned.

A look at the site of the Ocilla Speedway as it sits today.

Races ran about every three weeks until early December.  They started again in January of 1951.  For the races in February, they advertised drivers from as far away at Atlanta (Roscoe Thompson) and Tallahassee, FL (Harvey Jones) with one hometown hopeful in Jim York.

But when the dust cleared, “Big John” Hutto of Fort Valley had won the feature with Doug Wells of Atlanta almost coming in second (expense of a blown tire).  Harvey Jones ran second to Hutton in a special fast car dash with the six fastest qualifiers.

Later in the year, several ads ran a list of expected entries with Coot Rowland of Valdosta being one, as well as the famous Sapp brothers, Rayford and A.J., out of Quitman, Georgia, along with Leland Fowler of Cordele, Nero Steptoe (then racing out of his hometown of Albany) and some Jacksonville, FL drivers.

On the day I visited the site of the track, Buddy drove me around what used to be the track surface.  In among all the South Georgia black dirt, you could still see the red clay that was used for the speedway.  The ponds are still there as well.

Buddy’s pride really showed for the accomplishments of his father, and well it should.  Mr. Green had carved out his own track on his own property and had drivers coming from all over South Georgia and north Florida to race.  And you could see it all for a buck.

Toss in an extra two bits, and you got a reserved seat.

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the March 2007 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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Senoia, Georgia's Bubba Pollard has had a banner year in 2011, and will be honored as the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame Driver of the Year. Photo by Justin Poole

By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 10/21/11

2011 has been a Hall of Fame season for Bubba Pollard.

The Senoia, Georgia native has turned in a performance on the short tracks around the south that many drivers would love be able to call their entire career.

In 41 Late Model starts to date, Pollard has scored 18 victories, 30 top 5 finishes and 32 top 10 finishes.

Piloting a car for Georgia Racing Hall of Fame member Ronnie Sanders, Pollard picked up wins at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, GA, 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL, South Alabama Speedway in Opp, AL and Mobile International Speedway in Mobile, AL.

Those wins equated to two titles for the season, the Gulf Coast Championship and the 2011 Viper Series Championship.  It also brought his career Late Model win total to 54.

But Pollard’s success hasn’t just been limited to the Late Model ranks.  He’s also pulled into victory lane several times piloting Open Wheel Modifieds this year.

While the wins have been important, Pollard proved what real racing is all about in another way this year.  After his friend and fellow Georgia racer Beau Slocumb passed away after a courageous battle with cancer earlier this year, Pollard piloted a car with Slocumb’s distinct paint job and trademark number 08 in several events to pay tribute to his fallen friend.

And his winning ways may not be over.  He still has three major short track weekends on his radar in the coming weeks, including the North/South Shootout at Caraway Speedway on Nov. 6, both Late Model events during the World Crown 300 weekend at Gresham Motorsports Park the weekend of Nov. 12 and the Snowball Derby weekend Dec. 3-4.

But on Friday night, Oct. 21, Pollard will be awarded a different, unique kind of victory.

That’s when Bubba Pollard will be officially awarded the title of Georgia Racing Hall of Fame Driver of the Year.

The award, which is in its first year, honors a current driver that shows the poise and skill that makes them sure to be a future Hall of Fame member.  Pollard will be honored during the 2011 induction ceremony at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in Dawsonville, Georgia.

He will share the stage with racing legends such as Mike Head, Ken Ragan, and the families of George Elliott, Swayne Pritchett and Harold Kite.

With his strong runs on the track and the spirit he has shown off the track, Bubba Pollard has done much to make Georgia race fans proud of him.

And after Friday night, his stats can show something nobody else’s can.  That he was the first Georgia Racing Hall of Fame Driver of the Year.

If he keeps going like this, he’s sure to be back on the big stage again some day, as an inductee in the Hall.

Brandon Reed is the editor and publisher of Georgia Racing History.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Email us!

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame or the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. All content is the intellectual property of the individual authors. All opinions are those of the individual authors. Please do not repost images or text without permission.

