0:00

Hey, voice assistant, programar cuarto

0:03

nuevo. E specificar el cuarto de la

0:05

casa. A ti co. Solo

0:07

puedo agregar cuartos con interre... O díso,

0:09

a ura que tenemos AT&T offa y

0:11

eso mos gigiionarios, hay covertura de skinna

0:14

esquina. ¡A celático. Brec

0:16

alculando. A ura

0:18

con AT&T offa, agregar wifi de

0:20

skinna esquina. Opten AT&T fiber con

0:22

offa y vive como gigiionario. Disponibilidad

0:24

un imitada la covertura rexpensores por

0:26

un cargaricional. Hi,

0:30

everyone. Titus O'Reilly here before we

0:33

get into another crazy sports story.

0:35

If you love sports bazaar, you love

0:38

Mick and me talking absolute nonsense, then

0:40

you're going to love Bazaar Plus. It's

0:42

our membership program. As part

0:44

of it, you get a bonus episode every

0:46

week. It means you get sports bazaar on

0:49

a Monday, animal bazaar on a Wednesday, and

0:51

you get a bonus episode every Thursday. You

0:54

also get a heap of other things as well.

0:56

So if you're interested in Bazaar Plus, look in

0:58

the show notes. We've got a link there and

1:00

we would love to see you over there. It's

1:06

sports bazaar. Get into it. Some of

1:08

these stories you would say that cannot

1:10

be true. I'm fine to ask. The

1:12

hunt for the weirdest. This is madness.

1:15

Demarca class and how not to do

1:17

things. The most ambraid-skeek over and over.

1:19

Strangers. Oh, wow. You can't make

1:21

this up. Things are only going to get

1:23

more bonkers. Most unbelievable. Most

1:26

genius thing I've ever heard.

1:28

You say evil. I say

1:30

brilliant. Stories to ever occur.

1:32

An unparalleled array of deadbeats. A

1:34

mecca for colourful characters. In the

1:36

world of sports. Had a taste for testicle

1:38

soup. Can I just stop you for a

1:40

second? Don't act like you've never done this.

1:42

Spots bazaar. Open his mouth and a sparrow

1:44

flew out. Sweat face down with

1:47

a compass to make sure that his head

1:49

was pointing north. He had so many sixes

1:51

into the members that they retrieved him to

1:53

the bar. I'd better lie down after that.

1:55

It's time for the leaders of the hunt.

1:57

It's 10 cent beer night at the Vol

1:59

Bar. It's Titus O'Reilly

2:01

and Mick Malloy. Buenos

2:04

dias amigos. And

2:08

welcome to the latest episode

2:10

of Sports Bazaar. I'm back.

2:13

I'm wearing a poncho. I'm

2:16

back from Colombia. I'm snaking a cigar and

2:18

I'm breaking all the rules because you're good to have

2:20

me back, isn't it? It's great to have you back.

2:22

Great to see you. Well, I should say

2:24

my last words before you left for Colombia. For those that

2:26

don't know, Mick has been in Colombia. It's

2:29

been nice knowing you. So I

2:31

lost a lot of money on you returning. Well,

2:34

I bought you something, but it hasn't worked

2:36

its way through my system yet. So you're

2:38

going to have to wait until I go

2:41

to the talk. You're going to like it.

2:43

What a great place. Well, I think there's

2:46

a lot done back in the year. Can

2:48

we do an episode for our members on

2:50

Colombia? We could definitely do that. I would

2:52

like to talk you through everything that's happening

2:55

in the greatest country. We

2:57

do a bonus episode for the members. They love that.

3:00

When you pull up the real story of when you pull up to

3:02

the pub and there's horses tied up at the

3:04

front. And when you walk in, there's

3:06

guys throwing gunpowder at each other. Really?

3:08

You go, oh, I'll make yourself at home. There's

3:10

a bar stool with my name. I

3:13

was about to say the jokes wrote themselves. You've been

3:15

in Colombia over here. People were right. I

3:17

did an interview with Jackie Epstein from the

3:19

Herald-Sattler. Okay. Yeah, indeed. I was

3:21

provided my show and she said, I hear Mick's not

3:24

around. And at this point it

3:26

hadn't been announced where you were. It was being built

3:28

up as where's he gone. And I knew,

3:30

but I didn't want to. So I said, it's going

3:32

to be a bit of a disappointment when they find

3:34

him in an Armandale cafe. But

3:37

then it came through. I was on the phone with her that

3:39

you're in Colombia. And everyone was like,

3:41

wow, like really? A load of fun.

3:44

It's good to be back. Very

3:47

good to have you back. We did miss you. Sarah and

3:49

I, we, for our members, we hung in there bravely. What

3:51

have you done in my absence? Well,

3:54

we actually, and this is for everyone. I don't

3:56

know. We announced a new tournament we're running. Which

3:59

is histories. worst teammates. Okay.

4:01

So we put out the call on social

4:04

and to the members on the discord.

4:06

That's a good one. And chat room for members

4:08

of people to make nominations. And now what's going

4:11

to happen is- They're flooding in?

4:13

Well, yeah, I had like 400 on what, like suggestions in

4:15

like the first 10 minutes. Right.

4:18

It's ridiculous. Members are going to be able to

4:20

vote on it. So if you're not a member,

4:22

this is an opportunity to go and join Bazaar

4:24

Plus. The final four, we'll do a podcast available

4:27

for everyone. Such a tournament. We'll do a tournament

4:29

and we'll announce the winner of who's history's worst

4:31

teammate. Now, have you got one example for us?

