CHURCH VERSUS SPEEDWAYIn recent years, we have heard a lot about the separation of church and state. It seems that there are a lot of people who think that these two don't belong together and that prayer and Bible reading in public schools is "unconstitutional". So this month I though we'd take a look at a different kind of separation. This is the case of some people who tried to make a separation of church and speedway.It all happened at the famed Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia. From the first automobile race on July 28, 1917 until the last checkered flag dropped on July 28, 1979, just about every big named sanction hosted races at this famous 1 mile dirt oval, including IMCA, CART, NASCAR, ISCRA, AAA, AMA and USAC. Everything usually ran smooth at the grand old track. A nice family atmosphere always greeted the fans that came out to root their favorite driver on and it held some of the most exciting races ever witnessed in the Southeast.After the ban was lifted on automobile racing following World War II, the track was ready to re-open on October 4, 1945. But the hottest action wasn't going to take place on the track. It was already taking place off the track by the Mayor of Atlanta and several Atlanta area Baptist and Methodist ministers. It seems that five of the drivers scheduled to race that day had police records and the Ministerial Association of Atlanta and Mayor William B. Hartsfield were seriously up in arms over it. Baptist leader Dr. Louis Newton sent a letter to Mayor Hartsfield asking that the races be canceled. He wanted this done because allowing these type of drivers to race was not good for the area and if it's known that we permit these kind of people here, it could open the door for other criminals to make Atlanta their headquarters. He went on to say that this would only serve notice to the young people in the city that we were more interested in making a few dollars that building a worthy civilization through the observance of the laws of God.The drivers in question were Roy Hall, Glen Law, Jack Cantrell, Howard Farmer and Bob Flock of the famous Flock brothers. Hall was arrested and sentenced to 12 months in prison and 6 months in jail for participating in a "Bootleggers Sweepstakes" race in March where one of the drivers in the race, Buddy Bolling, was killed. He had a total of 16 arrests dating back to 1937 and was arrested just 6 weeks earlier on a total of 35 charges from speeding to shooting at another person and assault on an officer. Cantrell was arrested on July 5th after a high-speed chase that ended after he flipped his car on an Atlanta sidewalk, killing a teenage girl. He was also arrested in 1943 on a liquor law violation.Bob Flock, also known to the police as Frankie Johns and Robert Clark, was arrested and given a 12 month suspended sentence in 1936 for violating prohibition laws, violating probation, carrying a concealed weapon and hit and run. Glen Laws was fined $300 for liquor law violations in 1939 and received a 12-month sentence in 1941 for transporting untaxed whiskey. He was also placed on probation for 5 years in 1942 for violations of internal revenue laws. Farmer was arrested just 1-month ago for trying to run down police officers with his car. During the course of all of this, he racked up more charges by firing a rifle into a garage on Spring Street and for shooting out several streetlights.We wouldn't say that all drivers back in the south during the 1940's and 1950's when stock car racing was coming of age were all law-abiding citizens because they weren't. A great number of them were moonshine runners. As Tim Flock once said; "We were a bunch of rednecks, hell-bent for leather race drivers". Many of the cars that races back then were used for racing during the day and hauling moonshine at night. (This is why Glen Dunnaway was disqualified from the June 19, 1949 race at Charlotte Fairgrounds after winning the event. Following a post race inspection, his car was found to have reinforced springs. The springs were beefed up for carrying moonshine)As the time for the race neared, Mayor Hartsfield asked fair President Mike Benton to keep these drivers out of the race. Flock and Cantrell didn't show up but Hall, Farmer and Law did and this is where the trouble started. When Benton announced that these drivers were not allowed to compete, the rest of the drivers refused to race and Lakewood's first drivers strike started. For two hours, it went back and forth on what to do. Benton wanted to keep peace with the city and the Ministerial Association by honoring their wishes but there was one problem. With a seating capacity of 5,000 people, the track was overflowing inside and out with 30,000 spectators and tempers was starting to run short. When the crowd started to chant, "We want Hall, We want Hall", the police feared a riot was about to erupt. Since there wasn't enough security to even attempt to control a mob that big, it was then decided that the race would go on and would include the drivers who were banned.After 75 laps around the dusty, one-mile oval, Roy Hall, who was originally banned from the event, pulled into victory lane. The driver who finished in fourth place was one of the men who struck the race because he felt the drivers were not being treated fairly. His name was Bill France Sr. Ironically, Bob Flock, who was banned from the event, later became the promoter of the drag strip there. The track ran their final race on September 3, 1979 and then closed it's gates for good.FACT: Lakewood Speedway, where religious leaders tried to block drivers from racing because of police records, was built in 1915 using convict labor from a nearby prison camp!