The Diamond Anniversary of Gober Sosebee's triumph at daytona

2/4/2025

By Cody Dinsmore

When it comes to living history, there’s nothing more satisfying to a student of history than to stand in the presence of something timeless and historic. Be it a place, a document, an artifact, or in this case, a car.  At the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in Dawsonville Ga, sits the very car that Gober Sosebee raced to victory at Daytona Beach not once, but twice in the infancy of NASCAR. We can talk about history, and we can write about it, but to have the pieces and artifacts that made that history is really something unique.

It's a special day, as today, February 4th, 2025, marks the 75th anniversary of Sosebee’s first official Daytona win (more on the official part later).  

Sosebee, known to fans and competitors alike as “The Wild Injun” had his eyes set on a Daytona victory for quite some time. Even in the days before the big Daytona International Speedway and the Daytona 500 we have today, a win down there was a big deal. Gober had started racing stock cars in 1939, and had made his first trip down the sandy shores of Daytona in 1946, driving a Buick Convertible. During the next few years, Gober would enter cars at Daytona, but luck wouldn’t be in his favor. In one race, he entered both his racecar and his tow car in the race. You can read more about that story here . He would enter the first ever NASCAR race in 1948 at Daytona driving a 1947 Buick Sedanette, which had a sloped roofline and was a precursor to the fastback model of years later.

In late 1948, Gober had started to race under the Cherokee Garage banner. The Cherokee garage was owned by fellow Georgia Racing Hall of Famer, Billie Hester, and got it’s name from it’s original location in Cherokee County Ga, in the mid 1930’s, but moved to it’s more known Atlanta location years later. Driving the Cherokee Garage Special was great for Gober as he himself had Cherokee lineage. 

Gober had arrived in Daytona in 1950 with his 1939 Ford Coupe, with beautiful fresh paint, lettering and the trademark Indian Head on the doors and trunk. Sosebee came more prepared than he had in the past. The year prior, he had made a trip to California with his wife and another couple to visit legendary engine builder, Fred Offenhaueser. In meeting Offenhauser, Gober would not only pick up a few tricks and knowledge, but also gained a distributorship for the west coast brand’s speed parts and accessories. Gober did all the machine work and tuning on his car and engine, so he knew better than anyone else exactly what he was looking for. He installed things like Offenhauser Heads, three two-barrel Stromberg Carburetors and a handmade fuel pump. He’d install an oversized radiator from a 2 ton Ford Truck for better cooling as the old Ford Flathead engines were prone to overheating, especially when you’d run flatout for 2 miles at a time on the old Beach course. To accommodate the radiator that was wider than what the stock Ford hood allowed, he modified the hood with what he later called “eyebrows” by heating up, cutting, welding and expanding the hood to shut properly. When you watch old films from the Daytona Beach Course, the North Turn was notoriously rough. As the race progressed, ruts would develop in the sand and get deeper and deeper, causing axles to snap. Sosebee’s solution was upgrade the rear end of the Ford with heavier duty truck hubs along with Lincoln Zephyr gears in the rear end to achieve a higher top speed.  Gober was also one of, if not the first to factor in safety measures like adding a roll bar. The year prior at the same race, Sosebee flipped his car in qualifying and caved in the roof. Not only did he finish his qualifying attempt with the car looking like it was barely saved from the crusher, but the roof was beaten out the night before the race so he could compete. This led Sosebee to take an old leaf spring and weld it to two vertical pipes that was placed inside the cockpit of his car to try and prevent the roof from caving in, should he find himself in an accident again. By 1952, rollbars were mandatory for a NASCAR race.  Another safety feature he added was cutting a slit in the quarter windows on each side of the car so a belt or strap could be wrapped around the door post to help keep the door shut at high speeds.  The seat he’d pilot the car from came from a WWII aircraft complete with a lap safety belt acquired from an Army surplus store. 

As the story goes, Sosebee also had installed three gas tanks  in his car to rid himself of needing to make a stop for fuel. 

Heartbreak had been experienced in Daytona previously by Sosebee. For 1950, he was bound to take victory that had eluded him before. 

