Bill Blair (racing driver)
Bill Blair (July 14, 1911 in High Point, North Carolina, US – November 2, 1995) was an American stock car racing driver in the 1940s and the 1950s, and he was one of the pioneers of NASCAR.
| Bill Blair | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | July 14, 1911 High Point, North Carolina | ||||||
| Died | November 2, 1995 (aged 84) | ||||||
| NASCAR Cup Series career | |||||||
| 123 races run over 10 years | |||||||
| Best finish | 4th (1949) | ||||||
| First race | 1949 Race No. 1 (Charlotte) | ||||||
| Last race | 1958 Lakewood Speedway (Atlanta) | ||||||
| First win | 1950 Vernon Fairgrounds (Vernon, NY) | ||||||
| Last win | 1953 Daytona Beach | ||||||
| |||||||
Racing career
Blair started his racing career as a bootlegger in the 1930s. In 1939, he began racing at the newly-constructed High Point Speedway, and he opened his own track Tri-City Speedway after World War II.[1][2]
Blair won three NASCAR Strictly Stock/Grand National races:
- June 18, 1950 – Blair piloted a 1950 Mercury owned by Sam Rice to victory in a race at Vernon Faigrounds in Vernon, NY.
- April 20, 1952 – Blair drove a 1952 Oldsmobile owned by George Hutchens to his second win at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, GA.
- February 15, 1953 – In his final series victory, Blair drove his 1953 Oldsmobile to victory lane at the Beach & Road Course in Daytona Beach, FL.[3]
Memorial
Blair, Jimmie Lewallen, and Fred Harb are the subject of the independent movie Red Dirt Rising" which is based on the book Red Dirt Tracks: The Forgotten Heroes of Early Stockcar Racing by Gail Cauble Gurley.[4]
gollark: Also, laws are often about complicated issues which people have no idea about. Now, frequently the politicians will have no idea about them too, but in general having dedicated people able to take lots of time to learn about the issue is better than random people with lots of other stuff to do. Although it has other downsides.
gollark: I don't think I agree, having direct input would expose it to the whims of whatever random controversy has happened *more*.
gollark: And "oh bees [BAD THING] happened so now we must immediately respond to it in some stupid way".
gollark: If you make law really easy to add to, you'll run into problems like "oh bees there are several million pages of law nobody has read".
gollark: My view is generally that the government should avoid doing too much and have law-writing and stuff handled such that it can't start jumping far ahead of popular opinion.
References
- Salchert, Ryan (February 29, 2016). "Hillsborough's racing past". The Daily Tar Heel. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
- Floyd, David (August 21, 2015). "Moonshine and stock car racing have a longstanding relationship". Johnson City Press. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
- Film of 1953 Daytona Beach event
- Movie tells stories of race drivers and the community they live in; Jamie Kennedy Jones, July 15, 2007, Greensboro News & Record; Retrieved December 24, 2007
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