Jamie Wolfcale discovers a surprising link between himself and NASCAR co-founder Raymond Parks, who died earlier this week.
You may have read about the passing of NASCAR cofounder Raymond Parks earlier this week at the age of 96. Parks was not only instrumental in establishing NASCAR, but as a team owner he won the first two NASCAR championships in 1949 and 1950. At the time, the racing was a weekend diversion for him. Parks made his fortune as a moonshine runner, which is where he recruited his drivers and race cars. However, what I did not know about Parks was that we used to frequent to the same barber shop in Atlanta.
Below is an email I received from my dad today. The barber shop he refers to is where the Wolfcale menfolk have been getting their ears lowered for decades and is right down the street from where I grew up in Atlanta.
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Don't know if you remember me talking about this guy, but looks like he just passed away at the age of 96.
Up until a few years ago he used to drive himself to West Barber shop EVERY DAY where Wilbur would give him a shave. The two or three times I saw him, he drove himself in his huge white Escalade. Wilbur said he owned several liquor stores in Atlanta, including the one at Collier and Peachtree, but this wasn't mentioned in any of the articles.
Another thing Wilbur told me is that he got his start in racing via the moonshine transport business. Story was that he had his cars worked on in Atlanta at a garage on Spring Street where they were souped up so they could outrun the Feds while bringing the hooch from the backwoods in NC down to Atlanta. He soon started letting his hooch drivers race the cars on the weekends.
Until very recently he was a largely anonymous and forgotten figure in NASCAR history because he left racing so long ago to start a business where he could earn a legitimate living.
Anyhow, thought it might be a good subject for a blog article since you probably sat in the same barber chair he sat in.