Backward glances at racing history
Atlas F1 Columnist
After a much-needed break, Atlas F1's Don Capps returns with Rear View Mirror, taking backward glances at motor racing history and commenting on its relevance in today's events
I noticed an interesting thing several weeks ago: The Washington Post now devotes attention to the sport of auto racing. During the middle of the week there is now a section covering the happenings of the motor racing world as well as more attention being devoted to the sport during the weekend and on Monday. This is something that I was initially skeptical about at first, but since this has now been going on for a bit perhaps there is something to it.
While some will groan when I say that much of that attention which the Post is devoting to motor racing is concerned with the coverage of NASCAR, what also needs to be said is that while the usual "sports page" sports were doing whatever it is that they do, NASCAR eased itself into the slot just behind the National Football League in the eyes of American televised sports viewers. That NASCAR is now ahead of Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and all the permutations and variations on these themes has given more than a few pause of late.
The story of National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing has been covered - usually superficially and usually poorly - in the past few years. The shelves at the local Borders has more titles on NASCAR-related racing than one could have imagined just a decade ago. In America, success is the secular religion and NASCAR has been gaining followers in numbers that have begun to finally to tweak changes in how motor racing is considered in America.
In stark contrast to the success of NASCAR, are the travails of the Indy Racing League and the Championship Auto Racing Teams. Both are limping along despite flashes of hope from time to time. Both are locked in the same deadly embrace that one would expect of two scorpions trapped in a bottle plunging their stingers into each other while the bottle is washed over the heights of a waterfall and plunges towards the rocks below. As Pyrrhus observed eons ago, neither side can afford too many more "victories."
Three decades after it was predicted to be the "Sport of the Seventies," motor racing is finally gaining momentum and moving out from its long established beachhead into the heartland. Well, NASCAR is at any rate. As for the IRL and CART, well, who knows. Or the American Le Mans Series and the Grand American Series who are also fixed in a schism which pushes the two into a niche which is largely ignored - unfortunately - by far too many. As for the Sports Car Club of America and the United States Auto Club, once major players upon the American scene, they have their followings, but are largely shadows of their former selves and farm league at best.
NASCAR is nothing if not pragmatic about the business of being a sport. When Big Bill France sat down on the 12th of December 1947, in that smoky meeting room in the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, he talked Business first and Sport second. And where many walked onto the battleground that was stock car racing in the days immediately following the end of the Second World War, few survived to walk off that same battleground later. NASCAR was one of any number of organizations jockeying to control this sporting phenomenon that emerged in the 'Forties.
The Contest Board of the American Automobile Association gave little notice to stock car racing at the time. The AAA had its hands full with the other phenomenon in motor sports during the 'Forties: midget racing. Bill France, therefore, saw an opportunity and set out to exploit it. Another example of the Man, the Time, and the Place all converging.
The saga of how William Henry Getty - "Bill" and later "Big Bill" - France is now a part of American folklore. At the age of 25, Big Bill, wife Annie, and son Bill, Junior, left their native Washington, D.C., in the family Hupmobile and headed south . As a skilled, experienced mechanic, Big Bill was finding work more difficult to come by and, like many other Americans of the time, looked for other places to find employment. In 1934, Florida was place somewhere far from the streets of Washington and a place that might be worth looking at for new opportunities.
The France family perhaps never had a specific destination in Florida - Miami was one of the few places in the state known in the Mid-Atlantic region, but whatever the destination might have been they wound up in Daytona Beach. Whether it was because they had stopped for a swim and liked the place, or Big Bill was offered a job, or any other of the reasons that have been given over the years, Daytona Beach was where the journey ended.
Daytona Beach was the name of one of the few other Florida towns that was known outside the state. Since the early days of the century, Daytona Beach had been the site of speed trials and record attempts on the sands of the small beachfront town. Having worked as mechanic in Washington, France had also taken advantage of his mechanical abilities and helped build a sprint car. France drove the sprinter whenever possible and had some successes, but he had also learned some real lessons from the promoters in the area as to the nature of the racing game.
Whatever the real reason was for Big Bill stopping in Daytona Beach, it is safe to say that he never second-guessed that decision. One reason was that the attempts at breaking the land speed record being made on the beaches were coming to an end. Another was that the AAA and the town of Daytona Beach formed an unlikely team to keep racing in some form going so as to keep money from racers flowing into the city coffers.