Brandon Reed

By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 10/6/11

Racing historian and GRH.com contributor Mike Bell is currently hard at work on a book chronicling all of the race tracks that have existed in the state of Georgia.

He says that, to date, he has discovered around 175 tracks that operated at one point or another in the state of Georgia.  Of those, around 25 still are in operation.

Right now, the future of one of those has come into question.

Last month, the owners of Lanier National Speedway announced that, for the first time in the track’s 30 year history, they would not be finishing out a full racing season.  That, coupled with listings online of the track property being for sale have led many to question whether or not the venerable 3/8 mile will be able to survive.

Lanier National Speedway - Braselton, Georgia. Photo courtesy Lanier National Speedway

There are many opinions as to why the Braselton, Georgia raceway has fallen on hard times.  We’ll not go into that side of the issue.

What is apparent, however, is that it is not an uncommon occurrence to see a track that had prospered so well and had so much capital put into it fall by the wayside in the history of racing in the Peach State.

Two of the most important and popular tracks in Georgia are now only fading memories.

Atlanta's Lakewood Speedway, seen here in 1949, was a legendary track that, unfortunately, is no longer with us.

The one-mile Lakewood Speedway, built as part of the Lakewood Fairgrounds complex in 1917, was one of the most popular and exciting dirt tracks in the country.  All forms of motorsports raced there, from open wheel IndyCars to Stock Cars.  It’s even said that the form of motorsports now recognized as modern stock car racing saw its first event held there.

But in 1979, the final race at the track known to many as the “Indianapolis of the South” was held.  Only a few small portions of the speedway exist today, neglected and forgotten by the city of Atlanta.

On Brady Avenue, there now sits a Marta bus depot where the famed Peach Bowl Speedway once stood.  From 1949 through 1971, the small quarter mile track was one of the most popular places to race for drivers and fans alike.  All the greats raced there, and Big Bill France himself promoted the track for a period of time.

But like Lakewood, it was soon destroyed.  No remnant of the speedway survives today.

Even as far back as the early 1900s, you can find evidence of great tracks that did not survive.  In 1909, Asa Chandler, of Coca-Cola fame, poured money into what was considered to be the greatest potential speed palace in the country, a track known as the Atlanta Motordrome, located south of Atlanta in Hapeville.

Built in 1909, the two-mile Atlanta Motordrome was the first southern superspeedway ever built. It now lies underneath Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. Photo courtesy GRHOF

Running two miles in length, with banked turns, this true oval had amenities that even the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway had not planned at the time.  Special railroad lines ran from Atlanta south to bring the masses to the speedway.  Each team had their own separate garage.  The pits were cut into a bank, allowing crews to stand well off the pit road and racing surface to keep them out of harm’s way.  And if harm did come to someone, there was a medical center built into the infield.

The first race at the Motordrome was held in 1909, with another round of events held in 1910.  Among the winners was a quiet driver by the name of Ray Harroun, driving a Marmon Wasp.  It was the same car he would win with in 1911 in a 500 miler up north at Indianapolis.

But for some reason, the track did not succeed.  Many folks attribute it to the deaths of two popular drivers in practice accidents.  Not wanting those deaths attributed to his business, it’s thought that perhaps Candler made the decision to close down the track.  Several years later, the city of Atlanta purchased the property to use as a municipal airport.

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport now occupies the property that once was the site of the Atlanta Motordrome.  Only a tiny portion of the track is believed to still exist, used now as an access road.

And Lanier is not the first track in its area to fall upon hard times.  Hall County, the site of the speedway, has had several tracks that have gone away over time.

There’s the Gainesville Fairgrounds, set in the middle of the county seat just up the road from Lanier.  It was a horse track that operated before and just after World War II, also playing host to stock cars.  One of the most famous stories of that track came when Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Roy Hall was let out of a local jail just long enough to pilot one of Raymond Parks’ cars at the track.  Hall won, celebrated it victory lane, and was promptly put in the back of a police car and taken back to jail to serve the rest of his term.

