“BIG BILL – The Story
of NASCAR”
With the largest live audience of any other national sport,
NASCAR has grown to be a multi-billion dollar business in it’s nearly 63 year
history. But the beginnings of the sport were far from glamorous for the
drivers, and Big Bill France, nearly single handedly, took a prohibition “bragging
rights” sport out of the back woods of the south and brought it to mainstream
America and created what we now know of as NASCAR.
“Big Bill” France had to overcome many obstacles in his
desire to establish a respected organization to oversee stock car
racing. Arriving in Florida in 1935 amidst the Great Depression, with wife and child and only $100 to his name, he struggled against not only the financial limitations and the social stigmas of the time, but the Indy 500 organization and AAA, who eventually refused to sanction his races, due to the dangerous and lawless group of drivers that risked life and limb to win.
Through his undaunted belief in stock car racing as a family sport,
Big Bill not only gained the respect of his racers but established a billion
dollar industry along the way.
Screenplay Logline: Big Bill France, determined to bring stock car racing out of the back woods of the south and onto the mainstream tracks of America, struggles with the social stigmas that label the impoverished south and the disdain and contempt of the elitist world of formula racing.
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Born in Washington D.C. on September 26th, 1909,
William H.G. France, was raised in a middle class banking family. Cars were his passion from a very early age and he preferred anything that had to do with cars, over banking. By the time Bill was old enough to reach the pedals,
he was cutting school to race on the tracks in the back woods of Delaware and Maryland in
his father’s model T Ford.
When the depression hit in 1929 it took a few more years for the ripple effects to reach some of the wealthier areas of the North East, but by 1932, Bill’s family was struggling.
Bill met his wife Annie Bledsoe at a DC social dance in 1930 and by 1932 they were married and had their first son, Bill Jr.. Earlier, Bill had conceded to work at his father's bank but he was forced to work multiple jobs in those years to make ends meet. During the winter months, he would leave the house while it was still dark to crank start cars in the freezing cold for his father’s wealthier clients and neighbors. They would pay him 50¢ for the service. Though working endless hours, he was still unable to afford the basics, such as heat, and they would use their fireplace to stay warm.
When the depression hit in 1929 it took a few more years for the ripple effects to reach some of the wealthier areas of the North East, but by 1932, Bill’s family was struggling.
Bill met his wife Annie Bledsoe at a DC social dance in 1930 and by 1932 they were married and had their first son, Bill Jr.. Earlier, Bill had conceded to work at his father's bank but he was forced to work multiple jobs in those years to make ends meet. During the winter months, he would leave the house while it was still dark to crank start cars in the freezing cold for his father’s wealthier clients and neighbors. They would pay him 50¢ for the service. Though working endless hours, he was still unable to afford the basics, such as heat, and they would use their fireplace to stay warm.
In 1934, with the Depression far from over, while suffering
through another frigid winter with no heat, Bill's young son contracted pneumonia from the cold, which was the final straw for Bill. At 24, he made the fateful decision to move to Florida.
Annie happened to have family there and as far as Bill was concerned, if he was going to be broke they would at least be warm. With
only $100 to their name and a big dream, they packed up his old 1928 Hupmobile with trailer in
tow and headed south.
After weeks of driving on the
unpaved roads that were typical outside city limits in 1934, Bill's old Hupmobile had reached it's limit and stranded them hours from Annie’s relatives’ house, but just a few miles from Daytona.
Due to their financial state, they decided to stay in
Daytona for a time. Bill picked up odds and ends jobs again, painting houses and
fixing cars. That spring Saxton Lloyd, a
28 year old local car dealer who owned Daytona Motors, hired him to sell cars. Soon Bill's reputation grew as not only a heck of a salesman, but also as one of the
“go to” mechanics. With his 6' 5" frame, he eventually earned the nickname, "Big Bill". Being the salesman he was, within a year he was able to convince Saxton Lloyd to invest
in his dream, to own his own gas and service station, and without much ado, the Bill France Amoco
station was born.
