Perk Brown Got Around - More Often Than Not He Won

When I started attending weekly NASCAR Modified-Sportsman races at Richmond, Virginia's Southside Speedway on Friday nights in 1964, it was a thing of beauty to see the white exhaust dumps on the black & white fuel injected William Mason #45 Modified wheeled by Perk Brow n glow cherry red in the cool night air.

Perk and his oft team mate in the second William Mason team car, Carl Burris, were two of the few "outsiders" who could hold their own against our crop of resident Richmond regulars that included two-time NASCAR National Modified Champion, Eddie Crouse and the "4-H Boys" - Ray Hendrick, Runt Harris, Sonny Hutchins and Ted Hairfield.

Racing in Richmond on Friday night, we picked up all of the top modified drivers who ran Bowman-Gray Stadium on Saturday night and Perk was the "Creme de la Creme."

Already 39 years old when I first saw him in 1964, Perk was in his ninth season turning left in Mason's famed #45, having fist hopped into Mason's Virginia based modified in 1955. He'd stay in the car through the 1967 season. At the time I started watching him, Perk was the winningest driver in Bowman-Gray history and also held the record at Martinsville until Ray Hendrick broke it.

We have a Perk Brown Club on this RR site that includes many good photos of Perk. Here is the link to that club site:

http://stockcar.racersreunion.com/group/Martinsvilleva

We lost Perk, whose real name was John / Jack Thomasson, 13 years ago in July 1999. Thirty years before his death, Stock Car Racing Magazine ran a feature story on Perk in its June 1969 issue. Written by Bill Weekes with photography from Dave Innes, sit back and take in a few tales from Peace Haven, Bowman-Gray, Martinsville and Trenton. Victory Stadium, Starkey, Pulaski, and Horsepasture are just a few of the venues where Perk raced.

Many of Perk Brown's old tracks reside today in Bobby Williamson's Ghost Track files. Perk tells a funny tale of his first visit to Dunn where he met a surprise in addition to the dusty track. Here is the story of the driver who brought fame to the #45 William Mason modified that RR member Jim Wilmore has built a tribute car to honor. Enjoy.

Great post and great article, Dave. What a time capsule and history lesson that article is. And I'd forgotten that Perk won not 1 but 3 Bowman Gray Championships, not to mention 33 races. The stories of all the early tracks are gems.

When I saw Billy & Bobby "Mizes" (Myers) it made me wonder if Perk's southern accent caused that misspelling by the author.

You may be right, Robert. But, he managed to get Dink Widenhouse ok!

I think Perk had 33 wins when he took the career lead at BGS in 1968, but he finished with 47 feature wins, along with the 3 championships. Thanks for the story, the Perk and Ray picture is great!

I agree, the pic of the grinning Perk & Ray side-by-side is a classic!

Thanks Dave another great cruise down memory lane.When I first started the Old Timers Club we would go and spend an afternoon remenissing with men like Jimmy Lewallen, Bob Welborn, Whitey Norman and Pee Wee went with me one Saturday and if I had only thought to tape or video these sessions they would be priceless. He got ill in a few years and didn't feel like visiting so we honored his request for private time with his family.We still reguard him as one of the finest drivers to turn a wheel in any type car he drove.

Don't we all wish we had video, photos, etc. of those special moments. It must of been quite inspiring, Mike to travel with those drivers on those visits.

April 17, 1966 - Perk Brown #45 gets into Ken Rush at Bowman-Gray Stadium

Photo by Howard Walker, Winston-Salem Journal

Cool pic, Dave.

Here's Perk with the #0 Jr. owned by C.C. Bowman that he drove in the early '50's -

At Peace Haven in 1953 or 54-