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PAGE 2B - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS - MARCH 19, 2008
Youth Wrestling
Auto Racing
Young Grappler
Cade Tootle of the Commerce Wrestling Wrestling Championship on March 8.
Club placed second at the Georgia Kids State
"Corky" Races From The Past
For some reason in the late
1960s and early 1970s, there
was a slew of stock car racing
movies filmed in the south.
Some were okay some were
terrible, but many of them had
one thing in common - they
were made by people who
really didn’t know what stock
car racing was all about.
One of these was a movie
filmed around Georgia called
“Corky.” The movie, which
was made in 1970 and released
in 1972, starred Robert Blake
as the title character, Corky
Curtiss, a dirt track racer and
mechanic from Texas.
The story revolved around
Corky’s obsession with becom
ing a big time NASCAR racer,
based solely on a picture
taken with himself and Richard
Petty. Corky leaves his wife
and children to travel across
the country from Texas to
Atlanta in an attempt to break
into the big time at the Atlanta
International Raceway.
Also starring in the film
is Charlotte Rampling as
Corky’s wife, veteran actor
Ben Johnson, and a host of
NASCAR and local racers in
cameos. One scene features
Corky turning laps in a modi
fied 1966 Plymouth Barracuda
(sporting a Superbird rear
wing, no less!) around Atlanta
International Raceway, swap
ping paint with the Dodge
Daytona of Bobby Allison.
Another shows Buddy Baker,
Allison, Cale Yarborough and
several other NASCAR stars
during a coffee break in a suite
at AIR.
But for Georgia race fans,
there are some priceless shots.
The movie’s finale was filmed
at the legendary Peach Bowl
Speedway, a raceway that sat
closer to Atlanta’s downtown
area than the Atlanta Zoo
Down
The
Stretch
BY BRANDON REED
does today. The film shows
the track towards the end of its
existence. Roy Shoemaker, the
owner, builder and promoter
of the track, sold the speedway
in 1970, and the track closed
one year later. A MARTA bus
repair depot now sits on the
spot where the track was.
Racing scenes were also
filmed at the old West Atlanta
Raceway in Douglasville. In
that scene, Corky takes on
local drivers in a borrowed
racecar. In that sequence, he
picks up a win after a spin by
none-other than Georgia racing
legend and NASCAR winner
Jody Ridley, with Ridley pilot
ing his famous number 98 Ford
Falcon. The track would later
become Seven Flags Speedway.
Sadly, it too is now closed.
Needless to say, Blake didn’t
do his own race driving in the
film. Georgia Hall of Fame
inductee Charlie Mincey was
behind the wheel in the rac
ing sequences, one of several
movies Mincey worked on in
the Georgia area. Mincey was
a track champion at the Peach
Bowl, as well as at the Toccoa
Speedway and the old Athens
Speedway.
After its 1972 release, “Corky”
fell into obscurity. After a run
a drive-in theaters and occa
sional late night television runs,
the film faded into the dust. It
never even made it to the home
video market.
But this Saturday, it will be
resurrected at the Georgia
Racing Hall of Fame in
Dawsonville. Mike Bell, histori
an for the Georgia Auto Racing
Hall of Fame Association
(GARHOFA) has worked to
locate a copy of the film, and
plans to show it in the theater
room at the hall at 1 o’clock
Saturday afternoon. Admission
is free, but the Hall of Fame
always accepts donations.
Bell hopes some of the driv
ers and participants in the film
will come out to talk about
what it was like to work on the
set, as well as to share memo
ries of the tracks and racing at
the time.
It’s the latest in a series of
events at the hall intended to
bring attention on the num
ber of racing related projects
that has taken place in the
state. Back in December, the
1965 movie “White Lightnin’
Road,” which was filmed in
and around the Cumming
Speedway in Forsyth County,
was shown at the hall.
Plans are for more such films
to be screened at the Hall of
Fame later this year.
Despite what the film appears
to be cinematically, it is anoth
er rare opportunity to see a
couple of Georgia’s grand old
racetracks in their glory. It’s
one more chance to see cars at
the Peach Bowl. It’s a chance
to see Ridley’s blue Ford on
dirt again. It’s a chance to
see the winged Dodges on
Atlanta’s original layout, before
it was turned into a Charlotte
clone.
Chances like that are hard to
come by.
•Brandon Reed is a reporter
for MainStreet Newspapers, Inc.
Contact him at brandon@main-
streetnews.com.
12 & Under Placers
Commerce Youth Wrestling had 2 placers in Morgan Flint, who placed 4th at 112 lbs and
the 12 & Under Kids State Championship this Chance McClure, who took first 1st at 140 lbs.
past weekend. They were, pictured, left to right
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