He, like Curtis Turner, faces a NASCAR lifetime ban. Flock continued to race under different sanctioning bodies, notably the Midwest Association for Race Cars (MARC), finishing second in a 100-mile dirt race at Lakewood Speedway in Georgia in October 1961. He died in a crash during practice for that race.
Flocking was born on January 4, 1940 in Elkhart, Indiana. He was one of five children of Charles "Chuck" Flock and Ethel (née Hite) Flock. His father worked as a mechanic for a local gas station chain while his mother stayed at home with the children. When Tim was 10 years old, he saw an opportunity to make some money by racing go carts in local fairs. He started out driving them down from Elkhart to Indianapolis every week until he had enough money to buy his own cart. Within a few months, he was able to afford a car and began working his way up through the Karting USA series until he reached the top circuit, the US Open Series, where he met Turner.
In August 1960, just a few months after his 20th birthday, Tim Flock won his first major championship when he took over the lead late in the season with drivers competing only in Atlantic Coast Championship events. The next year he became the youngest driver ever to win the championship before moving on to drive in the International Race of Champions (IROC) series.
"Raymond is a legend in NASCAR history and will be remembered for his devotion to the sport." Parks, who was born in Dawsonville, Georgia, in 1914, ran moonshine when he was 14 years old, earning him a nine-month sentence in the federal penitentiary in Chillicothe, Ohio, from 1936 to 1937 on conspiracy charges. After his release, he worked at various jobs before turning to auto racing full time in 1946. In 1947, he drove an Oldsmobile Fender Bender that another driver had used during the season's first race at Daytona Beach. The car didn't have any license plates, let alone racing licenses, but Parks managed to finish second behind only the #1 Ford driven by Fred Lorenzen. He went on to win five races that year, including the first two events of the season, the Grand National Championship.
He died in 1998 at age 80 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
In honor of Raymond Parks Day in both Georgia and North Carolina, the state capitals present him with a statue and hold annual races called the Governor's Cup in his memory.
Raymond Parks began competing in local races in 1947 at Darlington Raceway, where he finished second behind a competitor who had run out of gas.
Bill France, on the other hand, tried to remove NASCAR from its bootlegging roots when he took over the organization, and this conflict contributed to Parks' decision to leave NASCAR and sell his racing cars in 1951.
However, despite these differences, it is apparent that both men were strong-willed leaders who knew how to get things done. Both had a vision for their respective races and were not afraid to pursue this vision even if it meant opposing the established order.
France got his start in auto racing working for Fred Halliday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway before opening his own team in 1947. That same year, his driver Lee Wallard won the first two races of 1948 and was declared the new champion after only two seasons ended because of World War II. However, many people claim that France got the last laugh because even though Wallard was leading the season finale race when he was involved in a fatal accident, he still managed to win the title due to a tiebreaker system used by NASCAR at the time.
In any case, France decided to move away from traditional racing vehicles and introduced the idea of stock car racing to the public. He also created the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) to promote his idea of stock car racing across America. The first official NASCAR race was held at Daytona Beach in February of 1949.
Except for one thing: on January 21, the day before the qualification races, GM chairman Fred Donner issued an injunction prohibiting the company from participating in any organized racing activity, effective immediately. It was over in an instant. The Mark II V8 was a dead duck in NASCAR before it even raced.
The problem wasn't with the engine itself, which had proven quite successful in other forms of motorized competition (including several winners of the prestigious Indianapolis 500 race). No, the issue lay with its transmission system. Unlike today's continuously-variable transmissions (CVTs), the Mark II used a series of gears that could only be shifted into or out of drive by using levers located on the floorboards next to the driver's feet. This made it much harder to shift into higher gears when needed at the track, and also caused some drivers problems when trying to shift back down into first gear after passing another car at high speed.
GM's decision not to build any more Mark IIs was probably due to financial reasons more than performance issues. However, since the company did not have any other cars ready to race at the start of the 1969 season, many people think that's why they decided not to continue with NASCAR too.
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