4:33

I can tell you some of the ones that

4:35

the big nominations came in. My favorite, someone nominated

4:38

Judas. Judas had

4:40

a shocker. Yeah.

4:42

They said he was history's worst

4:44

teammate. I thought, well, that's a

4:46

good point. Someone else said it

4:48

was John Candy for putting weights

4:50

in his team's bobsled. And

4:52

I'm like, no, I think that's cool ruddings.

4:54

That's not a- It's fictional? But

4:56

the one that came out of left, not left field, but

4:59

I'd forgotten a bit about it is lay down Sally. Sally

5:01

Robbins. Oh, what a ripper. So a lot of people nominated-

5:03

She's had a bad day at the office. Yeah, she's a

5:05

bad day. I wouldn't be going to any of the reunions

5:07

if I was her. No. That got

5:09

nominated a lot. In fact, I wouldn't get anywhere near a

5:11

regatta. No. I don't, I think

5:14

she would be- No, that's right. Getting

5:16

a bit of stink eye. Oh, they were

5:18

not happy. The teammates were not happy. It's

5:20

not like Ro has trained hard. No, no.

5:23

But the thing about it too is not like they

5:25

have to get up early every morning in the freezing

5:27

cold. That's a good

5:29

one for us to do another time is the

5:32

most uncomfortable sport to play or train for. Because

5:34

some sports are indoors. You can,

5:36

you know, like darts, I would say is

5:38

a very comfortable sport. Comfy. You

5:41

can balance a pot- A lifestyle

5:43

balance? Yeah, where I

5:45

think, you know, swimming, rowing- Swimming, horrific.

5:47

Rowing, you know, if you ever go

5:49

near a gym tightest. No.

5:52

Stay away from the rowing machine. That's

5:55

the one that'll- That'll do you in. I

5:59

just avoid them all the time. They

8:00

were ready to go. They were back on.

8:02

Well, people were desperate. Putting the tarps off

8:04

cars. Yeah. They were all like.

8:06

Tooling up in the shed. Yeah. Let's

8:08

get back into it. Right. So

8:10

this was Atlanta again who'd had a huge, huge

8:12

crowd before and taken over from Daytona as the

8:14

thing. Yeah. They announced

8:17

that they're having this big thing and a huge crowd

8:19

turns up about 30,000 plus

8:21

turn up. It's described as

8:23

a sweating howling crowd by

8:26

a reporter at the time. Right. Because

8:29

in the days leading up to the

8:31

race, Atlanta's Methodist and Baptist ministers had

8:33

teamed up and publicly denounced the race

8:36

and saying that acknowledged criminals are cast

8:38

in the roles of heroes. So they

8:40

decided to come out against the bootleggers.

8:43

They knew all these drivers were bootleggers

8:46

who ran. Everyone knows this, right?

8:48

It's common knowledge. It's common knowledge, but they're because

8:50

a lot of them have been arrested before too.

8:52

So it's on the public. One of them turned

8:54

up to drive, didn't they? It was on the

8:56

run. Yeah, that was Roy Hall

8:58

when he was on the run. When

9:01

Lloyd said he turned up to

9:03

his testimonial, right? So

9:05

the Atlanta Journal, the local newspaper,

9:07

it also picks up on this

9:09

campaign and it starts saying Lakewood

9:12

Racetrack is owned by the city. So they

9:14

say, why are you letting those people race

9:16

here? They're bootleggers. You're encouraging this. They race

9:18

the cops every like during the week and

9:21

then you let them. What a nanny state.

9:23

Yeah. Totally. And

9:25

they said that they shouldn't allow some

9:28

of the more notorious racketeers of liquor

9:30

running to compete in a shocking display

9:32

of bad taste was how that editorial

9:34

wrote it. Eventually, the mayor

9:37

and city police start to feel the

9:39

pressure of this campaign, right? And

9:41

as Labor Day announces, the mayor

9:43

leaks the name of five underworld

9:45

rats. That's how they term it

9:47

back in the day. And

9:49

one of them is reckless Roy Hall. So he's

9:52

named in the paper as one of these bootleggers

9:54

who's allowed to race at these things. So

9:56

the Labor Day race

9:58

going ahead. And a few

10:00

of the ones named decide not to show up. I

10:02

think this might be trouble. Roy Hall, of course, does

10:04

show up. He doesn't care.

10:06

Right. He doesn't care. He's like, if he

10:09

misses fun. And part of the

10:11

reason the police are so angry at him

10:13

specifically, and they're very keen to

10:15

stop those guys racing is

10:17

they're chasing these guys all around and never catching

10:19

them half the time. And they're getting sick of

10:21

it and they see

10:24

him being awarded by the crowd.

10:26

And they're like, this guy's not

10:28

even, yeah, exactly. So before

10:31

the race, a few weeks before the

10:33

race, there was an illegal drag race

10:35

for moonshiners, right? This

10:37

is like the what sprint event. Yeah. And so it was

10:39

sort of, no one knew about it. It was on. So

10:43

red void, the mechanic had shown up to see how

10:45

Roy Hall's car went that he did working on it.

10:47

Yeah, he was working on it. So he's still the

10:49

best in the business. You got

10:51

all that sort of stuff. And it was this

10:53

huge race along the Beauford highway, which is unpaved.