That track was covered over to make a parking lot for a shopping center.  You can actually still tell where the turns and straightaways are if you know what you’re looking for.

Then there was the Gainesville Raceway, a tight little bullring located off of highway 129 on the outskirts of Gainesville.  It was set in what was then a bad part of town….so bad that racers and fans found themselves in peril of being robbed as they exited the track!  The remains of the track are now covered by kudzu.

Just a stone’s throw from Lanier National Speedway lay the remains of the old Hall County Speedway, a half mile track that opened in the late 50s and operated until the late 1960s.  You can still see the remains of the track’s sheet metal retaining wall from the roadway.  Portions of the grand stands remain, as does the concession stand in the pits.  The property is overgrown, but the track can still be picked out if you walk the property.

But the most famous lost track in Hall County remains the Gainesville Speedway, also known as the Looper Speedway.  Opened by Max Looper in the 50’s, the the half-mile dirt track was a popular stop for many of the big stock car and modified jockeys of the day.

Gainesville Speedway, sometimes called Looper Speedway, now lies underneath the waters of Lake Lanier. Photo courtesy Mike Bell

But the track met its end when the Army Corp of Engineers decided to build Lake Lanier.  The Gainesville Speedway occupied one of the parcels set to be flooded.  The remains of the track now lie underneath the lake.  But when the water level gets low enough, the track’s concrete grandstands become visible.  A few years ago, the lake was so low that all kinds of debris from the track were located, including an engine.

But hopefully, Lanier National Speedway will not follow its predecessors into oblivion.  When Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Bud Lundsford built the raceway in the early 80s as a dirt track, it was in a rural location.  The encroachment of subdivision and the ever expanding growth north of metro Atlanta led Lundsford, who was always a visionary, to pave the track in the mid 80s.  That same growth makes it extremely unlikely for the track to be used as anything but a paved facility.

So Lanier has a tough task ahead, but not impossible.  To adapt to a changing racing landscape and make the track work for today’s racers and race fans.

It’s not impossible.  Hopefully, Lanier will weather the storm.

It would be a shame to add another name to the list of lost Georgia raceways.

Brandon Reed is the editor and publisher of Georgia Racing History.com.

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This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame or the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. All content is the intellectual property of the individual authors. All opinions are those of the individual authors. Please do not repost images or text without permission.

Mike Bell

By Mike Bell
Posted in Columns 9/23/11

In August of 2007, Walter “W.M.” Fulmer of Saluda, SC passed away at the age of 71.  The former Marine Korean war veteran was born in Martinez, Georgia and was involved in racing most of his life.

W.M. Fulmer started racing in the late 1950s when they reopened the fairgrounds race track at Greenwood, SC.  They ran flatheads and in-line six cylinders.  On a very limited budget, Fulmer did quite well.  His father-in-law, Lewis Maw, promoted Greenwood and Newberry Fairgrounds until the overheads took over.

Fulmer went to the overheads but almost died trying.

W.M. Fulmer, seen here in 2006, started his career out as a driver before becoming a car owner. Photo courtesy Mike Bell

While racing at Newberry in a newly built car, Fulmer was racing side-by-side with another car as they came down the front stretch.

A slower car was running in the middle of the groove, so Fulmer took the low line, while his rival moved to the outside of the slow car.  At the last moment, the lapped car moved low, causing wheel-to-wheel contact with Fulmer’s racer.

Fulmer’s car was sent barrel rolling down the front stretch.  Fulmer said that as the car was flipping, gas spilled all over the inside of the racer.  Somewhere, there was a spark and all hell broke loose, as the entire car was engulfed in flames.

Curious memories Fulmer had about the wreck is the fact that you can’t hear in a fire, and everything seemed to going in slow motion.

Wayne Long was a big rival of Fulmer’s.  Long ran to the car and used a big knife to cut the seat belt, and then drug Fulmer out of the car.  If not for his rival, Fulmer surely would have burned to death, or at least been more seriously injured than he was.  He stayed in the hospital for some time, but when he did return to racing, it was as a car owner, not a driver.

