CRICKETS, BULLFROGS AND RUMBLING ENGINES

These articles I write are intended to be on the history of stock car racing as most of us know it. Starting out last week, I considered going all the way back to the cars with the "boat tiller" steering instead of the steering wheel. After all, that is the beginning of "stock". I considered delving far into the past when every race running was a stock car race with the exception of the Indy Car series and the F-1. However, two events over the past week gave me the starting point for which I was so in vain searching. The first was watching, for the umpteenth time, the movie "Red Dirt Rising" and the other was watching the video in which I was involved for HBO Canada entitled "Born on the Bottle". Both of these adventures were deeply influenced by Bill Blair, Jr. because he was involved with "Red Dirt Rising" and it was a part of his interview in the HBO production that gave me what I will accept as the "certified 100% accurate" record of where stock car racing began.

Bill states, unequivocally, that stock car racing started around Atlanta, most specifically on the one-mile Lakewood Speedway. Without a doubt there were many more tracks dotting the Carolinas and Georgia as well as Tennessee and Virginia, but Bill makes the point that men such as Roy Hall, Lloyd Seay, Red Vogt and Raymond Parks, along with the three Flock brother, Bob, Fonty and Tim, were the catalyst behind the sport. "Born on the Bottle" was the title HBO Canada decided to give the production which is a good basis for stock car racing history, although only a thirty minute (including commercials) production. What is detailed in that program really tells an in-depth story of the start of the sport and, believe me, moonshine (the "Bottle") plays a big part in this. How much acquaintance my Canadian brothers may have with moonshine has never been determined, but as I have many relatives up there, I may have to call one.

As the HBO special points out, men like Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall, along with several other moonshine haulers, played the part in kicking starting the "professional-unprofessional sport of stock car racing. Enter Raymond Parks, the man with the money and Red Vogt, the man who could make engines perform far beyond what the manufacturers ever imagined. Red build engines for both the shine runners and the revenuers, but I sort of imagine he gave his preferred performance enhancers to the shine runners.

Red operated a garage in Atlanta. He is reported to have been a chain-smoker and a consumer of great quantities of coffee. The sign outside his garage did say "Open 24 hours a Day" so I imagine coffee did play a great part in what he was doing. Raymond Parks, on the other hand, dressed as a professional business man (which he was of course) and could almost always be seen wearing one of those hats Harry Truman made famous AFTER the war. Raymond was soft spoken, but nevertheless was profiting mightily from the manufacture of that silver liquid being shipped out in Mason jars carried by engines built by Red and financed by Raymond.

There is something almost poetic to this country boy's mind about a few guys sitting around a fire in the thickness of the woods in the middle of the night running off a batch of moonshine to be shipped on to Atlanta for all the partying citizenry of that great metropolitan area. As the crickets chirped, and the bullfrogs made that annoying sounds for which bullfrogs are famous, the drip, drip, drip from the copper tubing into the barrel, or the Mason Jar, was the sound of money to be made. Once the jars were filled and ready for shipment, Roy, or Lloyd, or another of the famous North Georgia crew would head out from the hollows of the North Georgia mountains and be Atlanta Bound.

There are many stories about the boys and their adventures before racing, Raymond Parks going to prison for moonshining and one driver shooting another over a $5.00 charge of sugar of which he did not approve. No names, here, I would rather enhance you, the reader, to look them up and explore all the avenues of adventure which will open for you upon doing so.

Before the War, racing was getting a foothold in North Georgia and was enticing young men to the forefront of fighting it out on the dirt tracks. Red Byron was another of the Georgia guys who would add much color (and not because of his nickname) to the sport in its infancy. With everything going on around Atlanta, racing was getting a foothold that would withstand the storms of bad promoters and no real organization.

Up in North Carolina, around Charlotte, Thomasville and Winston-Salem, stock car racing was catching on as well when some of the Georgia folks headed to the Tarheel State to avoid further complications with authorities in Georgia. Soon, central North Carolina would become the stronghold for stock car racing and from there would come much of the building material for the sport. So, we shall, for the sake of argument, say stock car racing was born in Georgia, nurtured in North Carolina, and came of age when Harold Brasington built the track in Darlington. Between all these events, there are many things of importance for all of the dedicated stock car racing fans.

We can say, or conjecture, that stock car racing was just getting a foothold in the sports world of good ole country boys when that maniac in Germany and the "Emperor (used loosely) of Japan, involved the world in awar of such magnitude we can only pray that such will never again happen to mankind. Racing was stopped and I'm guessing the moonshining was as well.

To clear up one little matter here, I am, for the most part, a law abiding citizen, speed limits not withstanding. The manufacture and distributing of moonshine was illegal and many went to jail for it, even Junior Johnson. But, when you consider the circumstances involved in the manufacture and distribution of the liquid,you need to remember that the South had almost always been near poverty since the War between the States. Add to that the Great Depression and the folks in the South were hard pressed to make a living and to even put food on the table. All of that, plus the mystique of the moonshine industry puts a glamour to it I just can't resist, I believe it was Ryan Newman who said, in the HBO special, that without the moonshine it is highly likely stock car racing wouldn't exist.

