by: Cody Dinsmore
This past week has been a tough one for the Georgia Racing Community. Last Wednesday, we lost racing pioneer and 2004 Georgia Racing Hall Of Fame Inductee, Roz Howard. Just two days later on Friday, the 4th, we also lost 2009 GRHOF Inductee, Luther Carter. Although the two raced in different eras with totally different equipment, they were very similar in many ways.
Roswell Howard, known as Roz, was born in 1920 near Macon, GA. He served his country and worked the motor pool of the army. That was his first venture into the fascinating world of mechanics and engines. Just one year after the war ended in 1946, he borrowed a friend’s car and entered it in a jalopy division race at a small-time track near Macon, where he would flip the car three times. I don’t know what the friend thought of him after that, but needless to say, Roz wanted more. Shortly after that, he purchased a used sedan in hopes of one day winning a race. As the next couple of years progressed, so would Roz. He would be seated in better equipment and would win more races. Starting in the early ’50s, he would become a regular on the Southern Racing Enterprises Circuit. He would earn several victories in that series across the south. In 1956, he would make his NASCAR Grand National debut. He drove his own racecar, finished 13th, and received just $250. 1957 was a good year for Mr. Howard. He competed in the newly formed, MARC series. It is still around today, but under a different name, ARCA. He drove his brand new 1957 Chevy 150, otherwise known as a ‘Black Widow’, to the MARC Southern Division title. Part of the reason for winning the title was that he won the annual Labor Day Classic at the Lakewood Speedway.
At the start of the next season, he would still compete in MARC and some occasional NASCAR races. His best Grand National finish that season was 7th at Columbia. However, he wasn’t able to compete in a full season of racing. In May of ’58, he ran three consecutive races in both North and South Carolina, Asheville-Weaverville, Columbia and I believe Hillsboro. Within those three days, he drove probably close to 1500 miles, including the racing. Needless to say, I’m sure he was very tired. He was driving the tow truck back, at night. Almost home, around Augusta GA, he dozed off to sleep and hit a bridge post. He was severely injured with multiple broken bones, which left him in a full-body cast for a majority of 1958. He wouldn’t return to driving until the spring of ’59.
Roz Howard at GRHOF
In 1960, he would downsize his driving schedule to help Paul McDuffie work on Joe Lee Johnson’s Chevy. Roz would drive 3 races himself as a team car to Joe Lee. His best finish would be his home track, Atlanta International Raceway, where in the track’s first event, he finished a career best 7th. He was also working on Johnson’s car when a pit accident occurred in that year’s Southern 500. Bobby Johns’ Pontiac went out of control and into the pit road wall where future Georgia Racing Hall Of Famer, Paul McDuffie would be killed along with three others. Something just told him to duck, which in turn, would save his life. Not long after this, Roz would step out of racing for several decades, only to come back into the spotlight in 2004 when he was among the third class inducted to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame. In fact, he was a supporter of the Hall up until his death. Just this past October, he along with his family and friends, donated a beautiful replica of his MARC Championship winning 1957 Chevy.
Just two days after this giant passed on, another Hall of Famer was drafting right behind him on the road to the track upstairs. One thing I think that was unique about Luther Carter, was that he was successful on both dirt and asphalt. He started on dirt in 1969, in Canton GA. Over the decade of the 70′s, he would dominate races at tracks such as Dixie, Rome, Canton, Boyd’s, Toccoa, Mobile, 5 Flags, West Atlanta, Jefco, and MGR among others. One of his biggest wins was a late model race called the “Coca-Cola 200″ at Dixie Speedway. And although he never won the Snowball Derby, he competed in the famed race 6 times, with a best finish of 5th, in 1976. Even into the ‘modern era’ of local racing, he was a competitor and still was considered a hero to many along with an occasional win.