Contrary to the belief of many, the notion of stock car racing did not originate in the South nor did it spring forth full-grown into being in the form of NASCAR. Nothing, naturally, is ever that easy. What did happen was that the AAA Contest Board agreed to sanction a race for "stock cars" - and, yes, that is what they were called even the 'Thirties - using a course using a combination of the beaches and the roads paralleling the beaches.
The event was held in March 1936. That is, it was held after the usual behind-the-scenes hard work that is often overlooked was accomplished. The city struck a deal with a former racer by the name of Sig Haugdahl. It was Haugdahl who proposed the beach-road course configuration to both the town and the Contest Board. Starting off with a proposed eight-mile route, the course was whittled down to 3.2-miles. The idea of approaching the AAA was an inspired idea since it would allow any of those "name" drivers holding AAA licenses to compete without any fear of repercussions coming stemming from their participation in the event.
Overlooked by most is that prior to the First World War, most racing cars were "stock cars" - or at least had a notion of being whatever passed for "stock" at the time. Although modified for racing, many of the cars founds on America's race tracks prior to the advent of the purebred racing machines produced by the workshops of the Duesenberg brothers and Harry Miller. During the 'Twenties and 'Thirties, the Contest Board issued sanctions for events to be run for "stock cars" at various tracks around the nation to include the Atlantic City planked board track in Amatol, New Jersey and the revival of the Elgin road races.
Since the advent of the Contest Board, there had been classifications for "stock cars" in the Contest Rules. For 1936, the four categories were set out this way:
Some of the other items the competitors had to contend with were:
One stipulation was that "foreign cars" were barred from the event - at least for the time being. In addition, the field was to be limited to 36 starters. And the race itself was to be run using a handicapping system with the slowest cars beginning first at the intervals determined by the handicap. To spoil any idea of getting around the handicap, any car lapping at a speed 3 mph over its qualifying time would be disqualified.
Despite great hopes, the first Daytona Beach race was less than a spectacular success. The number of entries proved far less than anticipated. The practice sessions raised questions as to the abilities of both the cars and the course to withstand the pounding that a 250-mile race would put on both. And, to top it all off, there were (warranted) fears as to whether or not there would be any spectators.
The field finally reached 29 entries by race day, seven short of the advertised 36. While the flood of "big names" hoped for from the ranks of the AAA ranks didn't quite materialize, there were some familiar names in the field: Wild Bill Cummings (Auburn), Bill Schindler Dodge), Doc MacKenzie (Ford), Goldie Gardner (Lincoln Zephyr), and Milt Marion (Ford). In addition, there were Sam Collier (Willys 77) and Bill France (Ford), both of whom would make their names in the decade following the race.
During the race itself, the toil on both the cars and the course were as anticipated - heavy. What was of the greatest relief to all concerned with the race that there were enough spectators to cover the expenses needed for the purse. With an eye as much on the tide tables as well as the weather, the event had to begin not later than one o'clock to be run in the daylight and prior to the tide coming in. The cars were waved off according to the handicap calculated from their qualifying times, Sam Collier and his Willys being first and the Flathead Ford of Milt Marion being the last, 18 minutes 27 seconds after the Willys.
The race turned into an endurance event as the course, especially the North Turn, deteriorated as the tires ground the surface into a network of crisscrossing ruts which bogged down the cars as they attempted to negotiate the turns. In the latter stages of the race, the tide began to come in and more than a few cars spun trying to drive on the narrowing strip between the water and the soft sand of the beach. Major Goldie Gardner parked his Lincoln and simply quit. He refused to race on an "obstacle course" as he put it.
Not to mention that somehow it was - and is - apparent that scarcely anyone had a real clue as to who was leading. Cars were in trouble almost from the start. Within a few laps the cars were getting bogged down in the turns or spinning out on the sand on the road as they approached the South Turn. Cars were being pulled out of the sand left and right. Add to that the fact that some of the early starters were already laps ahead of the last starter, Milton, when he was flagged off to begin the race. While entertaining to the crowds to an extent, the chaos of the event was no laughing matter to those trying to make sense of the cars scrambling around the course.
Officially, Milt Marion was flagged the winner - the race being terminated early due to the rising tide and approaching darkness; And the minor problem of so many cars stuck in the North Turn that any passage was nearly impossible. However, many thought that the "real" winner was a young Jacksonville driver by the name of Tommy Elmore at the wheel of a Ford Convertible. While others were getting bogged down and pulled out of the sand - so much for the rule calling for disqualification for outside assistance or being touch by a spectator, Elmore was literally rocketing around the course. The lighter Fords, such as those driven by Elmore, were able to literally skip over most of the ruts in the corners. Elmore was "officially" listed as third in the final results, with France fifth.
