The Early Laps of Stock Car Racing

The book begins with the nation's first organized, sanctioned stock car road race over the Briarcliff, New York, course--staged in 1908 by one of America's early speed mavens, William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. A veteran of the early Ormond-Daytona Beach speed trials, Vanderbilt brought the Grand Prize races to Savannah, Georgia, in 1908. What began as a rich man's sport eventually became the working man's sport, finding a home in the South with the infusion of moonshiners and their souped-up cars. The book is based, for the most part, on statements of drivers, car owners and others garnered from archived newspaper articles.