Like a Freight Train . . .
In 1952, the New York Yankees won the World Series over the Brooklyn Dodgers 4-3; and on the car front, the first Corvette prototype was finished and shown the next year at the General Motors 1953 Motorama show in New York City. Just four years earlier, in 1948, the newly formed National Association 32
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for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) hosted its first race at Daytona Beach. The winner, Red Byron, began racing before serving in World War II as a flight engineer on B-24 Liberator bombers. Not to be deterred by a war injury, Byron raced and won until health issues forced his retirement from the driver’s seat in 1951. He remained active helping others
in the auto racing realm. While these events were monumental in different ways, on the local New River Valley scene, a naturallyshaped, dirt, oval piece of ground on a farm in Pulaski County began hosting car races. Many a weekend evening was spent under the stars, driving, fixing, watching, cheering and enjoying the
May/June 2021
