Recalling Daytona's early days

NOTE: NASCAR Chairman William C. France contributes a monthly column to NASCAR.com.

			William France, NASCAR Chairman

Someone asked me recently what I remembered about Speedweeks from back in the days when the races were actually run on the beach here. To be honest, it's not all that easy to remember. That was a long time ago.

I was just a kid, but there's a few things I remember.

By today's standards, you couldn't refer to those races on the beach as Speedweek or Speedweeks because the main highway that was used (A1A) as part of the course couldn't be shut down for any long period of time. It was the only thoroughfare on the south end of the beach, so it was closed only at race time.

By most accounts I've seen, the original beach and road course was laid out by Norwegian speedster Sig Haugdahl, whose name was somewhat of a household word among speed enthusiasts of that day.

Haugdahl was famous because he was the first driver to exceed three miles a minute (180 miles an hour) in an automobile on the beach. Haugdahl measured a mile and a half distance on A1A and then cut through the sand dunes and came back north on the beach another mile and a half.

Another thing I remember is how important experience was for the drivers. Those who had raced on the beach-and-road course before had a tremendous advantage because they knew what to expect. Drivers didn't get to practice in those early days. The complete racing course wouldn't be open until race time.

Qualifying was done on the beach in straight runs. The drivers didn't go through the turns or down A1A until the green flag dropped on the race. Most people today just assume they qualified by running a lap or two laps or whatever just like the guys qualify today. Not so back then. Qualifying was done on the beach and they timed the cars, with a running start, over a specified distance, usually a mile, from what I've read. I've always assumed that is where the term "Flying Mile" came from.

I think Joe Littlejohn, one of our pioneer drivers and promoters from Spartanburg, S. C., was the first driver to average more than 100 miles an hour in qualifying for the race on the beach. Littlejohn was the promoter at the Spartanburg Fairgrounds half-mile dirt track for years and is a member of the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame (located at Darlington raceway), along with my father, William H. G. (Big Bill) France, who was a pretty good driver in his day.

Other NASCAR pioneers helped pave the way for the rest of us on the sands of Daytona Beach, guys like Lloyd Seay, Bill Snowden, Charlie Reese, Roy Hall, the Flocks and others. There's no way I could name them all.

Speed didn't necessarily mean that much on the old beach and road course because the turns were just cut through the sand dunes. They would get so rough during the race people would have to slow down if they didn't want to wreck. The races were more endurance runs than speed runs, although I do remember how exciting it was to watch the cars roar down the beach.

The starts of those races were exciting because drivers never knew how the sand was going to be in the turns. And, sooner or later, they knew the ruts were going to be pretty deep. Even though we tried to bank the turns some, the sand was so soft the ruts would just get deeper and deeper as the race went on.

As a result, the turns were always the most exciting places to watch the race. We had wreckers there to pull the guys out of the ruts if they got stuck and it wasn't uncommon for a car to roll over several times, get turned back over on its wheels and crank up and continue the race.

Some of the race cars, believe it or not, weren't able to start the races from time to time. Not from mechanical problems or anything of that nature. They couldn't start the races because they didn't make it to the beach in time.

They got caught in traffic coming from the mainland side of town and sometimes missed the start of the race. (The cars were passenger cars and the drivers drove their cars to the races. This is where the term stock car racing came from. Stock meant stock, right off the showroom floor.)

A1A was not only part of the race course, it was also the only road leading in and out, for drivers, mechanics, officials and spectators and some of those races right before the war drew some big crowds (upwards of 15,000 spectators according to press reports.) Actually, some fans would exit A1A onto the beach well north of the course and others drove further down A1A and drove onto the beach at the south turn. Many of the fans parked on the beach, sometimes three, four and five deep.

The races had to be "timed" with the tides because you certainly couldn't run the races during high tide. Normally, we had about a six-hour window to get the races run. We had to allow time to get the spectators and their cars off the beach, as well as get the races completed. As the years went by and the crowds grew, we had to shorten the distance of the race because it took us longer to get the spectators off the beach before the tide came back in.

Actually, as the tide would start coming back in, drivers would have to change their line heading north on the beach. If they didn't move their line, as the tide started coming back in, they would have wound up in the drink. And, from time to time, some did wind up in the surf.

I actually worked the races after the war when I was older and part of my responsibility was to try to keep spectators from sneaking in without paying. One of the things we did to keep people from sneaking over the sand dunes where we might not see them was put out signs in those areas that said, "Danger, Beware of Rattlesnakes."

People have asked me from time to time what the purses were for those races on the beach and I remember $100 being paid one time for first place. I don't remember what year that was but that was a lot of money back then.

Another thing I remember from way back is something my father said then that still holds true today. He said, 'Stock car racing is the one sport where the automobile is the equalizer as far as physical abilities. In basketball, the tall guy has advantages. In football, it's the bigger fellow that has an edge.

"In racing, your size has nothing to do with how successful you are." That was true then and it's true today.

The beach and road races were a colorful and integral part of NASCAR's history and the pioneers who participated back then should be given just as much credit as anyone for the success NASCAR enjoys today. The beach and road races played a major role in getting my father and his friends off to a great start in creating this sport all of America recognizes today.