A year prior, in January of 1949 for the NASCAR Modified race at Daytona, Gober had an up and down weekend. As mentioned earlier, he flipped his car qualifying, finished his timed run with a caved-in roof, and repaired the car the best he and his crewmen could, for the race the next morning.  During the race, a friend and fellow competitor, Jack Smith, had wrecked out early and was watching the race from the side lines with Sosebee’s crew. Late in the going, the Cherokee Garage Ford had pulled in for fuel. As a crewman attempted to fuel the car, a problem was realized that there was no liquid coming out of the spout… from a full can. Gober didn’t have any time to waste so he simply shouted out “I’ll be back”, dumped the clutch, and made his way back around for another lap.  Remember that the old Daytona Beach course was 4 miles in length. So with ample time to observe and diagnose the problem, Jack Smith was ready and waiting for Gober to come back around. During this time, there really wasn’t a thing as pit road, but moreless pulling off to the side of the track to where your volunteer crew and tools were. Again, Smith was ready with a solution to Sosebee’s problem.  As the legend has it, Smith waited for Gober, on the passenger side of the car, gas can in hand, and when the car was just about slowed to a stop, Smith jumped on the running board and yelled “GO!”. He climbed through the passenger window with the gas can and piled in the floorboard of the rumbling coupe. He hollered for Gober to keep going, and that he had it under control.  What had happened in an apparent act of sabotage from another competitor, several shop-rags had been stuffed in the neck of the gas can, causing nothing to come out while it was tipped up. As Sosebee was just about on fumes coming back to the paved part of the track on Highway A1A, Smith had successfully dug the rags out and started to dump fuel into the fuel tank, located right behind the driver’s seat in the cockpit.  Once the mobile fuel up was completed, the two drivers and future Hall of Famer’s agreed that because they saved so much time by not having to make a pit stop, this should put the Sosebee car in the lead, with just a handful of laps remaining. Smith agreed to stay in the car as the checkered flag eventually fell first on the duo.  When Sosebee went to collect his earnings from his victory, he was met first by NASCAR President and former competitor, Bill France. France informed Sosebee that he was disqualified from the race.  When Sosebee asked why, France shot back that he had a passenger and that wasn’t allowed. Gober had a rulebook handy (with Nascar being just a year old, it couldn’t have been very thick) and thumbed through it, stating “There’s nowhere in here that says I couldn’t have a passenger!”.  Allegedly, Bill grabbed the rule book, took out a pencil, and wrote it himself “NO PASSENGERS ALLOWED” and hastily threw it back to Gober. Needless to say, there was a heated exchange of words between the ‘Wild Injun’ and ‘Big Bill’.

The next and only other race held at Daytona for 1949 was in July, for the second race of NASCAR’s newly developed ‘Strictly Stock’ division, now known as the Cup Series. This series, which only ran 8 races in 1949 were based on showroom stock cars; something the common man could go and purchase at his local dealer. Since stock car racing had taken off roughly 13 years prior to this, the cars used were older models, mostly pre-war cars, with modified engines and didn’t really showcase what was currently being built in Detroit at that time. Sosebee showed up to the summer Daytona classic with a brand new Oldsmobile Rocket 88, which soon became a favorite stock car in the early years of NASCAR. He was looking for redemption from his woes during the previous race. He was not going to be denied. He took his Olds, with the paint scheme mirroring his modified Ford Coupe, and set the fastest time in qualifying, securing the first pole position for a NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona.  At the drop of the green flag, the #50 Oldsmobile galloped ahead of the field and would remain there. This race was 160 miles in length and 40 laps (4 mile course). Sosebee led the first 34 laps before reluctantly relinquishing the lead. As a result of driving all out and giving it everything he had to ensure he had a huge lead, he wore a tire down to the cording and blew the right front tire. Stories handed down from those who witnessed his performance reported that he had nearly a whole straightaway lead on the second place driver. That's impressive in itself, but remember the Daytona Beach Course was two miles on the sand, and two miles on the road, so a whole straight-away with a stock Oldsmobile is nothing short of impressive. Needless to say, with a blown right front tire, and with that big of an advantage, it took a little bit of time before second place Red Byron could catch up to the limping #50. Byron, who was the Champion of NASCAR’s inaugural season and would go on to capture the Strictly Stock title later that year, cruised by Sosebee en route to lead the remaining 6 laps and win yet another race at Daytona.  Gober limped his car back to the pits where the crew changed the tire and sent him back out to secure an 8th place finish. Both races at Daytona for 49’ really stung Sosebee on a personal level. Twice he was in position to have won.  And twice he was shot down. It just wasn’t his time yet, but he made up for it. 

1950 would be different…

As mentioned earlier, Sosebee came prepared to Daytona Beach in 1950. He wasn’t going to be denied. To ensure he wouldn’t have to deal with a sabotaged gas can during a pit stop, he installed three gas tanks in the car. One in the right front footwell of the 39’ Ford. One in the right rear of the cabin, and one directly behind the driver’s seat. Essentially, a rolling bomb. Sosebee had also been experimenting with Alcohol as a fuel. Alcohol was favored due to added horsepower it would give, as well as it’s slower burn rate compared to regular gasoline. At that time, running this fuel was legal with NASCAR, but would soon be banned within the next few years. 

