I've made some changes since the first time I wrote this last year. I've added some new material and pictures. For those who've read it before, thanks and maybe this is a good memory...for those who haven't, enjoy!
-Cody
Jimmy Mosteller The Small Man with the Big Cigar
By Cody Dinsmore
Back in the mid 1920s, a boy named Jimmy Mosteller was born in the rural part of Roswell, Georgia. He grew up around a farming community, where your friends and neighbors always were willing to help if needed and could be depended on. As a young boy, Jimmy was smart when it came to saving his money, he worked in soda fountains, general stores, on dairy farms, and also helped out by delivering goods and always willing to lend a hand. Before the sport of stock car racing swept him away, he also developed a love for riding horses where he was even a jockey for sometime in the late 40s.
Jimmy grew up with Jack Smith, who became a national champion stock-car racer and a Nascar legend. Jack built Jimmys first car, a yellow 37 Ford sedan with the top cut off; he bought it for only $50. One day while riding to school, he and his friends threw a firecracker at a mule riding in a truck. That didnt turn out too well because as soon as the four got into their first period class, the principal told them that either theyd get expelled, or they could join the armed forces. So since they only had a few months left of school anyway, they chose to serve their country.
Jimmy and his friends all signed up for the Navy and served from 1946-1949. Mosteller, almost couldnt enlist because of his size, but he ate and stuffed his pockets so he could stay with his friends in the same unit. For most of his service, he was a chauffer for a general over seas, he traveled to Africa, Germany, and France, driving both admirals and generals. One day, he was to drive an admiral and his daughter to a wedding. Jimmy was to stay in the car and watch it. Every so often, the admiral would bring Jimmy a drink. This went on for about 5 times or so, and since he was barley 18, the alcohol effected him and fell asleep. The admiral had to drive home, but Jimmy was able to keep his job.
When he returned home to Ga in 1949, he was still doing odd jobs, mainly working at a few service stations and what-not. But it was at a pavilion of that same year where he met his late wife of 62 years, Betty. After they got married you could usually find them winning medals at the local dance hall dancing their souls out of their shoes.
It wasnt long after that when Jimmy found his first steady job, a cigar peddler. It all started in one of the small country stores that Jimmy worked in. He always arranged the boxes of Hav-A-Tampa Cigars in a nice fashion so every customer that came in the store could see them. When one of the salesmen named Johnny Green came in to see how much had sold, he took notice of the young man and soon offered him a job. From then on, Jimmy was to sell Hav-A-Tampa and Tampa Nugget cigars from his 40 Ford and by knocking on anything that had a door. But what really propelled him was when one day as Jimmy was loading boxes of cigars into his car, and man in a long black Cadillac pulled up and asked him if his father had sold cigars, Jimmy introduced himself and told him he sold the cigars. The man in the Cadillac pulled out a salesman sheet and said he didnt have a man with that name. And by the time the man in the Cadillac told Jimmy and his boss to come down with them to Tampa Florida, they found out that it was the president of the whole company!
Aside from cigars, this was also the time that Jimmy was first introduced to both announcing and racing. He started announcing when going to horse shows, and found out they didnt have an announcer, so he offered to take his place for the night and really pulled it off. He also went to his first stock-car race when his long-time friend, Jack Smith took him to the Boyds Speedway near Chattanooga, to see a race in which Jack won that night. At that point, Jimmy had his mind made that he would stick to the stock car side of racing, since it was way more exciting than horses. And starting in late 49, he invested in his own portable sound-system so he could carry it around to different tracks and he knew it wouldnt have troubles.
See, he would plan his cigar routes at he beginning of the week so at the end of the week, he could end up at several racetracks to do some announcing jobs. At most of the racetracks he went to, he worked for free as long as his cigars could be set up at the concession stands. Since he usually announced for free, he would usually get paid in home-cooking! One time when he was announcing, the track promoter didn't have enough money for Jimmy's services, so he asked Mosteller what he wanted that the promoter had. He thought for a minute and looked over at the pasture next to the parking area and saw a small goat....being that Jimmy was raised on a farm and cared for goats as a boy, he told the promoter he'd like to take home a goat! Jimmy was driving his wife's new Buick that'd he just bought. He put the goat in the backseat and tried to get home in the fastest time possible. When he pulled into his drive-way, he turned around and saw the goat had chewed up the entire back seat of the new Buick!! He pushed the poor goat out into the backyard and took the car over to the local Buick dealership to see if they could fumigate the car. Even after the dealership done what they could do, the back seat was still in a mess, so he just had to buy his wife a brand new car....again!