10:56

And one driver lost control crashed and was

10:59

killed. So the police were very

11:01

like, this is very dangerous what you're doing.

11:03

And they knew that Roy Hall was one

11:05

of the key guys that arranged it. And

11:07

they also knew that he won the race, but

11:10

they all got away, right? And this guy

11:12

died. So they were all like, this is another

11:14

reason. Now you got to remember Roy Hall's been

11:17

arrested in the last

11:19

eight years, 16 times by

11:21

police, right on

11:24

liquor charges, lottery charges. Remember you

11:26

helped run the illegal lottery. Driving

11:28

charges and had spent more than a

11:31

year behind bars of various charges, right?

11:33

His driver's license has been revoked years

11:35

ago. So he's doing all this without

11:37

a driver's license, right? So

11:39

they were just fed up with him. When

11:41

Ray Parks, who was his older cousin who ran

11:44

all the moonshining, when he went off to war

11:47

and with his cousin Sade, Roy

11:49

Hall just became even

11:51

more loose. Right. Right. If that was

11:53

possible. Parks had said he was

11:55

going to mind a friend's roadster and put it

11:57

in a locked garage and. Hall

12:00

would break in while the wall was on and steal it.

12:03

So he's even doing that. So he's, Parkes, the

12:05

spared of him, even though he's his uncle, but

12:07

he kept helping him out. So

12:09

when this all happens, this all comes in

12:11

and even the newspapers start doing stuff saying,

12:13

why wasn't Hall in the army? He

12:16

should have been in the army. Why

12:18

was he let off? And no one really gets

12:20

the ball of why. It's like he just fell

12:22

through the cracks or something, right? Of not going.

12:24

I'm going to say flat feet. It seems to

12:27

be the best option. Flat. Everyone

12:29

gets out. Donald Trump. Wasn't that flat feet? Yeah.

12:32

You don't really hear of flat feet. Maybe it could,

12:35

you know, a proper condition. I don't think it is,

12:37

but I think, you know, with modern footwear, you

12:41

shouldn't have that problem. So what happens is

12:44

this all builds up this campaign. So Roy

12:47

shows up anyway at Lakewood in Atlanta

12:49

for this race, first race after the

12:51

war, and there's 30,000 fans there. And

12:55

suddenly the loudspeaker opens up and says,

12:58

anyone who has been charged with bootlegging

13:00

and found guilty before is not allowed

13:02

a race. And this is why the

13:05

fans are all in the stands. The

13:08

police and the mayor. So they get

13:10

on the loudspeaker wall, the crowd of 30,000 in

13:12

the minutes ahead of the race. So suddenly

13:14

the 30,000 crowd lose it. And

13:18

they start chanting, we want Hall, we want

13:20

Hall. Cause they just have come to see

13:22

rep. That's not a popular call on the

13:24

track on the day. Terrible.

13:26

It's boiling hot. Everyone's like, you've had the

13:28

war. Everyone just wants to get back into

13:30

racing. Roy Hall's the most, and the fact

13:33

police hate him just makes him more popular,

13:35

right? With the fans. Elvis

13:37

won't be singing today. It's

13:39

exactly what do you mean?

13:43

Yeah. It's a bit, you know what? The only thing

13:45

I can think of is if two minutes before the

13:47

start of an Ears to a concert, they said Taylor

13:49

Swift is not allowed on stage. Like

13:52

that would be the closest. Imagine

13:54

that in that room, they would tear

13:56

that stadium to pieces and be

13:59

pretty mean on so. social media. Oh

14:01

yeah, that'd be like TikToks alone. So

14:05

the crowd's about to riot. So suddenly

14:07

the police are going Jesus Christ. And

14:10

yeah, and the race advisors are going and the mayor's

14:12

office are involved and they're all just saying, we

14:15

got to do something because this is not going

14:17

to work. And finally they say, okay, we'll

14:20

back down. We'll let

14:22

Roy Hall and all the other bootleggers race. The

14:25

crowd cheers, right? Two

14:28

hours later than it was meant to start, the race is

14:30

about to go away. Now the problem is because of this,

14:32

I'm guessing there would have been a bit of moonshine available.

14:34

Yeah, yeah, the crowd was licking up. So

14:38

the problem is Roy Hall hasn't been out because of all

14:40

this, well, he won't be allowed to race. He

14:42

doesn't do qualifying. So he has

14:45

to start second last and

14:47

Bill France, who from Daytona, who's

14:49

the promoter and the racer, he

14:51

hasn't run moonshine himself. So he

14:54

qualifies on pole. And

14:57

Roy Hall's right down the back. Surely he can't

15:00

win from there. Well he starts in 13th place

15:02

and they say for 50 miles, he averaged a

15:05

mile a minute, which the paper

15:07

the next day says a speed far tamer than

15:09

police say is set in liquor chases. So

15:12

they're shitty even the next day. Hall

15:15

passed everyone who started ahead of including France

15:17

and just leads for the rest of the

15:20

race and wins. And people are just like

15:22

cheering and everything. The problem is

15:24

in the aftermath of this

15:26

and he's embarrassed them just so much

15:28

in doing this and winning and everything

15:30

that went down is

15:33

Atlanta announces that from now on,

15:35

if you were racing in Atlanta,

15:37

you cannot have a criminal record.