So, even as our country was on a war footing long before December 7, 1941, stock car racing was going on everywhere in the Southeastern U.S. To think of the "ghost tracks" which once held lively events weekly, sometimes twice a week, brings to mind literally hundreds of quarter-mile and half-mile venues carved out of corn fields or cotton fields. Chances are, if you live in rural Georgia, South Carolina or North Carolina, you are no more than 10 miles from a site where once the engines roared, the fans cheered, and the drivers fought it out ON the track and IN the pits.

As our country was abruptly brought into the World War at the end of 1941, it was both a curse and a blessing to the sport of stock car racing. The curse part of that was racing ceased. A person could barely get enough gas with the rationing stamps to get across town every week. Tires? Forget those. Rubber was in high demand for the winning of the war. Of course, the War is about much more than racing, but from my view, the impact of the cessation of the sport for that four year period served only to make the sport stronger on the return. When the war was over, men would return with a new sense of adventure. These men were battled hardened and had seen some of the worse the world had to offer in the 1940s. They were back home and they were looking for new adventures. Some had not been involved with racing before the war, but were now ready to see what thrills a race track and a fast car would provide. After all, once you've dodged machine gun bullets, aircraft flak, torpedoes from enemy subs, going fast on a ribbon of clay was a walk in the park.

Racing picked up true heroes, although they don't allow themselves to be called that. Take Bud Moore, for instance. Perry Allen Wood has written an excellent biography of the man from Spartanburg, SC, who, along with Joe Littlejohn and Cotton Owens, but Spartanburg on the racing radar. Now the war was over and it was time to return to racing stock cars. When the racing picked up again in 1946, few could imagine where it would go, what it would become. Racing was still unorganized although there were a plethora of "sanctioning bodies" throughout the Southeast. In the center of all this was our old friend Raymond Parks and his friend and associate Red Vogt. These two men should never be forgotten by any stock car racing fan although I guessing there are few born after 1970 who have ever heard of them.

I discovered, when researching for this piece, how much there is available on-line to enhance what you read here. I purposely left many details unwritten with the hope that you, the reader, will see a name that sparks your interest and will do so research to enhance your knowledge of the sport. NASCAR is NOT stock car racing. Stock car racing is NASCAR. What I mean by that is that all around the country there are small tracks that exist to race on Friday or Saturday nights for the local fans and local drivers. It will never return to the days of the Late Model Sportsman Circuit which was so popular in the 60s and early 70s, which became the "Busch Circuit" the "Nationwide Circuit" the "Xfinity Series" and God only knows what else in the future. Those, my friends, were the days a race fan could enjoy. Thursday night at Columbia, Friday Night in Savannah, or Augusta, Saturday night in Myrtle Beach or many, many other tracks around. During racing season, I didn't know what a weekend was other than it involved watching a race, and later racing myself. That's what I did.

Next episode, we will get into the efforts of Raymond Parks, Red Vogt and Big Bill France to organize the sport. We will talk about Bill Blair, Sr. and Jimmy Lewallen who played a part, a huge part, in getting NASCAR off the ground. We will talk about racing on the beach. As we progress along this path, remember that it is my hope that you will explore what the internet can provide on racing history. Be mindful, however, that although a good part of what you will encounter will be true, there is an element existing in the purveyors of stock car racing history, that enhance certain memories to support the agenda which they may have personally. As I've already said, I have a literal library full of racing books and the inaccuracies, and sometimes flat out un-truths in some of those books, represent a personal interest in telling a story to either enhance or degrade the careers of men to pioneered the sport. And, let's not forget the women who played a part in that. I am very fortunate to have had Louise Smith as a good friend for several years before her death. She and I, along with others, shared stories I wish were on video or at least tape somewhere. Her story is incredible, as are the stories of all our racing heroes. (Sorry Bill, had to steal that from you).

One final note here, and this is personal. I had the opportunity to spend a day with Raymond Parks at an event my radio show put on back in '93 or '94. Somewhere on my page here is a picture of that day. That is the day I learned how soft spoken a guy was Raymond Parks. I also learned what a great love he had for stock car racing. I'll try to pull that picture up and attach it, but my computer skills are far inferior to anyone else you may encounter. I'm glad I had that day with Raymond Parks. He shared stories not written in any book, as yet, and the insights he had as to where stock car racing was headed were right on the money. What Raymond predicted in '93 or '94 have come true in spades. I guess Raymond always did have his finger on the pulse of stock car racing and, in my book, always will.

Thank you all for reading. Remember to explore what you can find on-line and/or in a library. Your knowledge of the history of our sport will explode when you do. Then you can share it with others and it is my fervent wish that some of the "others" will be the young people who never heard of Raymond Parks or Joe Weatherly, or Buck Baker, or Fireball Roberts. As a race fan, we had a history of which to be extremely proud. We have heroes, although sometimes flawed in small ways, that build a sport from the ground up, literally from the dirt to the castles!

Please remember that comments are always welcomed and encouraged.

Until next time, "Honor the past, embrace the present, and dream for the future"!

1994 photo of Tim Leeming with Raymond Parks, Tim Flock, and J.B. Day.

