“Before the Birth of NASCAR”
Part 1
By Rick Kavanagh I
recently finished reading a book titled “Driving with
the Devil”, written by Neal Thompson and in my
estimation it is probably the most accurate account of
the early days of stock car racing, moonshiners and its
true roots in the South Eastern United States. While in
Canada, many now defunct, racetracks such as Chippawa,
Brantford, Ancaster, Stamford, Speedway Park, Pinecrest
and CNE were part of our racing history, they really do
not illustrate our racing heritage prior to 1950 in
fact, Canada’s oldest continuous operating track,
Merrittville Speedway in Thorold, Ontario dates back to
1952. The point that I am making is that stock car
racing was already a sport of some 17 years in the Deep
South. The Irish- Scotch descendants who emigrated to
the U.S. south in the 1800’s settled in the foothills of
the Appalachians brought many of their customs and
tenacity, as well as their cultural recipes of poteen,
we now know as moonshine, and this is where our cast of
players descend.
Lloyd Seay 1938 We all know that
Bill Elliott is the most heralded racer from
Dawsonville, Georgia, but back in the 1920’s, and 30’s
especially during prohibition and later the Great
Depression, Dawsonville, Georgia was better known as the
Moonshine Capital of the U.S. During the Depression it
was hard to make a living farming, especially in the
already depressed South, but farmers learned that they
could add value to their corn crops if they used their
Irish-Scotch recipes to make “poteen” moonshine and sell
it to a public, thirsty for alcoholic beverages, during
prohibition, especially if it could be carefully
delivered to nearby cities such as Atlanta, Georgia. In
fact, to illustrate just how big a deal moonshine had
become, there were over 6,155 still seizures in Georgia,
compared to 3,287 in North Carolina back in 1923-24.
Seay 1938
A young Raymond Parks was one such
individual who back in those years, found that by
loading his Model T with moonshine in Dawsonville and
quietly running with local traffic towards downtown
Atlanta, that he could solve part of the distribution
problems with moonshine. However, as the market grew,
so did the surveillance by A.T.F. agents, (Alcohol,
Tobacco and Firearms) tracking and raiding illegal
moonshine stills.
By the early 1930’s, Henry Ford
helped solve the problem by introducing his flathead V8
powered coupes in 1932. In fact, Ford had a huge
assembly plant in Atlanta. While Raymond Parks worked as
a 16 year old mechanic at his Uncle Millers’” Hemphill
Garage” in Atlanta by day, he would deliver moonshine by
night driving the ever treacherous 60 miles from
Dawsonville to Atlanta. Lloyd Seay,Raymond Parks&Roy
Hall While Raymond Parks was amassing a fortune
delivering moonshine by night, he bought his Uncle
Millers’ garage and would trade his 4 cylinder Fords for
new V8 models. He even hired two of his cousins and
employed family members to operate his own stills his
cousins, Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall learned quickly how to
drive brand new V8 Fords from Dawsonville to Atlanta.
Lloyd
Seay,Raymond Parks&Roy Hall
Even with prohibition ending in 1933,
many of the southern states and counties, would remain
alcohol free and all the while tax revenuers would keep
the pressure on trying to stop the tax free trade of
alcohol. In order to stay ahead of the U. S. tax
agents, Raymond Parks hired a well known mechanic by the
name of Red Vogt who helped balance and modify flathead
Fords for moonshine delivery. All the while, during
this period, most auto racing in the U. S. was
conducted in the Midwest and Northern states, under the
sanction of the American Automobile Association or
A.A.A., headed by promoter Sam Nunis. The Indianapolis
500 was the “crown jewel” while tracks such as
Langhorne, PA were staples for open wheel racing. By
1936 the AAA was the main organizer of auto racing in
America, stock car racing was highly unorganized, with
Bill France Sr. trying to organize racing speed trials
with the city of Daytona Beach by 1938.
