Stock Car Racing Under NASCAR Sanction Begins

Topics:  Orlando Speedway, Eau Gallie Speedway

Ocala Star-Banner
November 29, 1959

ORLANDO—Stock car racing under NASCAR sanctioning will be inaugurated at two Florida tracks next Friday and Saturday nights as new race directors take over the operation of Orlando Speedway here on Friday nights and Eau Gallie on Saturday nights.

The two tracks will be operated under France Winston-Salem Speedways, Inc., with Bill France, president of NASCAR and also president of Daytona International Speedway, associated with Alvin Hawkins of Winston-Salem, N. C. and Cassius "TOP" Mingus of Spartanburg, S. C. in the new arrangement.

The new operators closed a deal last Thursday night with Ralph Alderman of Orlando to take over the operation of weekly modified, sportsman and hobby races at Orlando Speedway, located on Orange Blossom Trail south of Orlando. This is a quarter mile asphalt track with a seating capacity of 5,000.

The same operators closed a deal earlier in the week for taking over the management and reopening of Eau Gallie Speedway, another quarter mile asphalt track located at Eau Gallie.

The racing activities at the two Florida tracks will be directed by Hawkins and Mingus along with Joe Hawkins. They take over at Orlando next Friday night and at Eau Gallie on Saturday night, December 5.

The same drivers will be competing at both tracks most of the time, but the new directors hope to instill new life with the winter races also attracting many of the top NASCAR drivers from other sections of the country in addition to the Florida regulars.

All races will be operated under NASCAR sanction. Hawkins announced that races will be run at Orlando December 4 and 11 and at Eau Gallie December 5 and 12, then be discontinued until after the Christmas and New Year's holidays. The opening January dates have been set for January 8 at Orlando and January 9 at Eau Gallie.

Hawkins and France have operated as partners at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem for more than 10 years and have packed crowds in excess of 20,000 at the North Carolina quarter mile asphalt track.