As a
tribute to Bill France Sr. and in celebration of the 70th
Anniversary of the France family arrival in Daytona Beach,
Bill Baxter of Deland, Fla. has entered the prestigious
Great Race with his 1935 Ford, an exact replica of Bill
France’s 1936 Daytona race entry.
The car was
sent to Jack Roush’s shop in Livonia, Mi. for a complete
overhaul in preparation for the June 19th, 2004 kickoff of
the cross-country trek. The race will end on July 3rd in
Monterey, Ca.
Dubbed
“Team Daytona USA,” the team that hopes to do “Bill” proud
is composed of navigator Baxter along with
driver and NASCAR
historian Buz McKim. The support crew is made up of
their wives Jean and
Gwen, respectively.
Here's the
Big bill France Story:
The year
2004 is the 70th anniversary of Bill France Sr., his wife
Anne and infant son, Bill Jr. arriving in Daytona Beach,
Florida. What seemed to be just another family coming to
town was to become one of the most important events in
American auto racing history.
The Frances
were traveling from Washington, D.C. to Miami in 1934 when
they stopped off in the Daytona Beach area to visit some
friends. France had $25 in his pocket, $75 in the bank and
an old set of tools.
According
to France, “I figured that was all I needed to get a new
start. If I was going to work on automobiles, I might just
as well do it someplace where I wouldn’t have to fight snow
and cold weather.”
“Big Bill”
as Mr. France was known, stated that he drove out to the
beach with his little house trailer in tow. The water was so
blue-green and the beach was so peaceful and beautiful, he
and his family took a swim and felt they needed to go no
further.
The France
family settled into a small bungalow off Beach St. just
north of downtown Daytona Beach and around the corner from
Sax Lloyd’s General Motors dealership. France was a skilled
mechanic and soon found work as a brake specialist in
Lloyd’s shop.
A few years
later he opened a gas station on Main St. in Daytona Beach.
France also was involved in auto racing back in his native
D.C. and soon was among the locals competing on central
Florida’s dirt tracks in open-wheeled, home built
contraptions. He quickly made an impact on the racing scene
and his station became a mecca for local racers.
In 1935
Bill France was on the beach the day Sir Malcolm Campbell
set the ultimate Daytona speed record of over 276 m.p.h.
That event brought an end to Daytona Beach’s Land Speed
Record era, dating back to 1903. A new era was on the
horizon.
The City of
Daytona Beach wanted to keep its racing heritage alive and a
new form of auto racing was developed. Sig Haugdahl, a local
racer and one-time land speed record holder, came up with
the plan to hold a stock car race on Daytona Beach. In early
1936, Haugdahl, along with local attorney Millard Conklin
and consultant Bill France, laid out a course of 3.2 miles
consisting of 1.5 miles of State Road A1A and 1.5 miles of
beach with short turns on the north and south end of the
oval-shaped course.
A 250 mile,
AAA-sanctioned stock car race was slated for the beach
course on March 8, 1936. The event drew and interesting
array of competitors such as Indianapolis 500 winner Wild
Bill Cummings, midget racing legend Bill Schindler, sports
car racing pioneer Miles Collier, millionaire sportsman Jack
Rutherford, English speed king Goldie Gardner and Daytona’s
own Bill France.
France
entered a 1935 Ford V-8 coupe owned by a fellow mechanic
named Glen Brooks. The local Gulf Oil dealer sponsored
France with fuel and tires. Along with his driving chores,
France did mechanical work on the 1936 Ford convertible of
Milt Marion, a northeastern dirt track ace. Marion went on
to win the inaugural Daytona Beach stock car race while
France came home fifth.
“Big Bill”
France would continue a successful driving career, winning
the “unofficial” 1940 national stock car championship. He
would later promote races, establish NASCAR in 1947, develop
the ultra-modern Daytona International Speedway in 1959 and
build its sister track, Talladega, in 1969. It’s been said
Bill France Sr. is the single most influential figure in
American auto racing.
Yes, lots of them. The strangest one is that no
NASCAR driver will eat peanuts at the track.
Buz McKim, coordinator of NASCAR's history
database, traces the superstition to a race in
1937 race in Nashville. One of the drivers had a
beef with the race promoter. He was so upset
that he hatched a devious scheme to get the
first five qualifiers to drop out of the race.
His ingenious plan was to sprinkle peanut shells
on their cars. Why peanut shells would cause a
driver to withdraw from a race has been lost.
Upon further review ...
Bill Elliott's No. 9 Dodge was identified
incorrectly in a diagram in the December
29-January 5 issue. to history. Or maybe there
was a pre-existing curse involving shells.
Anyhoo, those five drivers all wrecked, and one
of them, Howdy Cox, died. Thus was born sports'
strangest and most widely held superstition.
Walnuts, pecans, cashews? Fine, fine and
fine--so far at least--as is everything else in
the nut family. And please don't write to say a
peanut is a legume.
Chris Economaki on Buz:
Enjoyed historian
Buz
McKim’s recap of NASCAR’s 30th season in the
club’s neat “Cannonball” newsletter. I’d
forgotten that late road racer Al Holbert made
nine starts that year and 1978 saw nary a single
Chrysler product on track. After years of hard
work and fundraising by club members, President
Ray Fox, along with museum director John
Peoples, led the celebratory ribbon cutting at
LLOAR’s new South Daytona museum in late May.
Already in place is the LLOAR “Walk of Fame” on
Daytona’s main drag, South Atlantic Ave. The
Walk currently has 202 memorial bricks, with
space for hundreds more. Big doings are slated
for Speed Weeks. Details from LLOAR, Box 290854,
Port Orange, Fla. 32129.
We all lost a
great friend in the Daytona Beach
racing community with the passing of
Chuck Warren. His long time friend
Buz McKim wrote the following moving
tribute which can be found here:
Albert
James "Buz" McKim
