Bill Blair (racing driver)
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Bill Blair | |||||||
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Born | High Point, North Carolina, United States | July 14, 1911||||||
Died | November 2, 1995 High Point, North Carolina, United States | (aged 84)||||||
NASCAR Cup Series career | |||||||
123 races run over 10 years | |||||||
Best finish | 4th (1949) | ||||||
First race | 1949 Race No. 1 (Charlotte) | ||||||
Last race | 1958 Lakewood Speedway (Atlanta) | ||||||
First win | 1950 Vernon Fairgrounds (Vernon, NY) | ||||||
Last win | 1953 Daytona Beach | ||||||
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William Ivey Blair (July 14, 1911 – November 2, 1995) was an American stock car racing driver in the 1940s and the 1950s, and he was one of the pioneers of NASCAR.
Racing career
Blair started his racing career as a bootlegger in the 1930s. In 1939, he began racing at the newly-constructed High Point Speedway, and he opened his own track Tri-City Speedway after World War II.[1][2]
Blair won three NASCAR Strictly Stock/Grand National races:
- June 18, 1950 – Blair piloted a 1950 Mercury owned by Sam Rice to victory in a race at Vernon Fairgrounds in Vernon, NY.
- April 20, 1952 – Blair drove a 1952 Oldsmobile owned by George Hutchens to his second win at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta, GA.
- February 15, 1953 – In his final series victory, Blair drove his 1953 Oldsmobile to victory lane at the Beach & Road Course in Daytona Beach, FL.[3]
Memorial
Blair, Jimmie Lewallen, and Fred Harb are the subject of the independent movie Red Dirt Rising" which is based on the book Red Dirt Tracks: The Forgotten Heroes of Early Stockcar Racing by Gail Cauble Gurley.[4]
References
- ^ Salchert, Ryan (February 29, 2016). "Hillsborough's racing past". The Daily Tar Heel. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
- ^ Floyd, David (August 21, 2015). "Moonshine and stock car racing have a longstanding relationship". Johnson City Press. Retrieved January 17, 2020.
- ^ Film of 1953 Daytona Beach event
- ^ Movie tells stories of race drivers and the community they live in[permanent dead link]; Jamie Kennedy Jones, July 15, 2007, Greensboro News & Record; Retrieved December 24, 2007
External links
- Bill Blair driver statistics at Racing-Reference
Categories:
- All articles with dead external links
- Articles with dead external links from July 2017
- Articles with permanently dead external links
- Articles with short description
- Short description is different from Wikidata
- 1911 births
- 1995 deaths
- NASCAR drivers
- Sportspeople from High Point, North Carolina
- Racing drivers from North Carolina
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- NASCAR people stubs