When auto racing was introduced in the south in the late 40's and 50's, it seemed there were plenty of cars and drivers, but as more and more tracks opened and more than one of them staged races on the same nights, the number of cars at each track dwindled. In those days, there were only two divisions seen at a local track on a weekly basis and that was what NASCAR called its "Limited Sportsman" division and the other was the "Modified" and most of the tracks used this name whether they were NASCAR sanctioned or not. Normally, a track would run one division or the other, but not both. By the early 60's the number of cars might total 15, so promoters had to turn to all kinds of gimmicks to attract fans, because it was hard to keep everyone excited when two heat races, a consolation and a main event were run with 15 or less drivers competing.

Below are some things promoters did to attract a crowd.

Bobby Allison and Red Farmer ran the circuit from South Florida through Alabama
in the early days and would run as many as seven nights a week.

Donnie Allison was a regular on the Florida-Georgia-Alabama-Tennessee circuit. 
As you can see from grease on his clothing, he, like many others, was a one-man team.

"Co Co" Marlin was a regular in Tennessee and Alabama in the early days.

A young driver out of Spartanburg, S. C. turned heads with his driving ability as he competed at Spartanburg, Greenville Pickens, Anderson, Greenwood and Columbia. He won several races one year while driving with a broken foot, an injury that occurred while he was working on his car.

Promoters turned to daredevils who would perform "stunts" during intermission. Probably the most famous stunt was the one where the "daredevil" would crawl into a box which was surrounded by dynamite and would "blow himself up". The box would be blown to bits, but the "daredevil" would eventually come to his senses and would stand up and wave to the crowd. "Lucky" Waters was a touring "daredevil" whose famous act was to run a speeding car into a wall of ice. He also did other stunts. Pete Kiker (above) gets ready to perform the "Wall of Fire" stunt.

Pete Kiker is rammed head-first through several burning slats to complete "Wall of Fire" stunt.

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