Some say it began in the foothills of Northern Georgia. Some say it was in the Brushy Mountains of North Carolina. Still others say it was on the red clay of South Carolina. Most all agree that the need of the "moonshiners" to outrun the "revenuers" was the underlying cause of the beginning, although now days that may not be in vogue to remember. Wherever it began, and for whatever reason, stock car racing became a part of the Southeastern lifestyle in the late 1930s. After a hiatus imposed by a world at war in the early forties, stock car racing came back with a vengeance. The sands of Daytona Beach and numerous quarter mile and half mile dirt tracks around the Southeast provided a venue for daring drivers to test their skills and the car builders and mechanics to innovate ways to make cars go faster and faster.
The need to bring organization to the sport was filled in 1948 in the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, when several individuals established a national sanctioning body for stock car racing. Modified racing was now a viable outlet for racing enthusiasts with consisent rules and protected purses. In 1949, a strickly stock division was born and "stock car racing" was off and running for the big time. Little did we know and few could imagine running to where.
A young visionary from Darlington, South Carolina took the first step to raising the infant child of stock car racing when he build Darlington International Raceway, the first "super speedway" for stock car racing. The first Southern 500 on Labor Day Weekend, no longer a tradition, was once the epitomy for what stock car racing was about. In the late '50s and throughout the 60s, other super speedways were being built around the Southeast.
Today there are mega tracks, mega sponors, and Hollywood-like star personalities involved in a sport that, essentially, operates 365 days a year from coast to coast and even into our northern and southern neighbors. Stock Car racing has become big business, HUGE business, and enjoys a positive review in almost every social setting. It's time to acknowledge and recognize how the dusty clay tracks of the Carolinas and Georgia, dimly lighted for night races gave way to huge tracks which sparkle at night likes a diamond necklace on a black velvet display as thousands of fans pack in to see their favorites compete.
There is a place, tucked in Mooresville, North Carolina, Exit 36 off I-77, where the glorious past is remembered in The Memory Lane Museum. There are displays there that will take the older fan back in time to when there was racing all around, four nights a week sometimes, and names like Curtis, Lee, Lil Joe, Fireball, Wendell, Rex, Ned, Dink, and so many more were the heroes of the day. A place where history lives within the walls of the huge Memory Lane Museum. In the back of the museum, a place made special by the display there, is the Racers Reunion Memory Lane Hall of Fame. If you consider yourself to be a race fan from those days, you owe it to yourself to once more visit those special times. If you are new to the sport, you MUST visit there to know from where the sport came. See the men and women who sacrificed so much so the racing you see today is what it is. You really need to absorb the color and history of the sport from the numerous artifacts on display. Thoughtfully look at the drawings of Michael W. Smith in the Racers Reunion Memory Lane Hall of Fame honoring those special people you really need to know about.
To each individual who is a fan of stock car racing, the sport is a passion. The Racers Reunion Memory Lane Hall of Fame represents the passion to recognize the individuals who have given all us fans so much. Enjoy your visit there and, while there, remember that you are experiencing history in its finest form.
Tim
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What a change! It's been awhile since I've checked in and I'm quite surprised. It may take me awhile to figure it our but first look it's really great.
updated by @tim-leeming: 03/06/19 12:04:53AM