When it was all over, said and done, Daytona Beach lost over $22,000 on its endeavor and was cured of any further adventures in promoting racing on the beaches. Although the outcome of the race left something to be desired in the eyes of more than a few, others either caught the "racing bug" or had it bite them again.
Although almost completely ignored in comparison with racing elsewhere in the United States, racing in the American South did not die after the Vanderbilt Cup and American Grand Prize races of 1911 departed Savannah and rise like a phoenix after the Second World War. It was centered around a few areas such as Savannah, Charlotte (recall the planked board track in Pineville, just south of the city), and various other cities and towns in the region. Often forgotten is a sweep through the region by Ted Horn (and several others) who set records at a number of tracks in the Big Cars of the day.
Big Bill France entered the racing scene - such as it was - with aspirations of furthering his budding career as a driver. As an excellent mechanic, France was now running a service station and moving up the economic ladder at least a rung or so. After more races had been held using various beach-road course configurations with private promoters, Big Bill France soon found himself as a promoter in 1938, putting on the beach-road course events. As they say, the rest is the stuff of history.
Which is where we come to where we started: television. Recently, NASCAR released the news that the Southern 500 - the Mountain Dew Southern 50 to be correct - normally run at Darlington, South Carolina will be held for the last time on its traditional Labor Day weekend date. That Labor Day holiday date will be sent westward and used from the 2004 season onward for an event at the California Speedway in Fontana. The second Darlington event will replace the date formally held by the North Carolina Speedway - Rockingham - in early November. This reduces Rockingham to a single event per season and changes the habits of many in the Southeast as they suddenly find their routines upset by a void in their race schedules.
While there is still some muttering and sputtering about the movement of the Labor Day date to California, the expected hew and cry expected in some quarters simply hasn't happened. Why? The very same reason that Big Bill France managed to form what was really a coalition in its first days - it is nothing Personal, but strictly Business. As the success of NASCAR is now based upon the result of making it a "national" sport, most has accepted that "changes have to be made." When this was first floated past everyone earlier in the year, as mentioned the firestorm did not erupt and the fates of Darlington and Rockingham were sealed.
The NASCAR of today is scarcely the same organization that existed three or four decades ago. What it will be in several more seasons will be different than what it is today. What it will be is, of course, impossible to predict accurately right down to the nth degree. It might, however, be not too far off to imagine that NASCAR will have narrowed the ratings gap between it and the NFL by a considerable margin. The bagging of a new non-tobacco sponsor for its premier series - today the NASCAR Winston Cup Series and starting next year the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series - will open doors currently closed. Look for more Saturday night events under the lights and ever higher popularity.
Unless the IRL and CART can find a middle ground of some sort or one side or the other finally throws in the towel, their survival is really open to question. Barring the direct intervention of NASCAR into the sports car world and some sweeping changes, it will remain a niche sport in the truest sense of the word. It will trail sprint car racing and ostrich racing by a considerable margin. Should there be some form of an accommodation between the two, it is possible that the Indianapolis 500 could once again become the Crown Jewel of American racing - both in terms of "butts in the seats" and television ratings. However, I really wouldn't hold my breath.
Speaking of ostrich racing, what about F1? A good question without a "good" answer for those equating F1 with being the number one racing series in the world. It might be number one elsewhere, but expect F1 to experience little growth in the US over the next few years. It will still be shown on American television, but only as a curiosity on Sunday mornings or the odd Sunday afternoon broadcast. Unless F1 is happy to continue its current path towards becoming an Asian Rim sport with an European base, F1 will stay on life support in America. The approaching handbags-at-20-paces catfight between Frank, Ron, Luca, Bernie, Max, Paul, FOM, GPWC, and so forth and so on will make F1 only that much easier for Americans to continue to ignore F1.
Bottom Line: Those who continue to blindly badmouth NASCAR and condemn it for being a regional, "redneck" sport haven't a clue as to its current demographics and its growing impact on motorsports in general. After decades of trying to "Europeanize" its motor racing in many ways - and only IMSA under John Bishop was remotely successful in doing this, but with an American twist of course - American motorsports is content to stay its own course. A course which just might be a "better fit" in the new world of international business than the alternative being offered by the Europeans.
Anyway, more to follow.
Some Thoughts...
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