What's in a Photo?

Most racing photos from the past are of car and driver but, every once in a while I come across a photo that tells more of a story in the background and foreground than just the subject. Here is another good example of what's going on in a photo other than a parked car with a it's driver striking a pose for the camera. This unknown driver and track tells a story that only a few racing veteran fans ever got to witness. Click the photo for a larger image. What are your thoughts? raw photography at it's best.

Very cool shot! But good grief - is that Crazy Horse and his warriors on the ridge and Custer's femur in the foreground?

TMC, read the forum "Green Hill Speedway..." and look at the picture...it's very similar to this photo...could it be?

Jim, very cool photo. It very well could be Green Hill Speedway, but there's just not enough landmarksto say for sure.

My gut instinct is that it isn't Green Hill. In the article about the opening it discribes steps cut into the dirt hill with cinder blocks set out for people to sit on, and you can kind of seethose stepsin the poor quality newspaper photo of Green Hill I posted. Also, Green Hill was opened in 1955. I think your photo is much earlier. It became the thing to do to cut out the back window around 1951-52. The car in your photo doesn't have that and looks typical of the cars prior to that modification. Then again, not everyone cut their window out.And the writing on the rear quarter panel looks typical to the late 40's - early 50's writing of who owned and built the car.

It appears the car number is actually 7 with an added 1painted on for this race which would indicate the car is from out of the area or out of state and another car from the area got the #7. The only #7 from the early days in the southeast with the stylishlooking font like that that I can think of off the top of my head is Johnny Roberts from Baltimore, Maryland.

Where did you find this photo?

Robert, that's a good analogy comparison of the two; Green Hill and this photo. It's a long shot for sure that this would be Green Hill but it appears in both photos that the turn has some kind of crude cinder block wall that doesn't appear in the straight away and the slope ratio of the bank is very similar in both photos. Another thing that is interesting is, the large jagged rock in the infield, much like would be found in a more mountainous area, not typical of lower farm land, sand, or clay. So the topographical region could be correct.

You have a lot of experience and as usual, I didn't catch the added number one and that's the cool thing about photos, everyone sees something different and has good information to add no matter how big or small the findings.

As for where I got the photo, I can't remember.

Here's a few early shots of one of Johnny's #7 cars from the Maryland Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame site. Two of them have an altered number:

Just my random thoughts. This is prior to 1955 in my opinion. I tried to blow up the photo to read the name on the car but its too blurred. I did notice that a lot of men on the hill were wearing hats and that was more 1947-1952 than 1955. Also the added brake/tail lights above the trunk indicates flat towing and that was more of an earlier thing. I don't see the concrete block wall on the outside towards the hill leading up to the outside guardrail. In my opinion that's just the dirt/rock side of the hill that was cut to get fill dirt to level the infield. With this flat side of the hill there was no need for guardrail in this turn. I think it is a relative new track judging from all the debris in the infield. It must have been close to a decent sized town because there's 175 people standing on the hill and 18 in the tree's. 200 folks in one turn indicates a pretty good crowd for the day. I think the tree's are Oak from looking at the leaf pattern and since the tree's are not filled out yet with new growth I'd say it was taken in April.....

Jim, I agree about it probably being in a mountainous area. I think it's probably an early track somewhere in the foothills of the Appalachians...possibly Pulaski County Speedway, Pilot Mountain Speedway, or the early Mount Airy Speedway. The photos of Pulaski had a similar hill the track was carved into that people stood on to watch the race.

There's some great photos in this slide show on vaautoracing.org - http://www.vaautoracing.org/Gallery1.html

It really is fun trying to figure these photos out!

Thanks for posting those, Dave. Here's a larger copy of the second photo -

I've seen some color shots of Johnny's cars and they were always either yellow and black or yellow and blue.

There were probably many, many guys with the #7 in the early stock car days...Lloyd Seay, Buck Baker, and probably dozens of unknowns, so the chances the car in Jim's photo is Johnny Roberts is slim but possible.

Good observations, Bill. I agree about the time of year and the time period for the way the crowd is dressed. Many look like they just left church service.

I'd agree, it's Appalachia, early spring, and late '40's to early '50's. The fact the car ('38-40 Ford) has a number, and and altered one indicates some degree of scoring sophistication, supporting a 50's date. The "7" looks to be professional (sign painter) quality, further evidence of a 50's vs. 40's time frame. The car's tires are as production-stock as the day is long, so racing's technical side had not significantly advanced.