15:40

And this means that the best

15:43

drivers for NASCAR or the stock

15:45

car racing can't race

15:47

in Atlanta anymore. So

15:49

for Bill France in Daytona, this

15:51

is great news. This puts him

15:53

back as the number one race

15:55

Daytona rates. So this is like

15:57

he's not there. No passing similar.

16:00

No, so there it's only in Atlanta that they

16:02

have these laws. What an own goal. Massive own

16:04

goal from a racing point of view. So

16:07

Bill France suddenly says, well, he

16:10

thought I've lost out to

16:12

Atlanta. Now he's suddenly Ray Parks and

16:15

Red Voight and all those Atlanta guys.

16:18

And they have to go and start racing

16:20

for his promotions. So it's a huge moment.

16:22

Handed to him on a platter. On a

16:24

platter. So just can't believe he's like, right?

16:26

You sure he didn't engineer it? Well, I

16:28

think he wouldn't. He wasn't in the year

16:30

because that's a perfect play. It was a

16:32

perfect play. But no, I don't think he's

16:34

got a bunch of moments in his life

16:36

where it's like luck. Just right

16:38

place. Which happens to everyone right. If he's really successful,

16:41

usually I want to move to you. Gee, if it

16:43

had gone the other way, I would have been. So

16:46

suddenly he is thinking

16:48

about promoting races more and

16:50

more and racing less and

16:52

less. So he basically says, I'm going to quit

16:54

racing to go full time promotional. This is Bill

16:56

France. I'm not Daytona, but I want to build

16:58

up other courses, other tracks.

17:01

I want to promote around the whole

17:03

of the South and even expand big.

17:05

He's got big plans. He's studying obsessively.

17:08

They say the American Automobile Association, which

17:10

is the big one. They

17:12

run the Indy 500 and they run

17:14

the open wheel racing and they're the

17:16

respectable kind of ones. They're

17:19

fans of middle to upper class men

17:21

who wear suits and bowlers, all that

17:23

sort of stuff. They're

17:25

not the Southern guys. Now

17:28

falling into his lap once again, he's

17:30

just seen Atlanta off. The

17:33

American Automobile Association come out after

17:35

the war and they say, we're

17:38

getting out of stock car racing. We don't want a part

17:40

of it. They say the contest board

17:42

is bitterly opposed to what we call

17:45

junk car events. He's

17:47

not only had Atlanta vacate the field. This is still

17:49

very viable though, isn't it? It seems

17:51

to be a load of people are still going to

17:54

the seas. But they are just, it's total strawberry. It's

17:57

total like these are redneck Southerners. We

18:00

don't want that. We're cutting your loose.

18:02

We're cutting your loose. So suddenly Bill

18:04

Francis in this position where Atlanta are

18:06

gone and the most powerful motoring body

18:08

don't want anything to do with stock

18:10

car racing. So it's like it's all

18:12

open to some. All roads lead to

18:14

Daytona at this point. Yeah. And

18:17

it's, there are other competitors and he's got to kind of,

18:19

but he's like, he can see a vision of someone needs

18:21

to step in here and organize the whole thing. So

18:24

he starts looking at the way of

18:26

doing it right. He creates what's called

18:28

the national championship stock car circuit, which

18:31

is the NCS double C doesn't

18:33

roll off the tongue. Right.

18:35

But he starts that he starts taking out

18:37

ads in racing trade papers, billing himself as

18:40

the largest operator of stock car racing throughout

18:42

the country. He's really promoting himself, right?

18:45

To set of rules and regulations to govern

18:47

the sports. He does all of that. That'd

18:49

be pretty loose. I reckon. Landers anything to

18:51

go. Just to get the top drivers to

18:54

come and often more money also

18:56

comes up with this idea. Cause there's all these different

18:58

promoters at this point across the country.

19:01

Yeah. And I'm sure at

19:03

the South he comes in the idea of if you

19:05

race for his organization, each

19:07

race, you accumulate points and

19:09

whoever at the end of the season, there's

19:12

the most points we'll get a big payoff

19:14

of over a thousand dollars. So this encourages

19:16

people to not to race in his that's

19:18

right. And not going right. I'm going in other

19:20

places, which has been a problem all the time.

19:23

So he's got all that going on.

19:25

And so he's finally got this early

19:28

kind of proto tour circuit going on.

19:30

Now one problem he does has is Roy

19:33

Hall has come to him after Atlanta is

19:35

shut down and is the number one

19:37

most exciting driver. But in 1946, he

19:39

finally goes off the edge. So

19:44

the night after a race, police come to

19:47

a local hotel where he is and he's

19:49

staying with a racer from Atlanta named J.R.

19:51

Walden and another guy, Walter Leonard, who

19:54

the newspapers described as an

19:56

Atlanta produce dealer, which really

19:58

meant moonshine. They'd

20:00

been in a race, they're in this hotel, the

20:02

police arrived at the King Cotton Hotel and

20:04

they want to pick up Hall and take him to

20:06

Atlanta for various charges. But one of the charges is

20:09

a $40,000 bank robbery. So

20:13

Hall has gone right off the deep end. He's gone

20:15

for... He has done it. He's done it,

20:17

yeah. He's a suspect at

20:19

this point, but he's done it. Yeah, we don't mind you pushing

20:21

the envelope. Yeah, this is... We already hated

20:23

you, now you're robbing banks. Now you're robbing banks. And

20:26

$40,000 back then is a lot of money, right?

