Roscoe
Thompson
July 5, 1922 - 1988
Forrest Park, Georgia
Story from his son, Randy
Thompson:
Roscoe Thompson was born in White
county Georgia, on July 5, 1922. His mother died when he was 10 years
old. Soon after that he had to quit school in the fourth grade to help
support the family during the depression.
As with most of
the early racers trying to find a way to survive during this time, he
turned to running moonshine then racing. His racing career started in
the 1940's at the old Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, Georgia. He raced in
many races all over the US. Although most of his success came in the
late 40's and 50's he was around to start in the first Daytona 500 in
1959.
He always came
to race and went anyplace where he could race. This caused problems with
Nascar for him and many other drivers who would race closer to home than
the Nascar race was. In his scrapbook is an envelope in which he
received a letter suspending him from NASCAR for a period of time
because he raced in an event sponsored by another organization. These
men were all racers, racing for the thrill of it in those days. I asked
him, a few years before his death, if there was anything he would like
to do that he hadn't already done and his answer was, ."I would like to
drive in the Indy 500 and fly a jet plane. He never got to do that, but
he did leave a lot of great racing memories as a legacy".
He retired from
racing in 1962. Then 26 years later we lost him to emphysema.
-
He (my Dad) was just inducted into the
Georgia Racing Hall of Fame 10/27/06.
-
He was the Peach Bowl Champion in 1950 and
519511.
-
NASCAR's sportsman champ for Georgia in 1953
-
Southeastern Modified champ in 1954.
-
He started 7th in the 1959 Daytona 500.
(First on the track).
-
He was 10th in NASCAR'S first points
standings in 1948.
-
In 1964 he was inducted into the Museum of
Speed in Daytona.
Georgia Racing Hall of Fame Induction
October 27, 2006
The Mountain Moonshine Festival committee began
preparations for the annual festival before last year's festivities
ended, and the group anticipates an outstanding weekend at the 39th
annual Mountain Moonshine Festival this weekend.
The events begin with a ceremony Friday evening to
induct Georgia racing legends James Baker, Charlie Bagwell, Bill Hemby,
Aubrey 'Po Boy' Holley, James Marvin Mills, Hubert Platt, Jimmy
Summerour and Roscoe Thompson into
the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame.
The ceremony will take place at Dawsonville City
Hall at October 27, 2006 at 6 p.m. followed by the unveiling of the 2007
Mountain Moonshine Calendar featuring each of the inductees.
Roscoe Race bits . . . .
One of the rarest films of NASCAR racing is the actual TV broadcast
of the 1962 Southern 500 originally shown on ABC’s “Wide World Of
Sports”! The nearly 1 hour television broadcast is the OLDEST known TV
broadcast that exists of any American auto race! What’s more, it’s an
original B & W kinescope of the controversial 1962 Southern 500 at
Darlington, in which Junior Johnson was originally declared the winner,
only to have a scoring re-check show that Larry Frank had actually won!
The broadcast of the beginning of the race starts immediately after
nice closeups are shown of several of the drivers: Fireball Roberts,
Johnny Allen, Bobby Johns, Lil’ Joe Weatherly, David Pearson and Larry
Frank. Junior Johnson and Fireball are on the front row as 44 cars (13
Fords, 13 Pontiacs, eight Chevys, three Plymouths, three Mercurys and
two Dodges) take the green flag! After only a couple of laps H.G. Rosier
in the #5 spins out his Pontiac! Roscoe
Thompson’s #81 Mercury spins out twice early in the race
and eventually crashes after 39 laps. Fireball leads the first 58
laps until Bobby Johns passes him on the backstretch. Herman Beam, in
his #19 Ford is shown soldiering around the track and McKay informs the
audience that Beam never races to win, but only to keep his car in one
piece and finish! Suddenly Fireball Roberts smashes the guardrail in
turn three and comes limping into the pits! As his pit crew tries to
inspect the right front end damage, Fireball climbs out of the car and
immediately Economaki is right on the spot with the TV microphone!
Roberts explains to both his crew chief and the TV viewers together what
caused his mishap! Throughout the race, pit stops are shown of other
cars, such as Jim Pardue, Bobby Johns and Richard Petty! This is also
one of the few films showing Ralph Earnhardt racing in NASCAR Grand
National!