Most likely the one of the first races he announced at was either at Boyds in Chattanooga and at the Dallas Speed Bowl in Dallas Ga. What made him come back were the crowds. Whether he was in front of 50 people or 50,000, he always knew how to work a crowd. He made the average race fan feel like someone special and thats what made him one of the greatest there ever was.
One of the tracks that Jimmy got his start was at the Peachbowl Speedway in the early 50s. He often went there right after it was built to watch em go, and within a year, he was co-announcer along with Norm Ash who was the first. After a while, Norm left to announce at another track and Jimmy became the resident announcer until the track closed in 1972. He was there when Nascar done a few weekly shows there in the early 50s too. Later on in life, he had a chance to travel with Nascar and be one of the main broadcasters, but he turned it down because he loved what he was doing with the local tracks and cigars. If he had went with Nascar, hed have to travel and hed only announce usually once a week. Staying in Georgia, he was able to announce 3 or 4 times a week and still keep his full time job with Hav A Tampa.
Speaking of Nascar, Jimmy called every Nascar race held at both Lakewood and then Atlanta International up until 1982 when he had a heart attack and when back to local shows.
What I cant stress enough is how well Jimmy handled the crowd. Every spectator, new, and old would feel like they were somebody when they entered the bleachers. He was always calm and knew how to work a worried crowd if there was a wreck. He would do things like advertise for people whose businesses sold his cigars. They didnt pay him extra for that bit of advertisement, but he always felt like that was important. He would make a slow night seem exciting, like you wanted to jump out of your seat just so you could see what Mr. Mosteller was talking about. He was also known for bringing his cordless microphone and talking to the people in the stands before the race. Just a simple Whats your name and where ya from was all people needed to feel like they were on top and would always come back.
And Jimmy always didnt stay in the booth, one day at the Athens Speedway in 1959, he went down to red-flag the field so more water could be put down on the track. At the moment when he left the safety of the stands, a car ran him over like a weed. When his friend and racer, Charlie Padgett came over to see if he was alright, all Jimmy wanted was another cigar. The next week, he was still in pain, but there was Jimmy, announcing at the Peach Bowl from the back bed of an ambulance!
Now back to the cigars, Jimmy and a group of fellow employees bought out the Hav-A-Tampa company and Jimmy was named Senior National Vice-President of the whole company. It was then when he realized that local dirt track drivers needed a better points system and pay. Thats when he got with friends Mickey and Mike Swims, owners of Dixie and Rome Speedways, and into the idea, and Jimmy founded the Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series with the series finale All-Star race ending at Dixie. The first year as president in 1990, things went good having competitors from several different states and racetracks. As it grew in the late 90s, it was nick-named the Nascar of dirt racing. They had an honest points system and a good payout with by 1998, they met Jimmys founding goal of giving away $500,000 a race. Jimmy retired from both the series and Hav-A-Tampa in the late 90s, and with-in two years, the Cigar company was sold and the racing series was sold and re-named the Lucas Oil Dirt Series which still today is one of the biggest dirt series in the country with races from Washington State to Florida.
Jimmy has announced at dozens of tracks (probably every one in Ga, including MGR when the moonshine still was found) from Lakewood, to the Peachbowl, to Boyds, Daytona, Atlanta, Columbia, Athens, Looper, Gainsville, Augusta, Valdosta, Dixie, Rome, Mobile Alabama, and the list just goes on and on. He called everything from Drag Racing, Stock Cars, Midget Racing, Sprint Cars, Go-Carts, Horses, Boats, and even Indy Cars. And even in the last few months of is life, he still made the regular trips out to Dixie Speedway in Woodstock Ga and mingled with fans both young and old with cigar in one hand and his microphone in the other. Hes had a story book life.
Now unfortunately, Jimmy passed away Wednesday, July 4th at 2:45 in the afternoon. We didnt loose him, I know where he is, and thats why I tell people, all the thunder youre hearing latley, well thats the race of the legends in the sky cranking up their cars; the race of all of his long-gone friends that hell be calling once again.. and all the puffy white clouds are is Hav A Tampa smoke. Rest in peace buddy!
