The Marion Cox Story
by Kassie Hughes

HEMINGWAY, S. C. — Most of the men and women in racing today have followed in the footsteps of their fathers or grandfathers, but for Marion Cox, he paved the way for many small town mechanics.


Cox grew up in the small town of Hemingway (SC), and although his family was into farming, his heart craved for something different. In his teen years, he read a book titled “Souping Up The Stock Engine”, which was the beginning of his love for racing. Before he opened his engineering garage, Cox went to Nashville Auto-Diesel College in Tennessee and then spent more than two years serving in World War II. Once he settled down, he fell in love with a girl named Nina, who soon became his wife.

His passion was for the heart of an automobile…the engine. He would rather spend time behind the scenes than in the spotlight when it came to racing. The only time he was behind the wheel was when he would drag Nina to Daytona Beach, Fla. for the “Measured Mile” competition on the well-packed sand of the Atlantic Ocean. He would run against the clock at speeds of more than 120-miles-per-hour to quench his need for speed. There was no prize money at the time, but the certificates given to him for his wins against high-dollar competitors was enough to open the eyes of many people who turned to him to build engines for their cars.

In 1954, Cox started building engines for cars whose owners wanted to race on oval tracks in the south. His first race car happened out of coincidence. Originally, he had built an engine for a gentleman in Columbia, but the man couldn’t afford to pay him for it, so he offered the entire car to Cox. Marion didn’t want the engine to go to waste, so he bought the entire operation. He called the car “Slow Joe” and raced it on an old Myrtle Beach horse track. No one seems to remember the name of his first driver, except that his first name was Clarence. Being at the track became addicting and Cox began to pursue a car owner career.

“If there was one thing Marion could do was set up a race car to handle really good! He loved building, owning and running race cars,” his widow, Nina said.

In 1955, Cox entered the only Chevrolet he ever owned into the Southern 500 at nearby Darlington Raceway and he and Nina drove the family car to the track where Roy Bentley took over as the driver for the race. After the race Marion and Nina drove the car back to Hemingway, dents scratches and all.

After finishing 32nd in Darlington, he sold the Chevy, and being a die-hard Ford man, he purchased a brand new ‘56 model and tinkered with it until it was time for Daytona. Back then, Daytona was a combination beach/paved course, made up of two miles of the north-bound sandy beach and two miles of south-bound Highway A1A. Out of the 100 entries, driver Jimmy Thompson brought the Cox-prepared Ford home in sixth place. After returning home, the proud car builder continued to make a name for himself by running dirt track in the Carolinas while building another car to be driven at Daytona the following year by Thompson’s brother, Speedy. The final beach/road course event was held in 1958 and Jimmy Thompson finished 2nd and Speedy was 39th.

When Daytona International Speedway opened in 1959, Cox loaded up his car and pulled it along Highway 17 to the new 2 1/2-mile tri-oval and competed in the 250-mile Modified-Sportsman event with Jimmy Thompson as his driver. A 25th place finish was not good enough for the grass-roots team and the driver and owner vowed to win the event the next year.

Cox continued to field cars for the dirt tracks while spending more and more time learning the ropes at Daytona. Even though he was chalking up wins and track championships on the Carolinas dirt tracks, the determined mechanical genius had one other thing on his mind. Thompson satisfied his thirst for a Daytona win in 1961.