Racing and Reporting
Pete Craig leads a pack of racers off the second turn at Atlanta's famed Lakewood Speedway. Craig's car, painted Royal Blue with gold leaf numbers, was powered by a Bob Reed Flathead Ford.
After WWI, he worked for several newspapers and took up the hobby of racing in 1921. While working in Atlanta, he raced at Lakewood whenever there was an event. He ran a lot of the early events on the sands of Daytona Beach – long before Big Bill France arrived on the scene.
It mentioned in the “Who’s Who” book that he set a record at 100 mph on the beach in 1930. They were mostly speed trials in the early days similar to what is done on the Bonneville Salt Flats today.
It also mentions him driving a Flathead prepared by Bob Reed of Atlanta across the southeastern United States (if anyone knows of this Bob Reed, please contact us).
At a race at the Lakewood Fairgrounds, he met a fellow and landed a job at the Atlanta Journal for twelve years. As one article put it, “Racing had two advantages for Pete. Other reporters saw the races, but he made them.”
Pete Sr. near the end of his racing career in 1937.
From a letter Pete Jr. wrote, “We once had a big silver trophy I found stuffed in our attic. It was inscribed ‘Lakewood Speedway – 2nd Place – Stock Car Race – Pete Craig.’ That was about 1932 or 1934. Dad said it was a roadster race. Dad said they had their race engine in it and I kidded him for cheating. So he said ‘the guy that won had his race engine in too’. He won $200 – good money during the depression!
“I asked him later where the trophy was, and he thought for a minute and said ‘we left it n the attic when we moved. Never kept those things anyway. You couldn’t eat the damn things.’ The old house was torn down some 40 years ago.”
After WWII, Pete Sr. went into civil service until his retirement in 1967. He didn’t get to enjoy the easy life too long as he died of natural causes in 1968. The article from the Thomasville paper mentioned his enjoying fishing. Craig had just recently moved to Florida, just south of Tallahassee, for just that reason.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the September, 2006 issue of the Pioneer Pages magazine.
Mike Bell is the CEO and historian for the Georgia Auto Racing Hall of Fame Association, Inc. (GARHOFA)
Please continue on for a look at some further items from Pete Craig’s racing career.