20:29

So they knock on Hall's hotel room around 1 and

20:31

he and his friends are in there and they're all

20:34

awake and having fun and playing cards and drinking and

20:36

all that sort of stuff. And the

20:38

police begin questioning Hall and his two friends and Hall

20:40

says, I don't know who these two men are. He

20:45

just says, I don't know, they are. The police are like,

20:47

you're hanging out with them. They're in the

20:49

hotel room. I have no clue who these men are. While

20:53

they were doing this, the cops arrest or say, well, we're

20:55

going to arrest all three. And as

20:57

they're moving them into the patrol

21:00

car out front, J.R. Walden,

21:02

the racer from Atlanta, he does a runner and

21:05

the police pull out their gun and try and shoot him as

21:07

he flees and he goes down and they

21:09

think they've shot him, but he's tripped at the

21:11

same time and he picks up

21:13

and runs off and escapes, right? The

21:16

police later discovered that Walden has only

21:18

recently escaped from a Georgia prison. So

21:21

there's something like, well, you're hanging out with a fugitive

21:23

to Hall. That's not good. Yeah.

21:25

And they issue a description for the escape

21:28

prisoner. I'm just going to read you

21:30

what they write. They say the

21:32

escape prisoner bearing the appearance of a

21:34

hillbilly. That

21:38

narrows it down. That narrows it down a

21:40

lot. I think I

21:42

saw him. It reminds me of that one in The Simpsons

21:44

where Chief Wiggin goes, suspect is Atlas.

21:47

I repeat, is not wearing a hat.

21:51

It's like that level of like absolute

21:53

hopelessness. Like he, the, his, the appearance

21:55

of a hillbilly. I like the one

21:57

from Saturday Night Live where they had

21:59

a. a police sketch

22:01

artist, the Unabomber, but

22:04

he was so bad. He just

22:06

kept adding woods and sunglasses and

22:08

stuff. He didn't have to concentrate

22:10

on his facial fingers. Alright, I

22:13

think he's wearing a hood and

22:15

and shummy. Because that Unabomber one,

22:20

it could be anyone could

22:22

be anyone. The point

22:24

was that's a really, it's great. I

22:26

tried to remember that that actual the

22:28

actual one it was so bad. He

22:30

was a good guy. It's understood. We've

22:32

all written a manifesto. Am I right,

22:34

fellas? We've all taken a

22:36

cabin in the woods. In the woods. Hey, it's

22:38

I can totally see it in your future. Your

22:43

manifesto will be about how we should be

22:46

loading the drinking age. Hall

22:51

goes back to Atlanta and he's

22:53

charged with the bank robbery and

22:55

betting a desperate criminal. Yeah. And

22:57

he's sentenced to six years in

22:59

prison for his role in the

23:01

bank robbery and all these other. He is

23:03

suddenly he's out of action. They've lost their Yeah,

23:06

their number one driver. So

23:09

that's a big blow. But while

23:12

this is all happening to dominant

23:14

groups sort of emerge to try

23:17

and take over stock

23:19

car racing. So there's of course,

23:21

Francis NC s double

23:23

C and even at the time everyone's

23:25

writing about how there's too many acronyms.

23:27

So don't try and remember all these

23:30

every one. I'm just just

23:32

you know, there's not a test. But even

23:34

at the time everyone's going it all the

23:37

drivers are going I don't know who I'm

23:39

even racing for. The other group was the

23:41

National Championship Stock Racing Association the NC SRA.

23:43

Now it's run by a bunch

23:45

of people but Sam newness and Wayman

23:47

Millam who they're based in Atlanta. They're

23:50

trying to continue on with Atlanta without

23:52

bootleggers. Yeah, which they can do but

23:54

they don't have the best of the

23:56

best races all the time. It's magic

23:58

to band and its roots. Yeah. Exactly.

24:00

But they are quite good promoters and they're... Those will

24:02

be racing their mum's car. Come

24:05

on guys. It's like an e-scooter race. Come on.

24:09

It's like when they're introduced electric. They

24:11

can't be racing that. So

24:14

there's all these other smaller groups too, but

24:16

they're the two big ones, Francis and Nunez's

24:19

and Wayman's. They're sort of game. And

24:21

one of the frustrations though that's occurred at this time,

24:23

all through the 40s, is

24:26

it's all over the shop. There's heaps

24:28

of different promoters. There's all these acronyms,

24:30

which they all complain about. There's all

24:32

these change rules going from one to

24:34

one. There's not a points table overall,

24:36

because you can move from different

24:39

ones. Some are just run one race course. Others

24:41

like Bill Francis starting to pull together a bit

24:43

of a circuit. It's all over the place. You

24:45

don't know who's sanctioned. The other problem you've got

24:47

is someone usually owns the track.

24:50

Someone else hosts it at that track and

24:52

then someone else will often promote it. And

24:54

then someone else might actually sanction the race. So

24:56

you've got all these... So can't have spaghetti. Yeah.

24:58

So people literally don't know who they're working for

25:00

half the time, right? Bill France

25:02

on December 14th, 1947, he decides

25:04

to hold a meeting at the

25:06

Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach

25:09

with other drivers and car owners all this. He brings

25:11

in a whole bunch of people. Parks

25:13

and Voight are in attendance. Heaps

25:16

of these promoters and stuff. Even ones that

25:18

aren't in his organization. He invites lots of

25:20

people and tells the media,

25:22

our aim is to set up a complete organization,

25:24

which will act as a guide to stock car

25:26

racing throughout the United States. So they

25:28

want to become sort of like set the

25:30

rules. Like a solidated body. Yeah. Around it.