The year was 1935, and Bill was only 25 years old. He was sure
he would be able to build his business on the Land Speed Races, which had been held on the beach every year since 1902. In late February, early March, hundreds of tourists would descend on Daytona to witness the record breaking events. Bill already knew more about cars than most people in the town and had earned a strong and respectable reputation. That first year in business, many racers and tourists alike rallied at Bill's Amoco to talk racing, compare cars and discuss the ground breaking changes happening within the automotive industry. Many of those early acquaintances became life long friendships.
Two such friends were a couple of young racing enthusiasts from Atlanta Georgia who happened through Bill's shop during the 1935 race week, Red Vogt and Ray Parks.
Red and Ray were car enthusiasts who supplied modified stock cars to the bootleggers in Georgia. With the police always on their tail, a faster car was essential to those young moonshine trippers, but they also were winning on the dirt track races all around the south as well, where they competed more for bragging rights than the purses. Those early stock car drivers were teenagers, impetuous dare-devils, whose moonshining families would bet money on their boys to win on those dirt tracks. Speakeasies paid attention to those races as well. Nothing was worse for a bar than to run out of booze because a bootlegger got arrested on his way to deliver. Cash money was tossed around on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights by anyone who knew anyone in the moonshine business, which was virtually everyone.
A bootlegger could always outrun the
police if his 1932 Ford was modified by a mechanic like Red Vogt, and on the
track, a Red Vogt car win was common place. He suped up most of the cars for those dirt tracks. But the true winner was determined not as much by the type or model of car driven, as it was by the driving skills of the young bootleggers themselves, and those drivers were the "rock stars" of the south.
In the fall of that year, as fate would have it, it was announced that the Land Speed Racing would
be moving to the salt flats of Utah the following year. The salt flats were predictable and not
subject to the ebbing tides and inevitable southern storms that would leave the
beaches of Daytona littered with debris. The manicuring of the beaches alone could
take hours and in many instances delay the onset of a race until the next day
or longer. But it was Sir Walter Campbell, who blamed the rough beach for his inability to hit 300 miles per hour that year that convinced the organization to relocate.
1905
Two such friends were a couple of young racing enthusiasts from Atlanta Georgia who happened through Bill's shop during the 1935 race week, Red Vogt and Ray Parks.
Red and Ray were car enthusiasts who supplied modified stock cars to the bootleggers in Georgia. With the police always on their tail, a faster car was essential to those young moonshine trippers, but they also were winning on the dirt track races all around the south as well, where they competed more for bragging rights than the purses. Those early stock car drivers were teenagers, impetuous dare-devils, whose moonshining families would bet money on their boys to win on those dirt tracks. Speakeasies paid attention to those races as well. Nothing was worse for a bar than to run out of booze because a bootlegger got arrested on his way to deliver. Cash money was tossed around on Sunday afternoons and Wednesday nights by anyone who knew anyone in the moonshine business, which was virtually everyone.
Ray Parks
The move to Utah meant that a great many of Bill’s
customers, the speed racers and their fans, would not be returning that next year
and his newly opened business was now in jeopardy. But his business wasn’t the only
one that was destined to suffer; hotels, restaurants, retail stores and virtually every
business establishment in Daytona was at risk as the town had been built up
around that one event, which would bring in enough income in that 2 week period to carry many business through the entire year.
Having already endeared himself in the community of Daytona, Big Bill offered to help organize a different event, a class of racing
that was guaranteed to bring hundreds of families to Daytona and
possibly keep his small station in business another year or so. That event was
the modified stock car racing that Red and Ray were supporting all around the south.
Bill was familiar with the circuit of “outlaws” that raced those modified stock cars, since his own youth had been spent in much the same way. Bootlegging was a thriving business back in the late twenties and early thirties and Bill himself had run with that crowd when money was short and the driving was easy.
Bill was familiar with the circuit of “outlaws” that raced those modified stock cars, since his own youth had been spent in much the same way. Bootlegging was a thriving business back in the late twenties and early thirties and Bill himself had run with that crowd when money was short and the driving was easy.
Although considered to be a "lower class" pass-time, in desperation, the town of Daytona agreed to back the event in hopes it would encourage tourism for yet another year until they could figure out what to do next. They asked Sig Haugdahl, a well respected champion speed racer himself, to
help organize the event, in hopes he could attract some of the more elite race enthusiasts that had been their bread and butter for so many years.