Business men such as Raymond Parks
decided to enter their moonshine cars and drivers in
loosely organized events at a track called Lakewood
Speedway near Atlanta. From the mid to late 1930’s
moonshiners such as Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall became not
only entertainment for local southerners but local folk
heroes racing their cars on fairground horse-tracks and
hastily carved out ovals, with the big races happening
at Lakewood Speedway near Atlanta, Georgia, working for
cousin Raymond, delivering moonshine during the week and
racing moonshine cars on the weekend. Raymond Parks
purchased brand new 1939 Fords for his cousins to race
with and had Red Vogt modify them for speed and
handling, using many of the tricks used when modifying
them for moonshine delivery. Bill France noticed this
and while not a moonshiner, raced with them as events
sprung up in the south and he needed the moonshiners to
come to Florida, to help fill the field of modified
stock cars for Daytona Beach’s ,sand-events.
Roy Hall Races on the Beach
Lloyd Seay,& Roy Hall, would put on
driving displays in their new meticulously prepared
Fords that had people all over the southeast talking,
while law makers and church elders condemned the racers
as being law breaking criminals, the sport continued to
grow in popularity amongst blue collar people. The
world was changing and while the rest of the world was
involved in World War 11, the U. S. was not, and
continued in its peace time activities, including
moonshine and stock car racing, until one fateful day in
1941, when Woodrow Anderson, a cousin of Lloyd Seay shot
him dead, apparently over a dispute on a sugar bill, for
ingredients for the moonshine still. As shock rang out
through the south of Seay’s’ death, Woodrow Anderson was
sentenced to life in prison. The AAA was still at it’s
peak in open wheel racing but they saw the up start
stock cars as a threat. Moonshiners Lloyd Seay, Roy
Hall, Bob and Fonty Flock had huge success at northern
tracks such as Allentown, PA with Bill France winning at
Langhorne, PA.
In fact, Bill France had accumulated
enough points in 1940 to be declared stock car
champion. The AAA declared all southern stock car
drivers to be banned from northern tracks. So instead
of arguing, whether, the racing stock car hub was
either Lakewood Speedway- Atlanta, Georgia or Daytona
Beach, Florida. It was now AAA north vs. southern
stockcar moonshiners. A young racer from Colorado,
Robert Byron was racing AAA open wheel cars and racing
in the upstart Alabama Stock Car Association and after
Lloyd Seay’s’ death, Raymond Parks needed a new driver
and Red Vogt recommended Byron for the job. There was
one problem and that was the U. S. had entered the War
in 1942 after Pearl Harbor, so all” race time” activity
ceased.
From 1942-1945 Raymond Parks was
drafted into the Infantry and Byron to the air corps.
Robert Byron would survive the war, but was wounded by
schrapnel while on a mission in a B-24 bomber, leaving
him partially crippled for life. After the war, Raymond
Parks, Red Vogt, Bob Flock, Roy Hall, Fonty Flock and
new driver, Robert “Red” Byron would continue where they
left off, racing and wining against the likes of Eddie
Samples, Goober Soosbee and Buddy Shuman. Bill France
had picked up where he left off, promoting NCSCC races
in the south, but he had changed, no longer wishing to
see his once fellow competitors “moonshiners” win, he
raced against them, but try as he might he had to settle
for 2nd place behind moonshiner Roy Hall at Lakewood
Speedway where 30,000 people attended the first race,
since the office of Defence Transportation had
officially lifted its wartime ban on sporting events.
From 1945 to 1947, the AAA “Elitist
contest board” dabbled in stock car racing as well as
open wheel racing, so it was Sam Nunis vs Bill France
and his loosely organized NCSCC. France knew that if he
was going to gain control of stock car racing and spread
north and west, it would have to be a dictatorship and
not a democracy in order to become organized. Bill
France Sr. placed an ad in Speed Age magazine, inviting
all participants, car owners and mechanics to a meeting
at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach on December 14,
1947. Would this meeting lead to the birth of
organized stock car racing?