25:33

They all have a voice. Yeah. Unscramble

25:35

the omelet. Yeah. And it's going to be

25:37

a sort of a... Yeah, but it is.

25:39

It's unscramless. What did I say? The acronyms.

25:42

Fix the acronyms. So they're

25:44

all talking about this and there's broad agreement something

25:46

needs to be done to bring some more... Not

25:48

everyone agrees. So some like Nunez and that who

25:50

are in Atlanta, they don't join this meeting. They

25:53

gotta go their own. So it's by no means

25:55

a conquering thing. It's more

25:57

an embryonic idea at this point. But

26:00

they're trying to come up with a name. Someone

26:02

suggests the National Stock Car Racing Association. And

26:04

that's pointed out that that's the one Sam

26:06

Neumis owns in Atlanta. So Red

26:08

Voight, the mechanic, he

26:11

says, well, I've actually got a name registered in

26:13

Georgia for a sanctioning body they've never really used.

26:16

You could use it. And they say, well, what's that?

26:18

And it's the National Association for Stock

26:20

Car Auto Racing, which its

26:23

acronym is NASCAR. So

26:25

they've agreed on the name NASCAR. And now they

26:27

need someone to sort of be the commissioner, the

26:30

face of it, the front of it. Bill

26:33

France is going to do a lot of

26:35

the running of it, but they need someone

26:37

who they want to give us some credibility.

26:39

They approach a guy called Edwin George Baker

26:41

to be NASCAR commissioner. He says yes. He

26:43

sounds appropriate. Yeah, so his nickname is Cannonball.

26:45

Is it? I

26:49

don't know where this is headed. Yeah. And

26:51

so George Cannonball Baker. That's

26:53

a good nickname. That's a great nickname.

26:55

For either a guy,

26:57

a Southern guy, or a bull.

27:00

Yes. Like if you're a bull rider.

27:03

Get on Thunder, Cyclone, or Cannonball. Don't

27:09

get on Cannonball, will ya? Cannonball. That's

27:12

a great nickname. So Baker's born in

27:14

Dearborn County, Indiana in 1882. He's

27:17

a senior guy by the time he's being

27:19

appointed to this. He was a natural athlete.

27:21

He was good at boxing wrestling, but he

27:24

was also good at gymnastics, tumbling, and all

27:26

that stuff. Which meant his first job, around

27:28

1900s, he toured with a

27:30

vaudeville group. Everyone in our

27:33

podcast goes through vaudeville. Pretty

27:35

much at some point. It's a tough school. If

27:39

you can make it through vaudeville. That's

27:41

right. You can trade the boards. You can

27:43

make it there. You can make it anywhere.

27:45

Yeah, good enough for me. During that time,

27:47

he starts competing in bicycle races, and that

27:49

leads him into the very early beginnings of

27:51

motorcycle racing. In January

27:53

9th, 12th, he goes on a two-speed Indian, the

27:56

brand motorbike, I should add. He gets on one

27:58

of them and he drives for... for 23,000 kilometers

28:00

or 14,000 miles in three months. He

28:05

goes from Florida, he goes down to Cuba. I'm

28:07

assuming he got on boats for bits of this,

28:09

to Jamaica and then to Panama. Then

28:11

all the way he goes back to San Diego and

28:13

he ends up based there. That's a road trip. It's

28:15

a big road trip. In that time he decides. Did

28:17

he go to Columbia? He didn't go

28:20

to Columbia. He does,

28:22

I can help him out. He

28:24

then decides he's gonna try and

28:26

break the transcontinental record of driving

28:28

across the whole continent. Now you

28:30

gotta remember, the highway system meant

28:33

everything. Driving a motorbike across America

28:35

at this point, you're not on paved

28:37

roads. It's not just one highway.

28:41

You have to really find your way

28:44

across. He

28:46

decides to do that in 1914. It's

28:49

this that gives him

28:51

his name, Cannonball, a New York

28:53

newspaper writer, compared him to the

28:55

Cannonball Express train of the Illinois

28:58

Central. He then goes on to set

29:00

143 driving records all

29:03

through the 1910s through the 1930s. Took

29:06

him 11 days on one of the motorcycles

29:08

to get across the country, which was considered

29:10

incredibly fast. He'd go to

29:13

different manufacturers of motorcycles and cars

29:15

eventually and says, I'll

29:17

prove your car is reliable and can

29:20

do these big long distances and no

29:22

record, no money. That's what he

29:24

pitched to them. If I don't get you a record, you don't

29:26

have to pay him. So they all win

29:28

it. And he becomes quite famous. In

29:30

1933, he does this drive New York

29:32

City to LA in

29:35

a gray page model, 57 Blue

29:37

Streak 8, it

29:39

was known as. And he does it in 53.5 hours

29:41

and it stood for 40 years. He

29:45

just went for healthily there across the country. No

29:48

worrying about speed limits or anything, right? This

29:52

drive in the 1970s, much, much

29:54

later, inspires

29:57

car and driver magazine reporters, Brock

29:59

and Yates and Steve

30:01

Smith to come up with

30:04

an unsanctioned informal race across the

30:06

country replicating this 53 and a

30:08

half hour transcontinental drive that Baker

30:10

did in 1953. And that

30:12

became named as the New York

30:14

to Los Angeles Cannonball Baker Sea

30:16

to Shining Sea Memorial Trophy Dash,

30:19

which got shortened to Cannonball Run.

