2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee profile: Raymond Parks
Raymond Parks
Born: June 5, 1914, Dawsonville, Ga.; Died: June 20, 2010, at age 96 in Atlanta.
Career Highlights: Played a major role in assisting Big Bill France in the formation of NASCAR in the late 1940s. ... Parks is generally recognized as the first team owner in NASCAR. ...
With Red Byron as driver, he won the first two championships awarded by the sanctioning body, the Modified Division title in 1948 and the major series crown in 1949. ... Fielded cars in 14 races from 1949-55 at the top level, scoring two victories, both by Byron. ... Hall of Famer Curtis Turner also drove for him, as did Bob Flock and Roy Hall.
Reflections
Retired Observer motorsports writer Tom Higgins on Raymond Parks:
I first saw him: In the late 1970s during a gathering of NASCAR pioneers at the North Turn Bar and Grill adjacent to the old Daytona Beach and Road Course where France staged races 1949-57.
My favorite memory of him: I never saw Parks dressed in anything but a suit and tie with a stylish hat on his head. ... Also memorable was his quiet demeanor and gracious manner.
What people might not know about him: Parks was a major player in the illegal moonshine whiskey business in North Georgia. He left home to haul liquor at age 14, was caught and served nine months of a year-and-a-day sentence at the federal prison in Chillicothe, Ohio in 1936-37. … Among Parks’ drivers in the 1930s and early ‘40s was a cousin, Lloyd Seay, complimented by France as “the best pure driver I ever saw.” Seay was a moonshine hauler, and in 1941 was shot and killed by another cousin in a liquor-related dispute. … Parks was the oldest of his father’s 16 children by two wives. … As a soldier in the 99th Infantry Division he fought in World War II’s Battle of the Bulge in Belgium.
What others say about him: “Without Raymond’s financial backing of Bill France in the early days, there might not be a NASCAR.” – Hall of Famer Junior Johnson.
More NASCAR Hall of Fame induction coverage
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[RICHARD CHILDRESS: A capsule look at Richard Childress and his Hall of Fame career]
[CLASS FROM THE START: Multi-team owner Raymond Parks helped found NASCAR]
This story was originally published January 17, 2017 at 4:18 PM with the headline "2017 NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee profile: Raymond Parks."