Tim, this is way off the central focus of your excellent piece, but I want to comment on your statement that something like the old Late Model Sportsman circuit won't ever happen again, because I believe (1) that such a re-birth is very much possible, and (2) that it could rejuvenate asphalt short track racing . . . if NASCAR would just get the hell out of the way.

For a long time NASCAR actively cultivated a local racing scene where everybody used the same rules, and tracks held major races that drew competitors from tracks hundreds of miles away. The NASCAR Newsletter even published a listing of these major events. When NASCAR elevated the LMS division to a "closed" circuit of events (Grand National "Lite"), all that went away, and I'm not sure most NASCAR weekly tracks have ever recovered. Even without the big races, when Dave Fulton and I went to Southside Speedway, South Boston, Manassas or elsewhere 40-50 years ago, part of the excitement was seeing who showed up. That doesn't seem to happen anymore at NASCAR and NASCAR-rules short tracks. It DOES happen elsewhere, though, and to very positive effect for the tracks. Sprint car racing has the World of Outlaws, dirt-track modifieds have DIRT, and there are other regional and national sanctioning bodies like them. When those guys come to town, the locals can race against them, and the fans go crazy for that.

NASCAR plays at doing that sort of thing, but I think they've gotten too big and corporate to ever get it right - there's probably way too much corporate overhead when they're involved, anyway. The others show that it can be done, though, and there's a lot of excitement, and drivers build their fan bases that way. If we could put a "No Suits" fence about asphalt short-track racing, maybe it could recover that kind of excitement, too.

I realize NASCAR's LMS series pre-dated 1972. But I think RJ Reynolds' funding for the various Winston Racing Series throughout the 1970s and 1980s really allowed those weekly NASCAR sanctioned tracks to flourish during that 20-25 year period.

Winston's exit after 2003 did more than alter Cup. Nextel/Sprint's "activation" didn't flow down to the bread and butter tracks as did their predecessor title sponsor.

With today's Cup, cable company, and truck series all on the back side of the popularity curve, I'm rather doubtful Sprint's successor will do much to support the local tracks. I can only hope a few someones will have the right pitch and business model to again help support the tracks that for years provided the training ground for the drivers that eventually got the big bucks and glory in the three 3 big national series.

I'm afraid this is a case of " Wish in one hand, poop in the other and see which one gets full first." Frank is right that we had a flourishing NASCAR local track scene in the 60s before the arrival of RJR. NASCAR scheduled "National Championship" and "Double Point" events (for an extra sanction fee) at various weekly tracks throughout the season. Those races brought a heavy influx of visiting cars. Daytona seems to have lost the knowledge of how to promote weekly racing or they have lost the will to do it.

Dave!!!! Thank you so much for digging up that photo and posting it for me. I guess you possessing that ability now leaves me in sole possession of the title of most computer illiterate. I appreciate your help.

Frank, first up, thanks for your kind words complimenting my efforts. Secondly, I agree, almost 100% with what you say. What you say about how it once was, I agree 100%. I grew up in the "how it once was era". Columbia on Thursday night, Savannah on Friday nights, and Myrtle Beach on Saturday nights. That's the way we did it almost every week with the exception that Myrtle Beach would lost out when we were heading out to a GRAND NATIONAL race for the weekend.

What I meant by never being able to return to the days of Late Model Sportsman races, as I knew them, is there seems to be no "stock cars" running anywhere. In the 50s and 60s, and even into the 70s, the Late Models were build from junk yard bodies, or where sometimes, as you know, handed down Grand National Cars. I'm not a big fan of these custom made bodies appearing to be made from tin we once used to make the chicken house where we raised chickens when I was a kid.

Soon after Late Model became Busch and NASCAR abandoned most of the short tracks, several of the tracks around South Carolina attempted to form their own sanctioning situation where the rules would be consistent and they would work with each other on race nights. For instance, a race in the up state and a race on the coast didn't conflict due to the number of available drivers in each area. I was working in radio at that time and was an observer at two of those meetings. On paper, it all seemed like a very good idea. It was the implementation that ruined it. First one track, then another, would bend the rules a little to their benefit and all that fell apart. So, you could go run Thunder Valley with one type car but that type was not allowed to compete at Sumter. What you could run at Lancaster, you could not run at Chester, tracks located less than 30 miles apart.

You are very correct that NASCAR will never bring it back and also correct in that the NASCAR sanctioned weekly racing series events I've attended, the last being five or six years ago, are a disappointment and I almost feel sympathy for the drivers being taken in my the NASCAR trickery.

Thank you for reading and commenting Frank! I told Dave in an e-mail last night that I would love to get the three of us together for lunch some day although I realize distance is an issue. Dave has become a good friend and someone for whom I have great respect. He speaks so highly of you that it leaves no doubt we would get along quite well.

Take care.

Dave, they lost both the will and the knowledge.

You're most welcome, Tim. It was a lucky find!

You never know, Tim. I've been trying to get to the Hillsborough track reunion in early October, and while prospects don't look so good at the moment, something like that could happen one day.

I'll be in Hillsborough so I hope you do make it. We need to get Dave there.