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They could spin a car 180 degrees on its own length without backing off
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It began with the trippers -- the men who hauled illegal moonshine over the back roads of the South from January 16, 1920 to December 5, 1933 when it was against the law to manufacture, sell, or transport liquor in the United States. If nothing else, the boys learned to handle a car while being chased by men determined to catch them.
Bragging rights were important, and bets were placed on the fastest car and the best driver. They ran 'shine during the week and brought their skill and money to the track on Sunday. Some of the tricks learned outrunning the police came along for the ride.
The Lakewood (Georgia) track banned everyone who had been arrested. But nothing could keep these men off one of their favorite tracks. One night a car drove onto the backstretch during the race with the police right behind it. The race car and the police car completed several laps before the racer signaled the pits to open the gate. The next time around he came through the pits and out gate with the police car still in hot pursuit.
Another driver just released from the county jail for making and selling peach brandy
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Checking the 'shine
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broke into the police compound, took his car, and raced that week end.
One driver rigged a pump that injected a fluid into the exhaust and set up a smoke screen. At the next race another driver installed a device that left an oil film on the car chasing him.
"But they could drive. I mean, they drove on back roads at night with their lights off, and they flew. Why, they could spin a car 180 degrees on its own length without backing off. Nobody would give an inch, and if you didn't get out of the way, they'd run over you. When the flag dropped you'd think war was declared. They went any place there was an opening -- down through the pits, in the grass, the infield, anywhere," Bill Tuthill recalls.
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