When Red was a child, his parents were friends with the France family. They had a son when Red was just 5 years old. He often wondered how Mrs. France's stomach grew so big, and his dad told him that she swallowed a watermelon seed and that one was growing inside of her. Throughout their life-long friendship, Red often called Bill France, 'watermelon'. During their teen years, the two would often travel on weekends, leaving their families and jobs behind to search for an automobile race to attend. At the time, the north was full of "big car races" and were usually sponsored and sanctioned by the AAA. They would travel all across the north and sometimes compete themselves. Red Vogt liked to compete in motorcycle races himself, especially racing Indian Motorcycles. Popular for the time were 'board tracks' - round, high-banked ovals built completely of wooden planks. The board tracks were very popular from the early 20's to the very early 30's. It wasn't often that they lasted long with both termites and weather taking it's toll on the tracks. Red raced, and won some, but one time in particular ended his racing career. At one particular race, Vogt lost control at speeds close to 100 mph. He flew off of his motorcycle and skidded down the track, face first. In addition to almost all of his leather riding gear being completely shredded, he lost all but two of his teeth. For the rest of his days, Vogt would carry wooden remnants in his body.

While spending nearly three months in the hospital, he met a volunteer at the hospital named Ruth. The two would soon get married and move south. In the summer of 1927, the Vogt's moved to Atlanta in a 'hopped-up' Ford Model T and spent several months in a hotel. Within the first week of being in Atlanta, Red had met with several banks, but it took several tries to find one that would loan him $100 - for a brand new set of tools and enough money left over to rent a concrete block building on Atlanta's Spring Street - right in the heart of the southern city. Relocating south was probably the best move for Vogt and his wife. 1927 was the height of the Prohibition Era, and with dozens of illegal "booze houses", "speak-easies" and "nip joints", all names for undercover bars, bootleggers needed a mechanic that would fight for their side - Red Vogt was the answer. Weeks after he opened 'Red Vogt's Garage', he had made back his initial $100 investment, and then some. He had a huge clientele of bootleggers where he would work on all cars, but mostly Ford's since they were one of the cheapest, and most widely available cars on the market. He also favored Ford's since his 'real-world hero' was Henry Ford. Once Ford introduced his version of the V-8 engine in 1932, Vogt could easily perfect it. In fact, around 1933 or 34' Ford and several of his lead engineers traveled south to meet Vogt as they had heard and seen Vogt's creations and that could easily outrun a stock, 60 hp flathead engine. Henry made a return visit in the late 30's after he introduced his 85 hp model, to once again, see how the red-head mechanic could squeeze so much more power than was intended from the factory. Soon, Vogt's customers were more than just moonshiners and guys who wanted to go fast; sooner or later, the Police and Federal Agents found out where all the 'souped-up' cars were coming from and threatened to close down Vogt's shop if he didn't service the law cars and modify them too. While Vogt did fulfill the requests of the Atlanta Police Department and other neighboring enforcement's, they were still being outran by the moonshine runners. Red always had a saying that "Money Equals Speed", meaning that bootleggers, making hundreds of dollars per load could afford any sort of aftermarket part that Vogt thought they needed. The law had a budget, and they got all the speed that they had money for.

Sometime in the mid 30's, Vogt started to open all day, every day - 24/7. He was one of the first, if not THE first to do so. He soon bought a custom made neon sign that proclaimed "Red Vogt's Garage - Open 24 Hours" and hung it proudly over his garage door, lighting up a portion of Spring Street. He figured he would get some business out of the 'night crowd', all of the 'trippers' that made two or sometimes three runs a night, and would meet back at Vogt's shop before dawn. It was also in the late 20's or early 30's when he met a young Raymond Parks. Parks' came to Atlanta in 1929 to start a lifelong career. Before Raymond retired from the driving duties of his moonshine operation, he often visited the Vogt shop to get his Model T worked on. Years later, he would introduce his cousins, moonshine runners, and future stock car racers, Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall to Vogt where the two would get to know the 'in's and out's' of a Ford V-8. Later on, Vogt would meticulously build all of Parks' racecars which would propel the team to record-book success, but that's a later story.....