Flock had barely missed adding his name to the black-bordered memorial pages of the local newspaper. But he faced months, maybe years, of delicate recovery.
America was drawn into a world wide conflict when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor four months after Flock's accident. Auto racing was banned in this country and it wasn't until late 1945 that the distinctive roar of the mighty stock car engines was heard again in the South.
Flock was still in no condition to resume his racing career when the war ended. The fall stock car racing season in 1945 and the entire 1946 campaign was logged in the history pages without the presence of Fonty Flock.
In fact, the 1947 season was well underway when Fonty was healed enough to strap his stocky frame into a racing car. Bob Flock, Fonty's older brother, had convinced car owner Ed Schenck to put Fonty in his car for the inaugural stock car race at North Wilkesboro Speedway. The grand opening for the new track was May 5, 1947 -- and 10,000 spectators and two dozen drivers were on hand for the festive inaugural event.
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On the beach
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Incredibly, Fonty won the pole and his heat race despite being out of racing for four and a half years. And then he scampered to victory in the 30-lap feature, outrunning Glenn Dunnaway and Pepper Cunningham.
A month later, Flock won at Greenville, South Carolina -- just to prove his North Wilkesboro victory wasn't a fluke. He won yet again the next week at Greensboro. Suddenly, Fonty found himself locked in a tight point race.
Victories followed at Charlotte and Trenton while driving a car owned by Al Dykes. At one point in the season, Fonty and Bob Flock were deadlocked atop the point standings for the National Championship Stock Car Circuit, the name of Bill France's sanctioning body before the series was tagged with the familiar NASCAR insignia. Ed Samples, who was declared the 1946 national champion, was also in the hunt for a second straight title.
Bob Flock, who was driving the highly regarded Raymond Parks Ford throughout the season, crashed hard and broke his back in a race at Spartanburg in October. Fonty took over the red and white #14 Ford and, from that point of the season until its conclusion, accumulated more points than any other driver. As the 1947 season drew to a close at Jacksonville, Florida on December 7, 1947, Flock found himself standing on the mighty throne, perched atop stock car racing's most virtuous peak -- the NCSCC champion.
