Before Chattanooga Chew, David Pearson and Others Raced at Chattanooga's Boyd's Speedway

As I was looking at some old racing dates, I noticed that David Pearson won a NASCAR Grand National race on June 19, 1964 at Boyd's Speedway in Chattanooga, Tennessee driving for Cotton Owens. Just makes it seem all the more appropriate that in the late stages of his driving career Pearson would be sponsored by Chattanooga Chew.

That track is still operating today, but what I really found interesting was an ad by Boyd's Speedway owner-promoter, E.A. Boyd in the April 3, 1959 Rome (Georgia) News Tribune advertising an upcoming open competition, run what ya brung race... any car, any fuel, purse guaranteed against 50% of the gate. Guaranteed tow money to Chattanooga. I bet that was an interesting show!

I lived in the Nooga for 9 years. Amazingly, I never did get to Boyd's either to see a race or to just look around. And I lived no more than 10-15 minutes from it. (However, I did manage one visit to Cleveland Speedway owned by the late Joe Lee Johnson.)

Boyd's hosted two Grand National races - one each in 1962 and 1964. The King won the pole for both races, but he didn't win either of them. During my 2011 visit to the Richard Petty Museum, I almost overlooked this trophy sitting on the top shelf of one of the cabinets. I'm guessing its for one of his pole wins; however, I'm not certain for which year.

I have a former RIR secretary, Marsha Weiss, living in Chattanooga. Her husband is with Allied Chemical and was a liaison with the Georgia carpet mills.

It's claimed as a Georgia track since it has a GA address! Never been, but I hear it's meer miles from the TN line.

-Cody

You exit I-75 at exit 1A on the TN side of the border and then cross the border into Georgia on Scruggs Rd. Most folks still claim it as TN - but Georgia I'm sure will keep it. Matter of fact, Georgia wants to push its border INTO Tennessee to grab our water. Hands off Georgians!

And see the Americas Best Value Inn in the top center of the map? Pretty sure that used to be a Best Western around 1990. Its where we had our rehearsal dinner. As you can tell, 'toomuchcountry' is a fitting name.

Wow, I didn't realize that if sit trackside, you would be three feet from Tennessee! lol

Chattanooga has many race fans - but the area's contribution to racing history isn't terribly deep. In addition to 2 GN races promoted at Boyd's, a few other Chattanooga area racers include:

Friday Hassler (from J.C. Hayes )

McKee Foods from nearby Collegedale, TN promoted their Little Debbie snacks with the Wood Brothers and Ken Schrader & Bill Elliott.

After his driving days ended, Joe Lee Johnson operated the dirt Cleveland Speedway in Bradley County, TN that adjoined Hamilton County where Chattanooga is the county seat.

Charley Griffith from Red Bank, TN - generally considered part of Chattanooga but actually a separate city - finished 3rd in the inaugural Daytona 500 behind Lee Petty and Johnny Beauchamp. It was his best finish of a 17-race GN career.

http://www.legendsofnascar.com/Charley_Griffith.htm

There may be more, but those are the ones that immediately came to mind.

Good stuff Chase & Cody... thanksl.

Being inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in December.....

Freddy Fryar Chattanooga, Tenn. - Won 826 feature events. Began racing in the early 1950s, following his brother Harold's footsteps, at the age of 14. First raced at Fort Oglethorpe Speedway in Fort Oglethorpe, GA. Competed in Modifieds on the beach at Daytona in 1956, 57. Finished second to Bobby Allison in the NASCAR Modified Championship in 1964. Competed in NASCAR Modifieds, Grand Nationals, and Late Model Sportsman and USAC Stock Cars in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Won seven NASCAR Series track championships. Won state championships in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. All Pro Series champion in 1983. Won All Pro Truck championship in 1984. Ran NASCAR's Winston Cup series in several events from 1956-1971. Won the Snowball Derby twice, 1979 and 1981. Won at Mobile International Speedway, Jackson International Speedway, Montgomery Motor Speedway, Caraway Speedway, Gresham Motorsports Park (then Georgia International Speedway), Corpus Christi Speedway, Five Flags Speedway and more. Retired form racing in 1987. Worked for various NASCAR teams for 15 years, and served as a driving instructor at the Richard Petty Driving School.

Here is a picture of an early car - Looks like a late 50's Ford? Track looks like Boyd's

And in the 1967 Permatex race at Daytona

And in a 1970 Superbird. (I have a diecast of this car if I could ever find it!)