Luther Carter – Dixie Speedway 1971
The last race he drove in was at the Senoia Raceway in 1999. Since then, he had trained his grandson, also named Luther, who competes at Dixie Speedway in the Super Late Model class. He got his first win in 2006, and Luther was there to see his grandson do what he had done years ago. Luther Carter was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2009 along with 7 other of his former friends and competitors. The 2009 class had names such as Luther, Buck Simmons, Leon Sells, and Ronnie Sanders. It was certainly a class of old friends. Luther was remembered as a driver that was tough as nails behind the wheel, but as soft as a Teddy bear away from the track. He was what most people think of Dale Earnhardt as. He wouldn’t put up with anybody beating on him during the race, but after the race, he would be your best friend and would help or do anything in the world for you.
Rest in Peace Gentlemen…
-Cody
Email: cody7474@yahoo.com
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So sad, but at least they got into the “Georgia Racing Hall of Fame” before their departure.
Gone, but not forgotten!
Cody,
Rick Minter wrote this nice piece about Luther Carter, published Januray 15, 2013 on the RacinToday.com website:
Southeastern Racing Scene Loses A Tough One
Rick Minter | Senior Writer, RacinToday.com Tuesday, 15 January 2013
The Southeastern short track world lost one of its icons on Jan. 4 with the passing of Luther Carter.
Carter, who died at 75 after a battle with cancer, was an old-school racer who passed his love of the sport along to his son Mark Carter, who became a racer himself, as well as his grandson Luther Jenkins, now one of the regulars at tracks across north Georgia.
Carter was a big, tough man. He stood 6 foot, 5 inches tall, and his skin was weathered from a lifetime of running heavy equipment in the hot Georgia sun.
But his passion was racing, and he came along in an era when some of Georgia’s best racers were at their prime – drivers like Charlie Mincey, Bud Lunsford, Leon Sells and Leon Archer. Carter could hold his own with the best of them, and in an era where drivers settled issues on and off the track among themselves, Carter was known as one of the ones not to mess with.
“He wouldn’t put up with much, and he wasn’t afraid to stand up for what he thought was right,” Mark Carter said. “He told me when I started racing that if you ever start taking abuse you’ll have to take it for the rest of your life. And you had to be tough back when he raced.”
Luther Carter was big and tough.
Carter never pursued a NASCAR career, but he did play a role in the early career of Bill Elliott.
In Elliott’s first-ever Late Model race, he was involved in an incident with Carter.
Carter was in contention to win late in the race. Elliott was struggling in the back, and when Carter tried to lap Elliott, they crashed, and a fairly large ruckus ensued in the pits.
“I wanted to quit that night,” Elliott said several years ago. “I really felt bad about that.”
Elliott turned his car over to Jody Ridley for the remainder of that season, and only resumed driving after much encouragement from Ridley, among others.
Soon Elliott had moved on to NASCAR, and Carter continued to race the short tracks.
In 2004, when Elliott had ended his full-time career, I was covering motorsports for the Atlanta newspaper and was looking for a way to write something about Elliott without making it seem like a retirement story, since Elliott insisted he wasn’t retiring.
I decided to try to organize a reunion of the drivers Elliott raced against when he first started.
Elliott had two conditions: No PR people were to be involved, and Luther Carter had to be there.
The PR ban wasn’t much of a problem. Carter was another story.
“He really didn’t want to go,” Mark Carter said, adding that his father wasn’t sure that bygones between the Carters and Elliotts could actually be bygones.
But Luther Carter eventually gave in and showed up at the reunion. Elliott arrived alone, as promised, with no help from a PR type.
When Elliott walked in, he and Carter huddled privately in a corner of the room. It was clear when they joined the rest of the group that there were no lingering hard feelings.
After that, it was Carter who helped set the tone for the evening. He asked Elliott: “Bill, when you and I were boxing back then, did you ever think you’d wind up where you are today?”
Elliott’s reply: “No, I did not. I just worked hard every day and didn’t try to plan too far ahead.
“Anybody in this room could have done it with the right circumstances.”
When the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame inducted its first class in 2002, Bill Elliott entered the Hall. Seven years later, Carter joined him.
Both had earned it, each in his own way.
– Rick Minter can be reached at rminter@racintoday.com
Rick Minter | Senior Writer, RacinToday.com Tuesday, 15 January 2013