Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 4/8/11
Whether it was falling off the top of a building or putting together one of the most popular race teams in NASCAR history, Hollywood stuntman and legend Hal Needham always did things with success in mind.
Needham tells his story in his autobiography, “Stuntman!”, which came out earlier this year and is well worth the read.
Needham tells about his childhood in Arkansas, and how he parlayed working as a treetopper in California into a start in television and movies doing stunts. Over the years, Needham did stunts for John Wayne, Burt Reynolds, Richard Boone and countless others.
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Posted 08 April 2011
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Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 3/18/11
Last Saturday proved to be another milestone for me, as I got a chance to make my on-track debut at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Okay, it sounds bigger than it actually was, but for me – it was huge!
I was at AMS, working with other volunteers to represent the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame during the track’s open house event. Along with Bobby Milam and I were several other volunteers, including Jackie Smith, son of Hall of Fame racer Jack Smith.
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Posted 18 March 2011
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Rick Minter
By Rick Minter-Guest Contributor
Posted in Columns 3/4/11
Most folks don’t get into the sports reporting business for the money. They do it for chances to write about people like Roosevelt Johnson.
Johnson, one of the South’s pioneering drag racers, died this past January at the age of 80. I interviewed him several times over the years, visited in his home, watched him work on racing engines in his shop, rode up and down the road with him, and even went to a NASCAR track with him.
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Posted 04 March 2011
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Mike Bell
By Mike Bell
Posted in Columns 2/25/11
A guy from Michigan by the name of Alan Brown has compiled a list of all the race tracks that ever existed in North America, entitled “The History of American Speedways: Past and Present.” He shows every track that is known to exist but knows he hasn’t made a complete list.
I have tried to help him update his book. I do this by looking through numerous microfilms of newspapers at the University of Georgia. Thanks to their School of Journalism, there are films of papers from throughout this state. So far, I have gone through papers for Macon, Columbus, Athens, Augusta, Gainesville, Albany and other cities.
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Posted 25 February 2011
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Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 1/28/11
With Speedweeks getting ready to kick in the next few weeks at Daytona, it brings to mind a simpler time, when, instead of fighting aerodynamics, drivers fought sand on their windshields.
From its inception, NASCAR’s premier venue was the old beach and road course in Daytona. It was, to say the least, an interesting place to race.
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Posted 28 January 2011
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Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 1/14/11
The snowy weather that bogged down the southeast over the past week really limited the number of things you can do to pass the time.
One of the best things you can do, however, is to get caught up on your reading. I have a pretty good stack of books that I need to go through, and the frozen conditions outside of my house opened up the opportunity to do just that.
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Posted 14 January 2011
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Mike Bell
By Mike Bell
Posted in Columns 12/31/10
The recent news that the Zebulon Speedway, located just north of Zebulon, Georgia, would soon be reopening put us in mind of a popular area driver who lost his life at the track about 43 years ago.
‘Fatso’ Phillips was killed at Zebulon in a crash back in October of 1967 during a feature race on the ‘Figure 8’ track.
Back in 2007, we made contact with Fatso’s sister, Martha P. Daniel, of Thomaston, Georgia. First of all, his given name was Arthur Lyle Phillips, but no one knew him as that.
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Posted 31 December 2010
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Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 12/24/10
There are not a lot of good things you can say about rain delays at a racetrack. Sure, we can always use the rain. But other than that, rain at a racetrack is pretty much a miserable thing.
But there is one bright spot. Usually when there’s a rain delay at a race track, you end up with a group of people getting together to share racing stories.
With all the characters that have passed through the American stock car racing scene over the years, the stories are absolute treasures.
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Posted 24 December 2010
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Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 11/19/10
Several years ago, my dear friend and mentor Rob Wainberg taught me a phrase in Yiddish that I have used many times since. It’s become one of my favorites, and it sums up some situations nicely.
The phrase, as best I can spell it in English, sounds like “Tokhis oyfin tish.”
Roughly translated, it means, “Put up or shut up.”
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Posted 19 November 2010
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Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 10/22/10
If you haven’t had the opportunity to see the new documentary “Petty Blue”, you really should.
While if focuses mainly on Richard Petty, it tells the story of the Petty racing dynasty, good, bad and ugly.
One of the most heart rendering moments of the video is when they reach the story of Adam Petty, Kyle’s son, who was lost to us in a crash on May 12, 2000.
It was on that day that the sports world lost something special.
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Posted 22 October 2010
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