MM200 Final Exam
Favorite vehicle of the moonshiners
'39 Ford
3 Things you didn't do if you were trying to move up in class... (Mill workers did all these things)
1. Didn't live in a log cabin 2. Didn't listen to hillbilly music 3. Didn't go to stock car races
Largest bust in US History to this day for illegal shine
17,000 gallon bust at Junior's property
When were purpose- built racing ovals designed and built in Italy, England, and the U.S.
1907-1909
Birthplace of Gran Prix racing in America
1908 - 1911 the Great Savannah Races
Hosted the first "Gran Prix" race outside of Europe
1908 in Savannah, GA
Carl Fisher
1909
Eddie Rickenbacker
1927
Tony Hulman
1945
Streamline Hotel - Daytona Beach
1948 (NASCAR was founded)
PDA : Professional Drivers Association
1968 Richard Petty and Raymond Pike create drivers union in response to Talladega speeds being "too high and dangerous" Only NASCAR driver to enter the race was Bobby Isaac Bill France hired drivers from the Grand American series to fill the field
How was much was F1 sold for?
2016: to American John Malone and Liberty Media for over 8 billion in stock/cash Bernie Eccelstone and the F1 Board have all been replace and t he new owners are attempting to re-boot the F1 series for 2018 and beyond
Inaugural Race
32 entries and 12 automobile manufacturers
First Organizing Body
ACF : Automobile Club of France
Kiekhaefer quit NASCAR in 1957
Battling Bill France over accusations of cheating by the other competitors, they changed the rules to his disadvantage, and didn't want a backlash to affect Mercury sales
Boxed in front of 11,000 people at the Charlotte Coliseum
Beat Lionel Benton
Formula Racing
Began as city to city races in Europe in the late 1890's
Grew up fighting kids from...
Belmont, Gaffney, and Lincolnton
When and where did Humpy move?
Bessemer City during WW2
Mr. Norris - True Wheels
Blind Man who Humpy did a trade deal
Humpy Wheeler
Born October 23, 1938 Grew up in Belmont, NC
Humpy's Good-Bye
Bruton no longer included Humpy in the decision making at the Speedway and kept him in the dark about big projects and capital improvements. The final straw was when he announced they were building a drag strip on the site where they had planned a campground for the Speedway. Humpy could no longer take the lack of respect and decided it was time to hang things up.
Humpy transferred to...
Charlotte Catholic his Sr. year to play football and won a scholarship to play at USC
Tony George
Current Chairman and former President/CEO of Indianapolis Motor Speedway
When did the Modern Era of NASCAR begin?
Early 1970's: When Winston took over title sponsorship of the sport and infused tens of millions of dollars annually promoting the sport along with the Winston brand of cigarettes
First Recorded Automobile Races
Europe August 30th, 1867 between Ashton-under-Lyne and Old Trafford, England
Ayrton Senna
F1
Bernie Eccelstone
F1
Juan Manuel Fangio
F1
Lewis Hamilton
F1
Sanctioning body of Formula
FIA : Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. 1904 in Paris France
Inaugural Race Winner
Ferenc Szisz in a Renault 90CV
1992 Atlanta Motor Speedway season ending race
First Cup race for Jeff Gordon, Last Cup race for Richard Petty and Alan Kulwicki Wins the Winston Cup Championship over Bill Elliott
Carl Kiekhaefer
First mega owner in NASCAR Rick Hendrick before Rick Hendrick
Humpy's football injury to his back and his last fight
Forced him to change from a physical life to a mental one
Big Bill France
Gas Station attendant from Washington, DC who founded NASCAR in Daytona Beach, FL in 1948
Nickname : Humpy
His father got it when he was caught smoking camels as a college football player at the University of Illinois
1949: 1st NASCAR Race Attended & first NASCAR race held in Charlotte at the old Charlotte Speedway
Hitch-hiked to the 3/4 Mile Dirt Track
The Future of Racing
Humpy predicts that in the near future, racing will continue to evolve and eventually the private equity (big Money) firms alone with the TV Networks will buy out SMI, ISC, and NASCAR and make everything more fan and viewer friendly. This he expects to happen in the next decade. This prediction is starting to look real as we just saw F1 be bough out by private equity and Liberty Media.