He promised his wife, Carolyn, that he would not drive again.  But he could not give up racing.  Fulmer owned and ran race cars for years after that.  One of the more notable drivers that drove for him was Haskell Willingham.

From left to right, Buddy Reid, Curtis "Crawfish" Crider, Tom Reid and W.M. Fulmer pose with the famed Rocket 88 Chevrolet, the first Chevy to ever win a NASCAR event. Photo courtesy Mike Bell

The black and orange Chevrolet that Fulmer brought to Dawsonville’s Mountain Moonshine Festival each year was a car he knew for years, but wasn’t able to purchase until about 1990.  The car won two features at Greenwood Fairgrounds Speedway in 1952.  The late Jessie Moore won a feature with the car in September and Curtis “Crawfish” Crider won the other as the last race of the season at Greenwood.

For years, Crider thought he had won the championship at Greenwood with the car because that was what it said on the trophy.  But there were two races to determine the championship.  The late Joe Riddle won the first and Crider won the second, but Riddle had accumulated the most points in both races, making him the champion.

Years later, after Fulmer restored the car, Crider gave him the trophy.

The car was originally built by the Reid Motor Company of Abbeville, SC.  One of Mr. Reid’s sons told us that his father would only let them build a race car if they advertised the car dealership n it.  Reid Motor Company was a Chevrolet/Oldsmobile dealer, so the car with the Rocket 88 on the side was a Chevrolet.

It was a true Chevrolet, as it used a Chevrolet engine.  The problem with the early Chevrolet sixes was the oil system, which was a splash system and did not use an oil pump.  With increased compression ratios and high RPMs of a race engine, hat kind of system would not last one evening in racing.  But the father wouldn’t let them use anything else, so it’s a true Chevrolet.

Most Chevrolets running in the early days of NASCAR ran a GMC engine, which used an oil pump.  That is where we came up with the idea that this car was the first true Chevrolet to win a NASCAR race, scoring a NASCAR Sportsman division win at Greenwood, SC in 1952.

As a side note, Fulmer’s father-in-law, Lewis Maw, was the first racing promoter to give Humpy Wheeler a PR job.  Wheeler, who would later become the famed promoter at Charlotte Motor Speedway, had been playing ball at South Carolina, messed up his knee and could no longer play ball.  He wanted to stay in sports, so he took up journalism.

Maw was running the two fairground tracks with an organization called the Dixie Auto Racing Club (DARC).  He needed someone to write up stories for the newspapers and also a program that was printed each week.  He hired Humpy and the rest is history.

Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the Sept. 2007 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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The cars of George Robson (left) and George Barringer (right) at the scene of the Labor Day, 1946 crash that took both men's lives. Photo courtesy Eddie Samples

By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 9/16/11

It was planned to be a race to celebrate Labor Day. It ended up as one of the darkest moments in Atlanta racing history.

It occurred on September 2, 1946. Racing promoter Sam Nunis put together a 100-lap Indy car race at Atlanta’s famed Lakewood Speedway, a treacherous one-mile dirt track located on the grounds of the Lakewood Fairgrounds. The event was sanctioned by the AAA, who also sanctioned the famed Indianapolis 500, which had run its first event since the ending of World War II only a few months prior.

The winner of that first return Indy 500, an Englishman named George Robson, was set to run at Lakewood in the same car that Floyd Roberts had piloted to a win in the 1938 Indy 500.

It was also the car Roberts died in at Indy in 1939.

Also slated to start was Texas racer George Barringer. Barringer (who was billed as “Tex” Barringer by Nunis in pre-race publicity items) had also raced at Indy a few months earlier, piloting the famed rear engine “Tucker Torpedo Special.” Barringer had driven the Gulf Oil funded, Harry Miller built racer to 33 speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1940.

But the Special’s luck at Indy in 1946 wasn’t that great, as Barringer suffered mechanical failure early on in the 500.

