The Early Laps of Stock Car Racing

A History of the Sport and Business through 1974

Betty Boles Ellison (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

296 Seiten

2014
McFarland & Co Inc (Verlag)
978-0-7864-7934-4 (ISBN)

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The book begins with the nation's first organised, sanctioned stock car road race over the Briarcliff, New York, course - staged in 1908 by one of America's early speed mavens, William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. A veteran of the early Ormond-Daytona Beach speed trials, Vanderbilt brought the Grand Prize races to Savannah, Georgia, in 1910. What began as a rich man's sport eventually became the working man's sport, finding a home in the South with the infusion of the rum-runners and moonshiners and their souped-up cars. The book is based, for the most part, on statements of drivers, car owners and others garnered from archived newspaper articles.

Readers are given an expanded look at the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing's 1948 incorporation documents; how they clash with the agreements adopted at NASCAR's organisation meeting two months earlier in December 1947. The meeting's participants soon realised that their sport was actually owned by William H. G. ""Bill"" France, and its consequential growth turned his family into millionaires. In addition to the sport's earlier races, the book covers NASCAR's first decades of stock car racing, through 1974 - with an astonishing lack of safety requirements and minuscule race purses paid France by Bill compared to his gate receipts.

Betty Boles Ellison, a Lexington, Kentucky, journalist turned historian, has provided research for David Grubin’s PBS production, Abraham and Mary Lincoln, A House Divided; The Kentucky Encyclopedia; the Texas Historic Commission, and CBS Sports.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

1. In the Beginning

2. Beach-Road Racing in Daytona

3. Whiskey Roots, Red Georgia Clay and Carolina Back Roads

4. Hardened Heroes

5. A Lily White Sport

6. Beer, Broads and Unadulterated Bull

7. NASCAR’s Early Years

8. Dollar Signs Everywhere

9. Drivers’ Revolving Door

10. The Finest Years

11. France Gets a Prize

12. Kiekhaefer Factor

13. Big Boys Come to Town

14. Whatever Happened to Marshall Teague?

15. Charlotte, Atlanta Join the Super Speedways

16. Caution Flags Everywhere

17. Those Dreaded Teamsters

18. Turner’s Back

19. The Man NASCAR Kept Overlooking

20. Big Boys Return

21. Who Was Running NASCAR?

22. Eastaboga and the PDA

23. Not as Easy as It Once Was

24. Money Infusion and Restrictor Plates

25. A New Boss Takes Over

26. Total Control

27. Ever Evolving NASCAR Rules

Chapter Notes

Bibliography

Index

Zusatzinfo	12 photographs
Verlagsort	Jefferson, NC
Sprache	englisch
Maße	178 x 254 mm
Gewicht	529 g
Themenwelt	Natur / Technik ► Fahrzeuge / Flugzeuge / Schiffe ► Auto / Motorrad
	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Motor- / Rad- / Flugsport
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte
	Weitere Fachgebiete ► Sportwissenschaft
ISBN-10	0-7864-7934-5 / 0786479345
ISBN-13	978-0-7864-7934-4 / 9780786479344
Zustand	Neuware