30:21

And it was staged in 1971,

30:23

1972, 1975 and 1979. And

30:30

turned into a feature film. And then turned into

30:33

a series of feature films, the Cannonball Run. Who

30:35

are Reynolds? So that's where it comes from, Cannonball

30:37

Run. There it is. So he,

30:39

Cannonball's the first president of Nazcar, as

30:41

well as those... So he's the most

30:44

reputable figure they could land. Exactly.

30:47

So... Oh, it's

30:49

all... you're stitching all the pieces together

30:51

for him. And I just

30:53

want to add, when I was doing this research, not

30:55

to just... So while he did the first race in

30:57

19... Well, not race, but

30:59

he did the first cross country in 1933 of that, I

31:01

reckon there's an

31:04

episode where we come back to those 1970s Cannonball Runs. The

31:09

real Cannonball Runs. All right. I

31:11

reckon that's right in your wheelhouse. I love that. We

31:15

should get Sam Pang on for that. I

31:17

think they're his favorite movies. Yeah. He

31:20

knows this bit about it, but they were real once. France

31:23

has got Nazcar now in place, although

31:25

it's not the dominant promotion yet. He

31:28

has a new president in

31:31

Mr Cannonball. Needs to

31:33

start going out and getting control of

31:36

the sport. And of course, Sam

31:38

Newness in Atlanta is one of

31:40

his big challenges. And then also

31:43

another guy, Olin Bruton Smith, he

31:45

also controls the Charlotte area. And

31:47

there is two major competitors. They

31:50

are competing against him, right? They

31:52

cause him a lot of trouble.

31:55

So one of the things France realized is

31:57

needs is access to racetracks, money, and... And

32:01

so once again, it's the moonshiners who step

32:03

in. These are the people that are making

32:06

the moonshine and have the money, right? So

32:09

France provides the promotional skills and the

32:11

vision. The bootleggers are already

32:13

providing the marquee drivers, the fastest cars,

32:15

the mechanics and all this, but then

32:17

they start putting in money to promote

32:19

the race and build new racetracks, right?

32:22

Cause building a racetrack's expensive, these are

32:25

dirt often, but they're expensive, and

32:27

you've got to outlay some cash, right?

32:30

Based on all of this, at least six

32:32

of the major NASCAR tracks were built and

32:35

funded by bootleggers. There you go. Right? So

32:37

it's all this. Cause they all had these

32:39

high profits, right? So they were happy to

32:41

do it. And they were risk takers, right?

32:44

They love it. So it means you end

32:46

up with these speedways in places like North

32:48

Wilkes Borough in North Carolina and Martinsville, Virginia,

32:50

which are very well-known tracks. And

32:53

these are places you wouldn't normally put a track,

32:55

except they're in these counties

32:57

that, you know, we talked about counties early on

32:59

that had more sugar consumption

33:02

than major states cause

33:04

they were producing so much moonshine. So

33:08

Bill Frans partners with all these

33:10

different people. And the

33:12

Blair family set up the Tri-City Speedway

33:14

in North Carolina. That was all through

33:16

liquor money. Bill Frans partnered with a

33:18

guy called Joe Little John, who'd been

33:20

a bootlegger, and they set up a

33:22

racetrack in Spartanburg, South Carolina. And

33:25

then on the back of that, a bunch of

33:27

others in Wilkes County, which is the one we

33:29

talked about as being one of the major hubs

33:31

of moonshine, they

33:34

decide to set way up. They get their own

33:36

track. Yeah, they get their own track. Enoch Staley,

33:38

John Mazdan, and Charlie Coombs, all from Wilkes County.

33:40

They heard about these other ones and said to

33:42

Bill Frans, we'll build one here,

33:44

which they do. And they pour their money into

33:46

that. So that was the North

33:49

Wilkes Borough Speedway. Then H. Clay Earls of

33:51

Martinsville, Virginia. He's another major bootlegger that says,

33:53

well, then I'll do one as well. He

33:56

owned a, he was a huge distributor

33:58

of moonshine and people. People knew him

34:00

as always carrying a gun

34:03

and people would say to me, you're carrying a gun and say, do

34:05

I have my pants on? It

34:07

was this. That was me in

34:09

Colombia. Suddenly

34:12

you've got all these other racetracks coming

34:14

up because of this and Bill France

34:16

has come up with a

34:19

financial model, which is I'll

34:21

do the promotion, do the

34:23

rules, get you the drivers,

34:25

provide the framework. You

34:28

support me with funding for racetracks

34:30

and purses and all this sort

34:32

of stuff. And this

34:34

is where he starts to beat the other

34:36

promoters around the place. Okay, he's got organized.

34:39

He's got infrastructure. He's got

34:41

the best in the business. And he's

34:43

got finance coming from Moonshot. And without

34:45

the Moonshot money, I don't think he'd

34:47

be anywhere near. NASCAR's dead. Another example

34:49

I liked is in Stokesville, North Carolina.

