Say What, Smokey?

If you’ve not read Smokey Yunick’s self-published autobiography………….”The Best Damn Garage in Town” well, Christmas is coming. Smokey did not want his life and times edited or censored. Realizing self-publication was his lone option, Smokey created “Carbon (his dog, at the time) Press” and proceded to tell it just like it was. Sure, the language salty as a sailor, but the reader is immersed in the exact same environment as the events happened. Brilliant! Really. The same criticisim was leveld at Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, over a century ago….”too vernacular”.. Smoke’s been called a lot of names, but never “dumb”; “The Best Damn Garage in Town” may be his ulitmate contribution.Smokey fires one salvo after another, but a favorite topic is Big Bill France…………who unwittingly contriubted to the most famous garage name in Daytona, if not America. According to Smokey, he wanted distinction from Bill and his AMOCO service station garage, especially since Smokey kept pretty busy re-repairing vehicles that Fance had already “fixed”……….hence the “best damn” part! Matter of fact, their introduction occurred as France paid a visit to TBDGIT to determine the source of such bravado……….only to find Smokey re-fixing a Ford’s transmission that had just left Big Bill’s station.There’s lots of jaw-dropping-never-told-before-info, but among the very high-lights is this interesting tid-bit:The Atlanta moonshiners (as Big Bill thought of them) led by Raymond Parks, Red Vogt, Lloyd Seay, Roy Hall, and Red Byron had been racing with and whupping Bill (the race driver) on the dirt tracks since the 1930’s. They beat Bill at Lakewood (their track) and Daytona’s old beach-road course (“his” track) and most everywhere in between. Perhaps the Atlatans did not realize its scope, but a bonafide rivalry had begun, not just for track supremacy, but for ultimate control of the fledgling sport of stock car racing.When southern stock car racing resumed following World War II, the barnstorming free-for-all era took a backseat to organization and manupulation. Louis Jerome “Red” Vogt was origianlly from the Washington, DC area, as was William H.G. France. The two had been fast friends before each migrated south………Bill to Daytona Beach, and Red to Atlanta. It’s well known that Red Vogt coined the famous name “NASCAR” the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, but Smokey Yunick raises the tantalizing question of timing. WHEN, exactly, did Red coin this title?Also well documented is the now-famous gathering of racing promoters, car owners, and track officialsin Daytona Beach’s “Streamline Hotel” in December of 1947. Supposedly, Big Bill had organized the meeting, but author Neal Thompson reveals in “Driving With the Devil” Big Bill had also hired……..”models (girls) from the nereby Daytona Modeling Agency………..” for “entertainment” purposes. The hired models operated in the hotel’s lobby………the racing meeting was conducted on the Streamline’s top floor. As Thompson would ultimately chronicle, the Atlantans spent much more time in the lobby, and Thompson has a chapter titled “Next Thing we Knew, Bill France Owned NASCAR” supposedly a quote from Mr.Parks. Smokey Yunick’s bombshell: When Parks and Vogt came to the Daytona meeting of 1947……….NASCAR was (already) a GEORGIA CHARTERED CORPORATION. It’s transformation to a Florida corporation is surprising, to say the least. Big Bill had HIS attorney, Louis Ossinsky, present (of course) and between him and the modling girls the deed was done. Guess we can connect the dots on why Mr. Parks was not included in NASCAR’s initial HOF class.

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