sosebee's History Revisited at Daytona Beach

2/20/2025

By Cody Dinsmore

On February 4th, 1950, Georgia Racing Pioneer, Gober Sosebee, made history by claiming his first official NASCAR victory on Daytona Beach. A year later on February 10th, 1951, he went back to back and won again.  If you missed my last article, which was a deep in depth history of Sosebee’s triumphs at Daytona, click here to read. 

On February 8th, 2025, 75 years later, history was recreated. 

Not only did one of Gober Sosebee’s original racecars make the trek to Daytona…not two, but three restored Cherokee Garage Ford’s were on hand for the annual Daytona Beach Parade. One that takes part on a portion of the original course that was raced on until 1958. With over 60 vintage and historic racecars in attendance for the Saturday festivities, having three similar looking cars parked in a more unique way than the others lined up definitely drew a small crowd. 

David Sosebee, who owns his father’s 1939 Ford Coupe that raced to two victories on the beach decades before, had brought the car a few times in the past several years. Bud Layton, who also owns one of Gober’s old racers had been doing the same. The JB Day family, of South Carolina, has the #51 in their collection, which hadn’t seen the sand in over 20 years. The latter two raced by Sosebee, Jerry Wimbish & Max King.  This was the first time the three cars had been together oceanside since the 1950’s.  The three Sosebee cars are some of the oldest documented Beach-era stock cars in existence, with Sosebee’s black #50 believed to be the oldest surviving NASCAR-winning racecar, having won in 1950 & 1951. 

I made the trip down with David and his wife for the sole purpose of not only experiencing the history on such an anniversary, but also to document the events of the day. One way or another, I was not going to miss out on this. The Saturday morning festivities started at 10am, with cars allowing to line up around 8:30. By the time I got my camera out and set up to document the morning, I only had roughly 30-40 minutes to capture everything I could. Looking back, while I didn’t get to take in the moments, I’m thankful I can look back on the photos of such. We brought both of Gober’s actual winning trophies from his victories on the same grounds, in 1950 and 51’ and took respective photos with the cars. We had the #50 & #51 positioned in such a way to replicate a recently discovered photo of the same two cars on the beach in 1954. Again, the first time those two had been together on the sand in 71 years. (A then and now photo posted at the bottom of this page).  

When the announcement was made for driver’s to start their engines and a thundering rumble echoed against the modern beachfront condominiums, I climbed into the #50 and positioned myself in the passenger floorboard. I didn’t have a seat, a milk crate or even a bucket, but I made it work. As David took off and the Flathead Ford sang to us, I just imagined what it was like for Gober to kick it sideways in the North Turn 75 years prior. Once the line of cars moved from the sand, up to highway A1A, we might’ve reached 20 mph, again just imagining what it was like to take the 39’ Ford up to nearly 120 mph in qualifying 8 decades prior. With only a lap belt, a door held shut by a leather strap and a rollbar fashioned from a leaf spring, racers like Sosebee were cut from a different cloth. 

The following Monday, we participated in another parade sponsored by the Living Legends of Auto Racing, which in addition to a car show, offered a chance to drive the beach again, albeit a different section of the beach further north than the original layout. None the matter, the original cars met the sand again much to the enjoyment of the thousands of onlookers.

Right before the car was loaded back up to make the long haul back to Dawsonville Ga, I spent a few minutes taking even more photos of the car and trophies. I then realized that it was the same day that Gober won the 1951 race (the tall trophy), just 74 years later. We had came to celebrate the 75th anniversary of his first win, and meanwhile remembered the history for the second win as well. The feeling I got while taking those pictures was simply indescribable, especially those of the trophies. Emotion, joy, and goosebumps are some of the words I’d use to describe. To know that these immeasurable pieces of history were right there, in front of my lens and I got to experience all this was just truly something else. A wave of emotion hit me that I just wasn’t expecting. 

This short scribe certainly isn’t about me, but more for the man we were honoring the legacy of. One that’s not a household name or commonly written about in history books, but very meaningful to students of history like myself. I was just honored to play a small part in documenting this history for future generations to come. You never know, it could’ve been the last time all three cars were there. You never know if years down the road, laws and ordinances will still allow the vintage cars to parade up the beach.  I recently read a quote that really resonated with me personally, “Maybe I wasn’t born in the wrong generation….maybe I was born to keep the old ones alive”

And with that, I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking.