Auto racing
b. March 21, 1921, Ft. Payne, AL
d. July 15, 1972
Flock's roots were the roots of stock car racing: Bootlegging. As a young teen-ager, he was delivering bootleg whiskey by bicycle. A little later, he was making auto trips from Atlanta to Dawsonville, GA, to pick up moonshine.
"I used to deliberately seek out the sheriff and get him to chase me," he later recalled. "It was fun, and besides we could send to California to get special parts to modify our cars, and the sheriff couldn't afford to do that."
When stock car racing became semi-organized just before World War II, Flock was there, winning a 100-mile race at Lakewood Park in Atlanta in 1940. After four years in the Army Air Corps, he returned just as NASCAR was getting established. He won the association's first Northern race, at Providence, RI, in 1947, and was the first National Modified Champion in 1949, when he won 11 feature races.
During the early 1950s, Flock drove mostly in Grand National events. He finished second in the point standings in 1951, fourth in 1952, fifth in 1953, and tenth in 1955. He had established an insurance agency in Nashville and raced only part-time beginning in 1954.
In 1957 he entered only the beach-road race at Daytona, though he also drove in the Darlington 500 as relief for Herb Thomas, who'd been injured in a practice crash. The car was also in bad shape. It blew a tire on the sixth lap and got hit by two other cars. Flock fortunately walked away unhurt, but he also walked away from racing.
NASCAR Hall of Fame
Top of Page
|
