How long have you been a race fan?
Stock Car Racing History
I became a race fan about the time I became a sports fan. I recall going to a motorcycle race north of Columbia, SC when I was three years old. Anyone who knows me is aware that was a lonnnnng time ago. I don't know what they called it then, but I remember it looked a whole lot like what has more recently been known as Motorcross...over hills, and jumps.While my dad had been a fan before WWII, he picked it up afterwards continuing travels to the Daytona Beach sand and road course, up to Langhorne, PA, then to Lakewood in Atlanta...and at Columbia Speedway when it opened in 1948.He was a regular with his Jeep Station Wagon in the infield (it was a great vehicle, with its high square fenders, for bullying his way out of the infield at any race track or football stadium.) He was at Darlington on the initial day of practice in 1950 and inside the oval on the very first Labor Day.He would have no problem in re-naming the Sprint Race in the spring to Southern 500...nor do I.My invovlement working in the sport began in 1962 upon my return from Dallas, TX where many weeks were watching open cockpit racing at Devils Bowl Speedway. I had departed for Texas the Monday after Richard Petty had won his first race at Columbia on July 19, 1959.A new promoter had taken over the half-mile track in Cayce, SC when I reurned and I began doing some of the track announcing, along with Bert Friday, and handled the publicity for the facility until it closed in 1977 and then eventually went up in smoke. The track layout is still there, surrounded on all sides by trees.What a great track that was.Coincidentally, I began working on the broadcast crews at Darlington, Charlotte and Rockingham until other activities began to take over with increased work as a football, basketball and baseball play-by-play announcer for colleges and high schools. My last big race was the National 500 in October 1981. I later worked with the now defunct New Columbia Speedway a few years later.I never lost my love for the sport and the fabulous guys - like the ones we interview at Racers Reunion Radio - who were on the tracks I covered. Those included Greenville-Pickens, Myrtle Beach, Savannah and Augusta. We kind of grew up together- Jarrett, Pearson, Isaac and the great Ralph Earnhardt and many more of course. They raced, I reported.My experiences and skills learned as a radio sports reporter led me to the work I'm doing with RacersReunion.com.Just talking with men like those revives some of my most enjoyble memories and reconnects me with incredibly gifted people. It will be even more fun once we inaugurate our live call-in talk show.I hope to continuing doing this till I can no longer think or talk. (My wife said that happened years ago.) As long as the Gilders and fans believe I can, I will.Jim Seay