AJ Foyt
INDYCAR
Mario Andretti
INDYCAR, F1, & NASCAR
First Gran Prix Circuit Race
June 26, 1906 at LeMans France 65-Mile Triangle Circuit
What started Humpy's life in marketing and PR
Keeping his football scholarship by working as the assistant SID for the Gamecocks
"Going Red"
Losing your tempter & acting out... Common trait among the Scotch Irish
Atlanta Penitentiary
Moonshiners didn't want to get busted south of Charlotte
How is F1 ranked?
Most popular form of organized motorsport in the world and the 2nd most popular sport overall behind soccer worldwide
Bobby Allison
NASCAR
Curtis Turner
NASCAR
John Force
NHRA
Wally Parks
NHRA
Glen Robert Johnson Sr.
One of the most prolific Moonshiners and brought Jr. Johnson and his brothers into the business. Served over 20 of his 63 years behind bars for 5 different Moonshine convictions
Wheeler Bicycle Shop
Opened in his parents garage at age 11. Started promoting races in 1951 at age 13.
Humpy's wife graduated from BAC as a cheerleader
Pedestrian Bridge outside of te Success Hub is dedicated to her
Bootleg turn
Perfected by Junior Johnson, his great success and driving style in NASCAR is accredited to this, particularly when many races were run on dirt
Humpy's lifelong association with Boxing
Pivotal point in Humpy's life when he got bullied while delivering papers and he vowed to learn to fight
Life in the Mill town
Poor nutrition, 3 shifts, shotgun housing
Humpy Senior didn't approve of racing
Purely a stick and ball guy from the North
Scotch Irish Heritage
Seeing Red, Poor, and Hard Scrabbled
Top crew chiefs and mechanics of the era
Smoky Yunnick, Banjo Mathews, Wood Brothers, and Bud Moore. (single team operations and small, family-owned operations)
First families of Belmont
Stowe's and Linebergers
Where did the NASCAR official founding meeting take place?
Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach
Humpy Sr.
The Athletic Director and Football Coach at BAC for 38 years
When was Charlotte established as a racing center
The early 1950's when Ford Motor Company moved their racing HQ to Charlotte under former Indy 500 winner Pete Depaola -> Holman and Moody took Ford Racing to the next level and most teams set up their racing operations in/around Charlotte
When did the Modern Era of F1 begin?
The first World Championship Race in 1950 : Silverstone, England
What gave Dodge the edge over Ford in the early NASCAR days & with Moonshiners
The introduction of the Dodge Hemi engine
Humpy studied Latin with the monks, but didn't like the Abbey because ...
They didn't have a football program
First Recorded Automobile Races
USA July 16th, 1878 200-mile course from Green Bay to Appleton, Wisconsin
The 1990's
Ushered in big money/personalities to NASCAR
Final race of the 1992 season at Atlanta Motor Speedway
Ushered in the Jeff Gordon era and the next boom in racing history began
1979 Daytona 500 tipping point
Winter storm that buried most of the country. Allison Brothers and Cale Yarborough duked it out on the last lap of the race. New era was born on CBS with live NASCAR racing to the masses
How did Bill France rule?
With an iron fist, very strict, no "if"s "and"s or "but"s
Wendall Scott & the struggles he faced
Won at Jacksonville, but was declared second until the next day because the promoter didn't want a black man kissing Miss Jacksonville Speedway
Humpy's big break
Wrote a letter to Russ Caitlin , got a summer internship working for him at DARLINGTON
Corporatization of NASCAR
how the big money began to affect the NASCAR crowd. Humpy points to the overall greed of the sport for killing the goose that laid the golden eggs. Series began selling official corporate everything and took money away from teams and drivers. Also the 2000's began an economic downturn that really hurt the blue collar fans The sport had overbuilt in the 1990's and now had to live with oversized venues and tickets and sponsorship sales suffered.