34:51

There were two bootleggers, Harvey and Pat

34:53

Charles, the Charles brothers. They

34:55

showed up at the doorstep of a

34:57

farmer, Cece Allison in Charlotte and said,

35:00

we want to do a deal and build a track

35:02

for a Charlotte Speedway. It's not the Charlotte Speedway that

35:04

exists now. It was an earlier version, but they said

35:06

we want to build it here. He

35:08

said, sure. They contact Bill France

35:10

and said, we're building a track. You promote

35:12

it? Bill France says yes. When

35:15

they run their first race, one of the problems

35:17

was trespassers were climbing trees that line the track

35:20

instead of having to buy a ticket. So

35:22

the farmer, Cece Allison, who's landed and

35:24

been built on, went along with a

35:26

chainsaw and started cutting the trees down.

35:30

That was his solution. Can

35:32

you imagine how many permits you'd need to do

35:34

that today? Exactly right. But he just went, he

35:36

didn't even give them time to get out of

35:38

the trees. It's

35:40

just like, we're just going to start shopping them

35:43

all down. So

35:45

that became a premier venue as well until

35:47

the bootlegging Charles brothers go to jail. So

35:50

this is another example. I've

35:53

never enjoyed NASCAR war. Yeah. You've

35:55

got the Hickory Speedway, which is very well known. It's

35:58

built by two liquor. Barrens, Ralph

36:00

and Grafton Burgess, they build that with

36:02

another guy called Charlie Combs, who involved

36:04

in that. Ralph and Grafton Burgess were

36:07

known as Puff and Tough. They

36:09

just held court

36:12

at this restaurant where all they all hung

36:14

out. To give you an

36:17

example of how much moonshine is involved in

36:19

all these race tracks, the Middle

36:21

Georgia Speedway, 1967, the feds found a moonshine

36:26

still hidden under a

36:28

bunker near turn three. It was

36:31

capable of making 80 gallons of moonshine a

36:33

day. It was accessible. What happened is you

36:35

went to a ticket booth and

36:38

under the ticket booth was a trap door, which

36:40

you opened up and then it

36:42

had stairs that went down underground of this bunker

36:44

where the steel was. Now the thing is, we

36:46

talked about this before, the reason it's called moonshine

36:48

is it lets off a lot of steam

36:50

and smell. And so you

36:54

do it at night, right? That's why it's called moonshine. But

36:56

in this one, they would do it while the race was

36:58

on because it was all the petrol. So

37:02

they got away with that for years,

37:04

right? Eventually the racetrack owner when they

37:06

got caught, he was arrested and tried,

37:08

but that was found not guilty by

37:10

the jury because the juries are all

37:12

just, they're all drunk. He said, this

37:14

was La Mar Brown Jr. was the

37:16

owner. He said, so help me God,

37:18

if I ever made, sold or drank

37:20

voluntarily an illegal drop of whiskey or

37:22

knew anyone who made it sold it

37:25

or transported illegal whiskey, I hope God

37:27

will strike me dead. Which

37:30

if he's living in the South, there's no way he doesn't

37:32

know. I'd be looking very nervously at the sky. Now

37:37

the North Wilkes-Barre Speedway, the one up

37:39

near Wilke Canty that I mentioned, for

37:42

years, it had a

37:45

rumor that there was somewhere around

37:47

the racetrack and secret

37:49

cave where illegal moonshine had

37:51

been made. And

37:53

in 2024, this year, they were renovating a bit

37:55

and recognizing. down

38:00

the cave. Now some dispute this

38:02

and say this is just a bit of old

38:04

OPR spin, but they definitely did find some sort

38:07

of cave and they say, well, this may

38:09

be proved. This is like an archaeological dink.

38:12

Yeah, so still today. Forget Egypt. Get

38:14

out to Nazcar. And let's...

38:17

Where we leave off today is you've got

38:20

Bill Francis now got a

38:22

lot of control. Nazcar is now in

38:24

the prime position to really make

38:27

its big push to try and take over

38:29

the entire sport. Yes. And

38:32

the only problem he probably has

38:35

is they have lost Roy Hall

38:38

to jail. Six years.

38:40

Six years and he won't really come

38:42

back in any major force. I can.

38:45

You have lost Lloyd C to

38:47

before the war to being shot

38:49

by his cousin. That's

38:52

a classic moonshine, isn't it? Yeah, so you get

38:54

one in jail, one killed by a

38:56

cousin. So Bill is

38:58

really like needing someone

39:00

to come along and be the next star. He's

39:03

not going to get one racer to come along

39:05

and be his next star. He's going

39:07

to get an entire family. Oh,

39:10

here we go. Of three brothers and one

39:13

sister with

39:16

a moonshine background. Is it the cast of Jinxer?

39:19

He's still basically going to

39:21

set the Nazcar world on

39:23

fire. Well, on that

39:25

note, on that bombshell, I anxiously

39:28

await the next instalment of

39:31

our Nazcar series. Thank you once again,

39:33

Titus O'Reilly. You can always get more

39:35

if you become a member and join

39:37

Bazaar Plus. Bazaar Plus means you get

39:40

an extra episode every week. That means

39:42

you get Sports Bazaar on Monday, Animal

39:44

Bazaar on Wednesday, and then you get

39:46

a bonus episode every single Thursday. You

39:48

also get access to all those past

39:51

bonus episodes. You get access to a

39:53

chat room and you get access to

39:55

live show tickets before they go on

39:57

sale to the general public. Bazaar Plus.

40:00

Plus, we'd love to have you as a member. The

40:02

link is in the show notes if you're interested.

40:04

And if you love Meek and I talking nonsense,

40:06

it's the place for you.