Sig designed the track, which
ran 1½ miles south down highway A1A, made a sharp left hand turn onto the
beach at the south end, cutting through the dunes and Palmetto bushes, out onto
the wide sand and back up another 1½ miles where it turned left again and back
onto the highway.
Where Land Speed Racing was a straight course designed for optimum speed, this Beach and Road course was designed to test driving skills. Bill organized young drivers from all over the south, through Red and Ray, and Sig got a few of his speed racer friends to compete as well. A total of 27 cars entered that first race, held on March 8th, 1936.
1940's
The event was a huge success in attendance, but the one thing no one had prepared for was the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the crowd that would come. Hundreds of family members came from all over the south to watch their kin folk compete, and these were people who had survived the Great Depression in their own way, by living outside the law. Most had little money and were not about to pay .50¢ to see their own sons, nephews and brothers drive in races. So with tents in tow, hundreds of onlookers pitched their tents on the beach at the south turn, thereby avoiding the entry fee. In turn the town of Daytona lost over $20,000 that year in sponsorship money due to few ticket sales and fewer sold out hotel rooms. It made for a very costly event.
Bill himself drove in that race and had the time of his
life. Huge crowds cheered him on as he finished the race in 5th place. Some little known driver from New York actually won the race that year, Marion
Milton, and although the event itself turned out to be a financial disaster, Bill was hooked.
Angry with Sig and Bill for not organizing a more profitable event,
the town refused to sponsor it for a second year. Bill France saw
opportunity though and talked Sig into doing it again the following year. They convinced the
Elks club to sponsor the event and that year Bill barricaded off the beach two days in advance,
increased the ticket price to $1.00 and asked AAA to sanction the event. Again it
was a huge success in measured attendance but Bill and Sig ended up pocketing
only $100.00 each for all their hard work. That was the last year that the
disgruntled Sig would involve himself, too much work for too little money.
Bill, on the other hand, saw great potential. With a little
bit of tweaking he knew this was a money-maker and he was not willing to give
up yet. His service station thrived in those couple of weeks of racing, and with
another child on the way in 1937, he was determined to turn this new sport into
the biggest yearly family event Daytona had ever seen.
The following year, in 1938, Bill organized the events
himself with the help of Charlie Reese who put up the purse. He promoted the race through southern dirt track owners and solicited Red and Ray to
find him the fastest and best drivers to compete. after convincing AAA to promote through
their own membership as well, Bill put on two events that year, one in July and one over Labor
Day weekend. He raised the ticket price again to $1.50, and that infamous year
Bill France and Charlie Reese pocketed close to $20,000 each. That kind of money in 1938 was riches
beyond belief to a man who, just three years earlier, had arrived in Daytona
with only $100 to his name, and on top of that, it was all cash!
In 1939 and 1940, Bill upped the stakes and promoted three
races in each of those years, one each in March, July and September. Bill
himself raced in those events and was making a name for himself not only as a promoter, but as
a hell of a driver as well. He was one of the boys and treated all who drove in
his races as family. It was after all a family sport. Cousins, uncles, brothers
and sisters all either raced or knew who was racing and the families came out
by the hundreds.
By 1940, as word got out, Daytona became the ultimate mile
stone test in driving skills. If you hadn’t driven the Daytona Beach and Road
Course, you no longer had any bragging rights as a bootlegger or race driver.
The track was treacherous in the south turn as stock cars collided and flipped
and side slid through the dunes before reaching the flat hard sands of the
beach. Anyone who survived that south turn for the 78th time to make it
to the finish line was either one lucky son of a bitch or the best driver there
was.
Oh, but there's SO much more to the story!... In 1941, WWll turned most of the car manufacturer's into military vehicle manufacturers and Bill France himself worked at the Daytona Boat Works where submarine chasers were being built. Car racing came to a complete halt. Many of the young drivers enlisted in the military and some returned from war, and some didn't. By the time the war ended in 1945, many of the tracks, including the Beach and Road track, were in severe disrepair from the years of neglect. This initiated an even bigger dream for Big Bill - the establishing of NASCAR and the building of the Daytona 500 Speedway - the Indy of the South.
1948 - 1954
Red Byron - 1948
1952
