At first, you wouldnt think of Cotton Owens having anything to do with Georgia Racing Historybut he has his roots. Why if it wasnt for one of Georgias pioneer racers, Cotton Owens may have never got infected with the racing bug. It all started when Gober Sosebee from Atlanta was racing in one of the many new stock car circuits in the spring of 1947, this one series was called the NSCCC. The race was held in Greensboro North Carolina. Gober had arrived on Friday for practice, but as he was turning heat laps, his car got loose in the turn, and drifted sideways. Gober tried to save his car by turning his wheels the other way, but he turned too quickly and ended up in the wall, and then skidded down the length of the make-shift wall and ended up flipping once or twice. Overall, it was a terrible wreck, and all though Gober was uninjured, he car was completely destroyed, there was no use in even trying to repair itthe roof was caved in, the frame was bent, and you could hardly tell that it was even a 39 Ford coupe any more. Sosebee knew a guy who owned a junkyard down in Spartanburg that owed a favor to Gober. He called the man and asked him if he had any 1938-1940 Ford Coupe bodies in his yard, when he told him he had a few, Gober hung up and headed south to Spartanburg. When he got there Saturday morning, he first found and settled up with an old friend who owned the junkyard and quick repair garage. Then when he scouted the yard looking for a nice body to set on the original racing frame that he did manage to straighten out, at least for the race, he found a young man whom everyone simply called Cotton. Its unclear whether Cotton actually worked at the junkyard or he was just one of the many teenagers that just hung around. But he found Gober and Gober found him, and Cotton took him to see the best Ford coupe he thought was in the yard. Sosebee thought it was a good body, so he paid the owner and then asked Cotton to help him build his new car. Cotton was honored and spent the rest of the afternoon helping Gober modify the body to the repaired frame. At one point, the young Owens called a good friend of his, around the same age, to come and help out Cottons new friend. That guy that Cotton called, was Bud Moore. Neither Cotton or Bud had ever been to a race, let a lone work on a race car, so they were both pretty excited to help Gober rebuild his car. When the car was all finished, just like his old car looked when he arrived at Greensboro the day before, he asked both Cotton and Bud if they wanted to go back with him to Greensboro to see the race. Cotton or Bud had never been to a race before, but was interested and decided to go. Gober had to start dead last because of re-building practically the entire car. By the half way point, Sosebee had found the lead and began showing off to the crowd, Bud and Cotton included. When Gober had pulled into the makeshift victory lane, he found the two boys and asked them to celebrate with him. Cotton would later tell Gober that he would like to try driving around on the dirt tracks. Pretty soon, Cotton built a car much like the one he helped the veteran driver from Atlanta build to win at Greensboro. Although Owens didnt win right out of the box, he kept pursuing his dream of racing, and well.you know how that turned out