For the Lakewood event, Barringer didn’t drive the Special. Instead, he piloted a car built by the legendary Wilbur Shaw. Shaw had won at Indianapolis with the car in 1937, followed by a second place finish at Indy in 1938.

All in all, three cars that had won the famed Indy 500 were in the field at Lakewood. It was only fitting, since Lakewood was long referred to as “The Indianapolis of the South.”

But, unlike Indy, Lakewood had some characteristics that made it treacherous and dangerous.

One of the chief problems at Lakewood was the dust. By 1946, the clay on the old speedway was worn out, and after a few miles had been run, the entire place turned into a dust bowl. Even the fans would have trouble seeing the competitors towards the end of an event.

It was this problem that led directly to the tragedy that occurred on Labor Day, 1946.

Late in the going of the 100-lap event, Kansas native Billy DeVore developed engine problems.  DeVore brought his Halloween Orange pained racer to the pits, but was ordered by his car owner to return to the track.

DeVore moved his car down to the inside line of the speedway, and tried to salvage a finish for the best prize money he could muster.

As DeVore nursed his car along down the backstretch, the faster car of Robson came charging up behind him. With the cars kicking up orange dust around the speedway, Robson apparently couldn’t see DeVore’s slower moving, orange colored vehicle as he charging down the backstretch.

According to an eye witness of the accident, at the last moment, Robson spotted DeVore’s stricken racer.  He moved to the right, no realizing George Barringer was on his outside.  The two cars apparently made tire-to-tire contact.

The contact sent Robson out of control, and back down into the slow moving DeVore.

The impact between DeVore’s car, moving 40 miles an hour, and Robson’s now out of control car, moving in excess of 100 miles an hour, was great.  It sent DeVore’s car over the berm on the inside of the track.  As his car went up at an angle, it began to overturn, coming to rest upside down in the ditch that ran alongside the backstretch.

Robson’s car became airborne, flipping end over end.  Robson was thrown from his race, and was run over by at least two cars.  The impact of the hits would send Robson’s body down the track.  He came to rest near the cockpit of his upside down racer.

Barringer, meanwhile, had been sent into a spin by his initial contact with Robson.  His car came to rest facing into traffic at an angle.  He would be struck by Bud Bardowski, who had no idea of the carnage he was racing into, due to the thick dust.   He had taken the same line as Barringer off the corner.

Bardowski’s speed would push him past Barringer, shoving Barringer’s car up the track.  It would come to rest just ahead of the overturned Noc Out Special.

DeVore was rescued from his overturned racer by a group of fans.  It had landed upside down in about three feet of water.  He would survive with a broken collarbone. Bardowski would suffer facial cuts, but no other serious injuries.

Robson and Barringer, however, were not so fortunate. Robson was dead at the scene.  Barringer was transported to an area hospital, where he would pass away.

Ted Horn, who would go on to win the 1946 AAA championship, saw the accident occur, and actually struck something on the track, according to later reports. He stopped, and tried to flag down the other competitors to keep them from becoming involved in the accident.

After returning to the cockpit, Horn managed to get his car going again. Horn was later declared the winner by race officials, but would lose that win under protest to George Conner weeks later.

Lakewood Speedway held its final automobile race in 1979. Only small portions of the famed track still exist today. A parking lot for an amphitheater now covers the spot where George Robson and George Barringer lost their lives.

But their memories and the memory of that terrible Labor Day in 1946 continues to live on.

Brandon Reed is the editor and publisher of Georgia Racing History.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Email us!

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame or the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. All content is the intellectual property of the individual authors. All opinions are those of the individual authors. Please do not repost images or text without permission.

Brandon Reed

By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 9/9/11

A couple of weeks ago, I traveled with Georgia racing historian Mike Bell down to New Senoia Raceway in Senoia, Georgia to take in sprint car action on the fast 3/8 mile track.

After a great night of racing, we headed back north towards the Atlanta area.  As usual, we discussed various aspects of racing, both past and present.

Now, there are many things Mike and I agree on when it comes to the history of auto racing.  There are others that we don’t quite agree on.