Good job Cody. Doggone it. His name came to mind last night. But then I reconsidered and thought he was from Texas or Louisiana and never bothered to look up his bio. I should've gone with my gut. Either way, good addition to the thread.

Cody, more good stuff. I'm guessing your first pic - the black & white one - is from Nashville Fairgrounds, not Boyd's, judging by the WLAC Radio billboard. WLAC is an AM station in Nashville.

Ironically, the call letters WLAC were first assigned in 1922 to the student operated station at North Carolina State University in Raleigh - the second radio station in the state of North Carolina, but that station went off the air due to financial problems in 1923 and the letters went then to the Nashville group, which went on the air three years later in 1926.

Good eye Dave. While Cody was sharing the pic of Freddy as a native Noogan, that pic is definitely from Nashville. The 'garage' area (such that it was) was actually an inner track with a lower elevation than the back straightaway.

WLAC was named for Life & Casualty insurance company. They created the station to help promote their various insurance policies. The company had a boocoodle of sales agents that collected premiums WEEKLY oftentimes door to door. Miss a premium? Boom, lose your coverage. Not exactly the best business ethics I suppose - but what else is new in the insurance biz right? L&C was a direct competitor to National Life & Accident Insurance Company - also based in Nashville. National Life's slogan was We Shield Millions. They too created a radio station and a linchpin radio show to help sell their policies - WSM-AM and the Grand Ole Opry.

Thus ended your Nashville radio and insurance history lesson today.

Yep, sounds just like a John Grisham novel, doesn't it? Thanks for the history lesson.

One summer race at Nashville between 1981-83 when we had the Earnhardt/Wrangler car, Gary Baker put down asphalt in an extended garage parking area in the Nashville infield. Worked fine early in the morning. Sometime after the noon hour of a hot July Nashville summer afternoon, everybody's jack stands started sinking and disappearing into that brand new asphalt, leaving the tires of the cars just about touching the ground again!

Good grief. Colossal fail on my part to forget a key Noogan in racing - Grant Adcox (from Ray Lamm collection ). He even had some sponsorship from Krystal hamburgers - a Chattanooga-founded and based company at the time.

And most often emblazonned with the hometown Adcox-Kirby Chevrolet on the quarter panels.

And one of the principals of MB2 Racing - Nelson Bowers - was a Noogan (maybe still is). He founded Bowers Automotive Group . The team fielded the candy cars for drivers such as Derrike Cope, Ernie Irvan and Ken Schrader. And if memory serves, the owners then sold to Bobby Ginn who in turn folded his team into DEI. Right?

From JC Hayes collection

From Brian Norton collection

Yummmm - I'm hungry for a snack - thanks ebay.

Later known just as Herb Adcox Chevrolet. Herb's dealership was on Lee Highway in the Brainerd area of Chattanooga - not more than 15-20 minutes or so from Boyd's. Sadly, after many years of selling Chevrolet cars, the government forcibly divorced him from GM as part of their bailout of the auto industry. After moving over to just used cars, his dealership finally closed for good earlier this year.

A very poignant photo of Herb from 2012. More photos [ here ].

From the August 4, 2006 Bangor Daily News:

In the Adcox-Kirby livery at Daytona in 1974 as posted at the Find a Grave Memorial site:

Question answered. But umm, The Noogans don't claim him.

I love topics like this where you start out with one bit of trivia, and by the end of the thread, you learn a dozen more things!

Revisiting a thread started back in mid-June, I jumped Exit 1 of I-75 at the state line of GA and TN on my way back from Daytona. Snapped a couple of pics at Boyd's Speedway.

I respected the close gate, the no trespassing sign and the boocoodle of mud remaining from 3 or 4 consecutive days of rain.

And I found an email from Jerry Bushmire in my inbox with this photo of Linda Vaughn at Chattanooga International Raceway back in the day. As a Dalton, GA girl, she didn't have far to travel for this race - that is if she still lived at home back then.

Let us not forget Bob Burcham. He was actually from Rossville, Ga. he was listed most of the time as being from Chattanooga. He was track champion at Middle Ga. Raceway. He also ran some GN, now Cup, races but raced mostly in the LMS series. Bob was a great fiend of ours. We miss him.

Great photos.

At Boyd's

And at Nashville Fairgrounds....

Resurrecting one of Dave's posts from 2013. Today - June 19th - is the 50th anniversary of David Pearson's win on June 19, 1964. - DBMJ