In qualifications for the 1950 Modified race, participants would run a ‘measured mile’ up the beach rather than a lap of the four mile course. Since half of it was on a public road, it would only be shut down for raceday. Sosebee would set a blistering 114.43 mph pace. However, Bob Flock in his #14 Ford Coupe would barely exceed Sosebee’s speed, by just .02 mph at 114.45.  In the race, which had 46 entries, a massive crash in the opening laps would take out 17 of the entries. Once the track had been cleared and the race restarted, the eldest of the Flock brothers held the lead until lap 7, when Gober and his #50 roared by and never looked back. Sosebee led the rest of the 100 mile race and would take the checkered flag, a full one minute and eleven seconds over second place Fireball Roberts. 

A crowd of reporters, fans and friends would gather around the Cherokee Garage Coupe after the race. By the next morning, photos of Sosebee and his crew standing by the #50 sipping Cokes would be plastered on dozens of different newspapers across the country via the Associated Press.  Not bad for a former liquor hauler.

The next day, NASCAR would host the 200 mile Grand National Race (Cup Series) in the first edition of what we now know as Speedweeks. Gober, along with a host of other Georgia Hall of Famer’s would compete, but it was Harold Kite, who won the February classic in a 1949 Lincoln over defending champion, Red Byron. Out of the 41 entries of the Grand National race, 10 of them have been inducted to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame. 

By the early 50’s, race officials had begun to seek a tradition of keeping a routine schedule for the infamous beach races. Coming from a time just a decade earlier where as many as four races were run throughout the year, they now were keeping theme with what we still know as February Speedweeks.  Sosebee was prepared to defend his Daytona title won the year prior.  New for 1951 was the Sportsman’s Division race that would replace the Modified race. The Sportsman’s race was the same distance as the Grand National race - 160 miles and top speeds were almost identical. The Sportsman’s class was basically the modified cars of years past with some minor adjustments such as: no multi carburetor setups or specially designed racing heads. Such rule changes were enough to attract 96 entries for the February 10th race. 

Sosebee brought his trusty 1939 Ford Coupe back to Daytona in 51’ to enter in the new Sportsman series. His familiar car was the same one he had won with the year prior, but with just one carburetor rather than the dual carb set-up he had in 1950.  Unfortunately, the car was without its popular Indian Head and red and gold lettering. In tirelessly working up till the last minute on his car back in Atlanta, there wasn’t enough time to get it into the paint booth to give it a fresh coat. So, when Sosebee arrived to the sandy shores of Daytona this time, all he could do was use a bottle of shoe polish to slap a number on the door and his name on the roof. Afterall, Gober preferred to let his driving do the talking. 

Buck Baker, driving a 49 Oldsmobile won the pole and jumped out to lead the first 12 laps of the 160 mile event.  The fuel pump started to go out on the Griffin Motors Oldsmobile handing the lead to Joe Wolf, who would lead for 9 laps. Sosebee would take the top position on lap 22 of 39, and much like the year before, never relinquished it. He finished a full 51 seconds ahead of the runner-up.  A bit less than the 1:11 lead he won with the year before, but it was certainly another dominating performance.  Another car Sosebee owned, driven by Jerry Wimbish, would finish in 6th place. 

Sosebee continued to bring a couple of 39’ Fords for the next several years as he would race one himself, and another for other drivers such as Wimbish, and Max King, who had regularly traveled with Sosebee to the beach races. The last time Sosebee ran the 39’ Ford on the Beach was in qualifying in 1955, but mechanical failure prevented him from starting the race.  Gober would also compete in the Grand National races on Daytona Beach with moderate success and several top 10 finishes. 

In the mid 1980’s, Sosebee and his two sons performed a painstakingly faithful restoration to his favorite racecar, one that had brought so much triumph decades prior.  And although Sosebee passed away in 1996, he was honored as one of the Inaugural Inductees to the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in his hometown of Dawsonville Ga. That is the semi-permanent home for the legendary car. It’s also where a portion of his trophies are viewed by leagues of fans daily, including both of his Daytona trophies. It’s where a pair of his original driving clothes (white shirt and pants) are donned upon a mannequin. To have the package of all of these items, is simply immeasurable. Where else can you see what is believed to be the oldest surviving NASCAR winning race car as well as the trophies that go with it.  

75 years ago today, do you think Gober Sosebee had even an inkling of an idea that what he was doing would be celebrated three quarters of a century later?  We can only celebrate an anniversary like this once, and who knows how it'll be for the next anniversary of 100 years. Will there still be gasoline powered racecars? Will there still be fans that care about history? That's why this is such an important date and piece of history. 

*Later this week, three of Gober’s modified Fords, including this one, will be taking to the sands once again to relive history and participate in the annual Daytona Beach Parade.