But one thing that we discussed that night was something we both felt was true.  It was the identity of the greatest natural racing talent the United States had ever produced.

It’s not a simple question, but the answer came quickly to both of us.

When NASCAR made their first appearance at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the first Brickyard 400 back in 1994, a group of fans up in the stands held up a sign with a simple message.

“NASCAR, Welcome to the house that Foyt built!”

You would be hard pressed to find someone who would argue with that sentiment.

Anthony Joseph Foyt, Jr., better known to the world as A.J., came from a tough Texas background. Growing up in the Heights section of Houston, Foyt showed an early love for speed. He would show that love on short tracks all over the country, winning midget races and even occasional stock car events. He was known as a tough, tenacious driver who was out there to do one thing – win races.

A.J. Foyt was a tough and savvy competitor who would put his name among the greatest drivers of all time. Photo courtesy the Ray Lamm collection

He was a tough competitor, and woe to the driver, crew member, or member of the media that got in the way of “SuperTex” when he was angry.

Foyt succeeded everywhere. He was one of the few open wheel drivers to travel down south to race against the NASCAR racers and not only be competitive, but win several races, including the 1972 Daytona 500.

He went to Le Mans and was victorious in his only appearance at the storied road course, driving a Ford with co-driver Dan Gurney to the win.

He won on the Daytona road course in what’s now known as the Rolex 24.

In all, Foyt won 172 major races, including 67 Indy car wins, seven NASCAR trophies, and in doing so, won 12 national titles.

But the place that Foyt really measured up with was Indianapolis. They fit together like a hand in a glove.

His first appearance at the famed Brickyard resulted in a 16th place finish, taking home just under $3,000.

Foyt would keep coming back to Indy, and in 1961 the legend of SuperTex at the Brickyard was born. Foyt took his first Indy 500 win when Eddie Sachs had to stop for tires late. Foyt had been trying to catch Sachs after a pit miscue cost him an extra stop for fuel.

In 1964, the experts predicted the Ford powered machines would be the ones to beat. But Foyt showed up for the month of May with an older Offenhauser engine. Many said Foyt would have to work hard to keep up with the Blue Oval Brigade.

Foyt lapped the field on his way to his second Indy win.

He would again visit Indy’s victory lane in 1967, after Parnelli Jones’ famed turbine car experienced trouble near the end. Foyt was out front with one lap to go when a five-car crash occurred in front of him on the front stretch. A.J. weaved his way through to win.

After that win, Foyt would be locked out of Indy’s victory lane for ten years. Each year, SuperTex would travel to the famed 2.5 mile oval hoping to become the first driver to win four Indy 500s.

The bad luck streak finally was broken in 1977. But it wasn’t an easy win by any means.

Foyt ran out of fuel during the race, and had to overcome a 32-second deficit on Gordon Johncock. Foyt turned his Coyote’s turbo boost up, and was able to cut between 1.5 and 2 seconds per lap out of Johncock’s lead. Foyt was gambling that his engine would hold out. As Foyt closed, Johncock suddenly slowed, himself the victim of engine failure. Foyt sailed past into the history books.

It wasn’t just a win. It was the stuff legends are made of.

Along with the wins, Foyt holds some historic distinctions at Indy. He competed in 35 consecutive Indy 500s. He’s the only driver to win the 500 in both front and rear engined cars. He’s led the most Indy 500s with 13. He led at Indy 39 times, more than anyone else in their career.

He’s the only driver to have won Indy, the Daytona 500, the 24 hours of Le Mans, and the 24 hours of Daytona.

The incredible thing about Foyt was he could not only drive in any type car he took a notion to, but he was competitive and he won.

But if there was ever a place that Foyt seemed at home and in the groove, it was at Indy. Two other drivers were able to match A.J.’s mark at the Brickyard.

But there’s only one SuperTex.

Brandon Reed is the editor and publisher of Georgia Racing History.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Email us!

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame or the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. All content is the intellectual property of the individual authors. All opinions are those of the individual authors. Please do not repost images or text without permission.