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PAGE 4B
This Week at the Tracty^v
Before NASCAR,
Dawsonville was
racing hot spot
By Gerald Hodges
The Racing Reporter
When most racing fans hear
the name Dawsonville, Georgia,
they immediately connect with
Bill Elliott.
While it’s true that Elliott
still has his shop headquarters
in the small northwest Georgia
town, about 90 miles north of
Atlanta, this area was a hot spot
of racing before the France fam
ily ever dreamed of NASCAR.
There have been more leg
endary racing drivers and teams
come out of Dawson County,
Georgia than freight cars on
one of the long CSX trains that
highballs it through Atlanta.
The names Park, Voght,
Sosebee, Byron, Hall, and Seay,
as well as Elliott are synony
mous with the region.
“I heard stories from
Raymond Parks and Gordon
Pirkle about the early days and
how racing got started before
there was even race tracks” said
Dan Elliott. “All the people that
owned trip cars got together
and bet among themselves
about who had the fastest car.”
A trip car is a car that was
used to haul illegal moonshine
whiskey, usually from Dawson
County to Atlanta. These cars
had souped up and modified
engines.
Quite often the springs and
suspension system were modi
fied to accommodate the heavy
load and type roads they would
be taking.
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“They’d get together and go
out in a cow pasture, big field or
long stretch of road and bet on
who had the fastest car,” contin
ued Elliott. “And if you had the
fastest car, then sometimes you
could pick up a pretty piece of
change that way.
“That was before they had
grandstands or anything, and
they were standing around jok
ing, and saying, ‘we ought to
charge people, and I bet they
would come see this.’ I know it
all sounds like a joke now, but
that is really how it evolved.
“I went to Daytona USA a
couple years ago because I
wanted to see some of the pho
tos of the early days of
NASCAR.
I was hoping to learn more on
the history of who was in it and
how it was formed. “After
going through the museum, I
was amazed at how little history
there was on the early years.”
Raymond Parks was one of the
original moonshine barons of
Dawson County.
He started sponsoring race
cars at the urging of his cousins,
Roy Hall and Lloyd Seay. Even
though he only drove in one
race, and that was at
Langhorne, Pennsylvania,
Parks supplied many winning
cars.
His cars were driven by Red
Voight, Hall, Seay, Red Byron,
Bob and Fonty Flock, and even
“Big Bill” France. His cars won
many races at Atlanta’s
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Photo by Gerald Hodges
Dan Elliott, Raymond Parks and Gordon Pirkle have seen a lot at Dawsonville.
Lakewood Speedway, as well as
the early beach races at
Daytona.
“It was in 1938 that we were
all hanging around the garage,
and we decided to fix up some
thing for Lloyd (Seay) to drive,”
said Parks. “He drove a ‘34 Ford
roadster and won the race.
“There wasn’t a lot of racing
on tracks before the war. I met
Red Voght, a mechanic, who
lived in Atlanta, right after the
war ended. He did all the work
on the stock cars, and it was his
job to get them to the race and
back.
“I got hooked up with Red
because he was working on my
car before I got into the racing
business. After we won that
first race, I knew I wanted to
get into it. Right after that, I
went out and bought two 1939
Ford coupes. I think I paid $525
a piece for them, and took them
to Red and told him to get them
ready to race.
“Before NASCAR, we went all
over North Carolina, South
Carolina, Langhorne,
Pennsylvania, Ft. Wayne,
Indiana, and Florida. We raced
just about every Sunday. There
were no leagues or series, just
individual tracks and promot
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Quite often, promoters would
skip out midway during the race
without paying the drivers. At
other times, they might not pay
the full amount to the drivers
that they advertised.
It was because of the many
unscrupulous racing promoters
that the drivers needed a sanc
tioning body.
It was out of these circum
stances and smart legal maneu
vering on the part of Bill France
Sr. that NASCAR was born.
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December 19,2002
Top racers
honored at
banquet
By Ed Swearingen
(12/6/02)
MACON - The Silver Dollar
Raceway held its Ninth
Annual Awards banquet in
Macon at the Georgia Sports
Hall of Fame recently.
Awards were handed out to
Sponsor of the Year Reeves
RPM Performance; Rookie of
the Year Neil Suggs; Ed
Goddard Memorial Award
John “Yo Yo” Pewters, .Voted
best Appearing at the ET
Finals Tim DeFoor and best
engineered Alan Hardie.
Hardie insisted that the
award go to the car owner,
Waner Hardie when present
ed the honor.
Class winners Jonathan
Anderson, Allen Williams,
Ken Huckaby and Jonathan
Pope were recognized as were
the remaining top eight fin
ishers in Jerry Barker
Chevrolet ET Series points as
well as Chad Chapa, our High
School Representative.
Special thanks went to the
Graham Family who provided
music after the conclusion of
the awards.
Connie and Greg Brown
assisted with the banquet.
The Junior Dragster par
ents and racers assisted as
well.
DINNER
Mon. - Thurs.
5 til 9:30
Fri.-Sat.
5 til 10
Closed Sunday
& Holidays