I haven't found out yet the outcome of Purser's trial or plea deal. Either way, a little over a year later he was gone. As a racer, it's interesting to note he passed the same day as Eddie Sachs and Dave MacDonald lost their lives in the awful Indy 500.
Not only did two Smokey's have their own types of run-ins with Bill France, both had their properties go up in flame. Purser's fire was in 1953 under mysterious circumstances. A decade later, he was arrested and charged with illegal gambling. Yunick's fire was in 2011, after he'd passed away of course.
Found this great 2006 racing story from one of the 1939 races here (also found site saying this happened in 1938 - so who knows):
http://articles.mcall.com/2006-02-22/news/3652552_1_fireball-robert...
The other day, I met the first person to ever wear a seat belt. His name is "Mad' Marion McDonald and he's 87 years old.
Back in the day -- meaning the 1930s and '40s -- Mad Marion, so named because he liked to eat hamburgers while he raced, competed on the 26 miles of hard-packed sand of Daytona Beach, which balloons up to 500 feet wide at low tide. At the time, there were only about 150 miles of paved road in the entire United States, making hard-packed beaches the best place to race, and Daytona's beach was the best of those.
Anyway, tying yourself into a 1930s convertible was about the last thing you wanted to do because if you crashed, the safest place to be was outside of the car, which is why no one wore seatbelts.
But the harder and harder Mad Marion raced, the more and more his body made like a super ball bouncing around the car. It was all he could do just to hang onto the steering wheel, let alone maneuver it in a way to win a race.
So in 1939 he decided to do something about that. He took a piece of rope, threaded it under his seat, got in his car and tied himself down. But while Mad Marion might have been mad, he wasn't stupid. For he knew that if he tipped over there would be no way for anyone to pry him out of the car, hence the pocketknife on his steering wheel. That way he could cut himself out if he ever ran into any trouble.
Before we parted, I had to clarify something.
"If you're upside down, how were you going to get the knife open to cut yourself free?" I asked.
"Well, it was already open," he said.
A couple photos supposedly from the March 1940 race.
Pre-race shot of Roy Hall and Raymond Parks - Getty Images
Pre-race shot of Smokey Purser, Bill France, Roy Hall and Sammy Packard - Getty Images
Race action with Joe Littlejohn leading Roy Hall - Getty Images
Smokey Purser - a one-time official winner and a one-time "unofficial winner" with his post-race DQ - was ready for another run on the sand at the Labor Day 1940 race.
A preview of the women's race scheduled for Sunday, September 1.
Race report for Evelyn Reed's win from the Palm Beach Post.
Race report for Buck Mathis' rain-shortenedwin on Labor Day, September 2nd. As [ I posted here in December 2014 ], Mathis was killed in October 1947 in an Orlando, FL race. The 1948 modified race at Daytona (now under the newly-formed NASCAR sanctioning) was renamed in Mathis' memory.
Within a couple of weeks of his March 1940 win, Hall let folks know he planned to return in July to race again.
As Tim referenced, a pick-up truck was announced as entrant - decades before the launch of NASCAR's Craftsman Truck Series.
As race day grew near, area rains helped in some ways - but too much of it threatened a postponement. As it turns out, the race went off as scheduled on July 7th.
Wire service race report from Spartanburg Herald
I wonder if over the course of a year if Bill France and Charlie Reese had a falling out. For the March 1939 race, folks were invited to view the race from Reese's Hi-Hat club for 55 cents per person. In March 1940, the admission had almost doubled and the club's ad included no mention of viewing the race.
For unknown reasons, many of the Sunday & Monday editions of the Daytona paper aren't available on Google News Archive - the very editions that would have the better race coverage. Instead, I am finding mostly sparse wire copy race report - including this one for the March 10, 1940 race won by Roy Hall published in the Miami News.
One pre-race article I DID find, however, referenced a couple of racing "feuds". In both cases, it sounds like a newspaper writer puffed up something that didn't exist - except to sale papers ... and tickets. Nonetheless, fans were baited into watching Tim Flock vs. Smokey Purser and Bill France vs. Roy Hall.
Gibson's missing the show in 1939 apparently didn't hurt his pride too much. He returned in 1940 albeit with a different plan. His car was ruled as not "strictly stock" meaning he'd miss the big race yet again. Yet he wanted to showcase his skills by running a 5 lap heat race against anyone who wanted to compete against him. Some of the big guns including France, Purser and Hall agreed to the challenge.
A day later, it was announced the match race would be canceled because of the lack of preparation time - either for the cars or for the course. Either way, it seems like a lame promotional stunt in retrospect.
France's September 1939 race got some promotional support from the Local Central Labor Union. 1939: Pay me? Sure, I'll take your money. 1961: Organize my drivers? Oh HELL no. And here is my pistol to prove it.
Race report from the Daytona Beach Morning Journal
And Purser was confident from the very beginning - even if it did cost him an extra nickel following his win.
J. Sam Rice was also known at the time in the papers as Johnny Rice. He can be seen here taking the win in the March 19, 1939 race with his flat brimmed hat. Unsure if the race was indeed scheduled for March 2nd but postponed to the 19th. If not, I'm not yet sure which date is correct. March 19th was a Sunday whereas the 2nd was a Thursday. So the 19th would seem to be more logical as the date of the race.
Rice returned for the July race to defend his March win.
For 55 cents admission - I'm sure drinks, tips and 'entertainment charges' were extra - fans could watch from the comforts of Reese's Hi-Hat Club.
But as Tim noted, Stew Joyce claimed the win in only his 2nd racing start.
Race report for the Labor Day, September 5, 1938 race from the Daytona Beach Morning Journal.
Click article to read larger version.
