Almost every weekend of Tommy Snell’s life has been spent at a racetrack.
“I had my first race in Swainsboro in 1966, but I really started in 1968,” said Snell, one of five inductees to the Augusta International Raceway Preservation Society’s Racing Hall of Fame. “I was in 566 races.”
Snell raced until 2012, and when he retired, his grandson took his place. Now instead of racing on the weekends, he’s there to support his grandson.
The 17th annual banquet was held Oct. 15 at the Doubletree Hotel, and a reunion was held Saturday, Oct. 16, at Diamond Lakes Recreation Center, which was a racing mecca in the 1960s.
Other inductees include Bob Flock, Curtis Wade “Crawfish” Crider, Haskell Willingham and Marion “Preacher” Cox.
Flock, who died in 1964, was a member of the legendary Flock family of racers, who garnered nicknames such as “The Mad Flocks,” “The Flying Flocks” and “The Fabulous Flocks.”
Multiple members of the Flock family came to the banquet to represent him. Bob Flock “won more than 200 times in the stock and modified stock cars and won four races in the NASCAR’s full body (Cup) series,” according to the induction program.
He was inducted into the Georgia Automobile Racing Hall of Fame in 2003 and was a member of the National Motorsports Hall of Fame.
Crider had 232 NASCAR Grand National starts with 14 top five finishes and 70 top ten finishes.
Willingham “had a stellar career from the dirt bull rings to the high banks of Daytona. He also ended his racing career owning a Hooter’s cup team.”
Cox was not only a racer but built and owned race cars.
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One special inductee is L.B. “Junior” Steed who founded the Jackson Dragstrip, operating it for 27 years. He sold it, and the name was changed to the Carolina Dragstrip. Steed received the Fred Harper Lifetime Achievement Award.
The weekend drew people from multiple states including Virginia, Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.
Ray Lamm is a former race photographer who brought in multiple photo albums for people to peruse.
“I loved it all my life,” he said about racing.
He likes to attend racing related events to meet the people and hear the stories of the days gone by.
According to Harvey Tollison with the AIRPS, racing stories are a little like fishing stories. The more the years pass, the faster people’s race times get, he said.
One of the youngest people in the room was Caleb Rumph, 21, whose uncle, Joe Rumph, was a racecar driver.
Caleb Rumph is the vice president of the AIRPS and hopes to draw younger people into the group to preserve the racing history in the area.
“I’m excited to be here. This is the first one I’ve attended,” he said. “I’ve only been in the group for three years.”
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
