In the late 1940s, the NSCRA was one of the most popular stock car sanctioning bodies in the southeast.
By Eddie Samples
Posted in Feature Stories 3/26/10
So here it is in the middle of the racing season at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta in 1951. Buddy Shuman had won the 100 mile event on June 24, and had leap-frogged over Jack Smith to move into second in the point standings, chasing Ed Samples for the NSCRA’s 1951 crown.
Samples had won the NSCRA (National Stock Car Racing Association) title in 1949, while Shuman was the champ in 1948 and 1950. Smith lost by a hair in 1950. So could this have been his year?
Brandon Reed
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Columns 3/19/10
June 11, 1950 was a day that should have ended with a winner, a happy crowd, and a nice Georgia summer sunset.
Instead, it ended in horror and tragedy.
The National Stock Car Racing Association, or NSCRA for short, was running a 100-lap event at Atlanta’s famed Lakewood Speedway, a track dubbed “The Indianapolis Of The South.” The NSCRA group raced out of Atlanta, so the Lakewood event was a “home game” for the series. The series actually pre-dated NASCAR, having crowned champions as far back as 1946.
The front gate at Athens Speedway, circa 1965.
By Brandon Reed
Posted in Feature Stories 3/12/10
On Saturday, March 6, the inaugural Athens Speedway Reunion was held at the Bogart Community Center in Bogart, Georgia, just a few miles from the site of the Athens Speedway in Athens, Georgia.
Around 400 former drivers, officials, fans and family members came out to remember the speedway, which opened around 1959 and closed in 1991. The speedway has long been a part of north Georgia racing lore, viewed by those who saw racing there as being one of the finest facilities in the northern part of the state.
Georgia racing legend Charlie Mincey. Photo courtesy GARHOFA
By Mike Bell
Posted in Feature Stories 3/5/10
When stock car racing started, they were mostly whiskey trippers driving race cars on the weekends with loads of moonshine form the Smokey Mountain areas to either Charlotte, Greenville, Knoxville, Chattanooga or Atlanta, the largest city in the south…then and now. One of the myths presented over the years was that they were all war veterans looking for an extra paycheck and some thrills.
What if you heard about a fourteen year old that had been driving around Atlanta at the age of ten in 1941, and got his driver’s license at the age of 12 (yeah, he lied)?
