CUP: Origins, Part 4 – France Tackles Bruton

Sprint Cup

CUP: Origins, Part 4 – France Tackles Bruton

NASCAR Founder Bill France Sr. regularly scheduled races opposite Bruton Smith’s Concord track at the old Charlotte Speedway facility...

Jonathan Ingram | http://www.RacinToday.com | Posted May 13, 2010 Charlote, NC

Bill France Sr. was the central figure in the founding of NASCAR and he was mover, shaker, promoter and pusher behind its early growth. (Photo: France Family)

(Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment of a five-part RacinToday series on the earliest days of stock car racing.)

If the initial stock car racing epidemic had a specific carrier in the 1930s, it was the prototypical promoter. This was the type who usually wore a suit jacket and a fedora to signify success at the risky task of selling tickets in rented facilities and recognizing the latest thing – from wing walking to air races, quarter midget racing for smaller Indy-type cars and motorcycle racing.

When stock car racing first came along, in the eyes of many promoters it was just another cheap thrill show for a gullible public. Some promoters saw bigger things in it such as Bill France, who studiously avoided suit jackets and eventually began to wear a cap instead of a fedora after taking over promotion of races on the Beach & Road Course in Daytona in 1938.

By 1940, production cars in America were big, loud, fast, sturdy and numerous, a promoter’s dream. An explosion of races in all regions of the countries resulted in the AAA taking up the task of declaring a national stock car champion by choosing among the winners of the country’s biggest races, usually those over 100 miles in length.

After World War II, France and NASCAR, which he incorporated in the early months of 1948, were hardly alone when it came to running stock car races. The popularity of racing production cars was blossoming across the country.

Virtuoso promoter Ed Otto, an eventual partner of France, began promoting stock cars in the 1940’s in Avon, Conn., Rochester, N.Y., and other stops with the New England Stock Car Racing Association. Bill Barkheimer, another future France partner, found success in promoting events up and down the West Coast.

Perhaps the best evidence of stock car racing’s universal appeal was the presence of an African-American circuit in Georgia in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The Atlanta Stock Car Club circuit was formed by blacks who were barred from racing with whites or who suffered racism even if they were able to race with white drivers, circumstances that pervaded many series and race tracks.

Johnny Marcum, who first got to know France when the two raced against each other in stock cars at the Ft. Wayne mile oval in the late 1930’s, promoted the Midwest Association for Racing Cars, also known as the MARC, shortly after the war from his base in Ohio. It later became what is now called ARCA and continues to sanction stock car races on all manner of tracks.

Page 1 of 3

12 3

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jonathan Ingram

RacinToday.com

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR

CUP: Some Pretty Darn Impressive Statistics
The 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup season established records for the most…
CUP: Days Of Short Track Yore And Ol’ Clyde
The late Butch Lindley made his mark on NASCAR's short tracks...
CUP: Change Winner’s Points, Not The Chase
Awarding more points for race wins would encourage more aggressive…