Information about Lloyd's Drag Strip in Blairsville, Ga., is scarce, but Robert Turner, who was there often, has provided an excellent overview of the track and the racing that went on there, plus two vintage photos of the Go-Devil Dart of Oscar Parker (left), and the Bad News 1962 Ford of Reece Gibbs (at bottom), and the circa 1966-67 match race handbill. His account:
"Lloyd Young started the strip in probably late ’62 or so. It started with about the first 50 to 100 feet concreted and the rest packed dirt; the whole track was asphalted the second year.
"The track was two-tenths or 1,056 feet, with the stopping area uphill at the end with a turnaround area. The cars then came back down to about the finish line, where a return road pulled off to the right-lane side. The track was never lighted, and it ran mostly on Sunday afternoons. It operated into the late 1960s and was probably shut down by the insurance requirements after the Yellow River wreck and the growth of dirt-track racing in the area.
"There was a large local following, with the spectator area and pits full on a weekly basis. They started out with a flagman, and graduated to a homemade starting light system. There was a man who sat at the finish line with a battery-powered telephone. He would flip a switch when the car crossed the line, and someone in the timing/announcing booth would stop a stop watch when the light came on. He would tell them over the telephone who won.
"There were no scales, so engine size was the main factor in determining what class the gassers and such fell into. Stock was from some rules they had from somewhere. They ran SS/S. S/S. A/S and so forth on down. There were classes called Cheating 4-Barrel and Cheating 2-Barrel, which were between a gasser and an altered. The classic battle was between the Esso Special, a 1962 409 Chevy owned by Bob Thomas and driven eventually by Howard Neal (Howard drove his own 426 wedge Plymouth until he traded it to Lloyd Young, who ran it then) and the Bad News ’62 Ford owned and driven by Oscar Parker. The Bad News car was Phil Bonner’s old Frank Vego Ford ’62 match race car that was later owned and driven by Reece Gibbs, as was the Esso Special. The majority of the cars there weekly were the local street cars running for a trophy." 6/30/10: The flier at left, provided by Robert Turner, advertises a match race most likely from 1966 (May 8 was a Sunday that year, and the 396 Chevys were "promised" from Marietta). Turner says Bill Bailey was one of the owners of Blairsville Motors, the Ford dealership in town. The car was not a current model, but rather a 1954 Ford sedan stuffed with a 427 running two 4-barrels. Jerry Messer, living in Nebraska at the time, was from the Blairsville area and would bring his cars with him when he came to visit family, and would race at the local track. For this race, Turner says he's not sure whether the 426 designated a wedge or hemi, though the car did have a hemi eventually. Messer has moved back to the area, so maybe some pictures and more details will be forthcoming.
Today, the track is a private drive with a few houses on it (last October, the house at the end of the road was for sale). Past the end of the pavement (picture 2), you can see where the track ran uphill into the shutoff area, as the Double H did. Below are views of the track from Oct. 2009.