- Speedway Division Championship
Round Two 25 May 1952
Martinsville Speedway - Martinsville, Virginia
Distance: 150 laps of 0.5-mile dirt track for 75.0
miles Attendance: 7,500
Starting Grid
1st Bill Miller, Oldsmobile 88 Special
2nd Buddy Schuman, GMC Special
3rd Gene Darragh, Ford Special
4th Jack Smith, Chrysler Special
5th Bob Peterson, Oldsmobile 88 Special
6th
Roscoe Thompson, Ford Special
7th Bob Johnson, Kaiser Special
8th Wally Campbell, Ford Special
9th
Mickey Fenn, Ford Special
10th Al Fleming, Hudson Special
11th Buck Baker, Cadillac Special
12th Lyle Scott, DeSoto Special
13th Frankie Schneider, Ford Special
14th Fred Peters, Ford Special
15th Sam Waldrop, GMC Special
16th Tex Keene, Mercury Special
17th Herb Swann, Oldsmobile 88 Special
Originally scheduled for 200 laps, 100.0 miles, the
race shortened due to rain. 1 hr 27 min 36 sec, 51.370 mph
Results:
1st Tex Keene No. 75 Al Wheatley
Mercury Special 150 laps, , $1,000, 250 points
2nd Jack Smith No. 2 Roy Shoemaker Special Kurtis
Miller 32 ‘001’ Chrysler143 laps, $600, 240 points
3rd Buck Baker No. 87 Penny Mullis Cadillac Special 136 laps,
$500, 230 points
4th Lyle Scott No. 77 Lyle Scott DeSoto Special 130
laps, $450, 220 points
5th Bob Johnson Arch Yates Kaiser Special 113 laps, $400, 210
points
6th Frankie Schneider No. 5 Ike Kiser Ford Special 112 laps,
$300, 200 points
7th Al Fleming No. 74 J.B. Seigfred Hudson Special 98 laps,
overheating, $250, 190 points
8th Bob Peterson Oldsmobile 88 Special 97 laps,
overheating, $200, 180 points
9th Fred Peters No. 52 Edwin Darnell Ford Special
73 laps, fire, $150, 170 points
10th Roscoe
Thompson Ford Special 65 laps, flagged, $100, 160 points
11th Bill Miller No. 7 Raymond Parks Oldsmobile 88 Special
58 laps, fuel pressure, $100, 150 points
12th Herb Swann No. 66 Herb Swann Oldsmobile 88 Special 52
laps, battery, $100, 140 points
13th Buddy Schuman No. 77 Norm Olsen GMC Special 50 laps, crash,
$100, 130 points
14th Mickey Fenn No. 25 Leland Colvin Ford Special 44 laps,
engine, $100, 120 points
15th Sam Waldrop GMC Special 38 laps, overheating, $100, 110
points
16th Wally Campbell No. 1 Wally Campbell Ford Special 20 laps,
overheating, $100, 100 points
17th Gene Darrargh Leland Colvin Ford Special 18 laps, axle,
$100, 90 points
-
September 7, 1952 Macon
Ga. Central City Speedway 1/2 mile dirt track 150 mile race
Roscoe Thompson, 1951 Studebaker, Started 6th,
finished 13th / 27 entries
-
November 16, 1952
Atlanta Lakewood Speedway 1 mile dirt trace 100 mile race
Roscoe Thompson, 1951 Studebaker #81 Started 5th,
finished 20th / 24 entries
-
April 18th, 1948: Jacksonville, FL: Winner: Skimp Hersey
(started 4th), ford, race avg at 56.524, 3 cautions. Pole Winner:
Roscoe Thompson by virtue of winning a heat race.
-
APRIL 20, 1952 -
Atlanta, Georgia...Taking the lead when Gober Sosebee's Cadillac
broke a spindle with 7 laps to go, Bill Blair won the 100 mile
NASCAR Grand National race on the 1 mile dirt Lakewood Speedway. Ed
Samples was 2nd to give Olds 88s a 1-2 finish.
Roscoe Thompson replaced the injured Fonty Flock in the Frank
Christian Olds. Fonty, hoping to keep from losing more points to Lee
Petty, decided he'd try to drive at the last minute. Since he'd
already turned his car over to Thompson, Flock scrambled into
a back-up Christian Olds & drove as long as he could. Shortly, Fonty
was relieved by Jack Smith. Smith drove to 7th, earning 152 points,
but Flock only received 58 of those since NASCAR points in driver
change situations at the time were based on percentage of laps
driven.
Roscoe Thompson Grand
National Statistics
Nascar Nextel Cup Series Tickets
Copyright © 2003
LegendsofNascar.com
by Roland Via. All rights reserved. Revised:
03/12/08 16:36:24 -0500.
All materials posted herein are protected by
copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FAIR USE NOTICE:
This web page may contain copyrighted material whose use has not been
specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This page is operated under the
assumption that this use on the Web constitutes a 'fair use' of the
copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. Any
text or images that you feel need to be removed please
contact me.
LegendsofNascar.com is not associated or affiliated with any racing club or
organizations including that of NASCAR.
It is constructed simply as an internet information source. Images and
content made be used with
email
permission.
Opinions and other content are not necessarily those of editors, sponsors.
Please visit official NASCAR information website at
NASCAR.COM. |
