Interesting facts about bill france sr biography
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During that same period in the South, particularly in Florida, Alabama and up through the Carolinas, there was a parallel phenomenon called stock car racing – and leading the movement was a big man named Bill France.
France, a Daytona, Florida service station owner, could sense the popularity of this new sport.
Visionary that he was, even Bill France himself could not have envisioned this result when he called together a small group of people in a Daytona meeting room in 1947.
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The first was Daytona International Speedway, a 2.5-mile track which opened in 1959 and is the home of the most prestigious stock car race of them all, the Daytona 500.The second was the Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Ala., formerly called Alabama International Motor Speedway.
The going was tough. At nearly 2.7 miles, it is still the largest and fastest oval track in the world. It opened in 1969.
Finally, there is the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, located adjacent to Talladega Superspeedway. From humble beginnings, he directed it through uncertain growth and into the multimillion-dollar industry it is today.
Along the way, he saw come into being three visions: visions that would enhance the entire world of racing.
"Big Bill," as he was known, is the unquestioned godfather of the Autosport.
Read MoreBill France Sr. was born with a mind for business, a gift for people — and a need for speed. France decided to do it himself.
France was successful and branched out to other races.
And the speedways in Daytona and Talladega, along with the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, remain titanic testaments to one man’s visions, ambition and determination.
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William Henry Getty France could never have forseen or believed that his early attempts to organize and legitimize stock car racing would evolve into one of America’s fastest growing and most popular sports.
In the 1930s and 1940s on the West Coast, there was a growing phenomenon called hot rodding.
France envisioned an enclosed, paved track with amenities for both teams and spectators. William Henry Getty France is the founding father of the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing (NASCAR), considered the most popular form of motorsports in the United States. When they got to Daytona Beach, France thought it was the prettiest place he’d ever seen, so they settled there.
In 1936, the city of Daytona Beach promoted a stock car race and lost money.
NASCAR has grown into the world’s premier stock car racing circuit. At 2.5 miles around, Daytona was the same size as the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but with banked turns as much as 31 degrees (vs. The following year, the Elks Club did likewise. At 2.66 miles, it is the largest and fastest track in the world. This tribute to the great people and machines embraced France and 19 others on a memorable July 25, 1990.
As a teenager growing up around Washington, D.C., France was captivated by racing.
He turned those passions into a nationwide obsession with stock car racing. That vision became reality in 1959, when France opened the Daytona International Speedway. That meeting was the beginning of the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing, or NASCAR, and a France family member has been at the helm ever since.
Stock car races in the 1950s were held on makeshift tracks that often included sections of beach and roads.
France founded the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing — NASCAR — 75 years ago this week, on Feb. 21, 1948, in Daytona Beach, Florida.
It became the circuit which provided motorsports with many of its greatest drivers and events. So he took his wife Anne, his young son Bill Jr., a set of tools, $25 cash and a Hupmobile and headed for Florida.
France founded the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing — NASCAR — 75 years ago this week, on Feb. 21, 1948, in Daytona Beach, Florida.