#FONTY FLOCK WINS DRIVER#
“My children will have to hold me up.Hendrick would go on to be the winningest driver in track history with 20 victories, and was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2007. It will be hard to accept, knowing he won’t be there to enjoy the honor with me, but he will be there in spirit,” she said. His racecar is there.Īnd next year, when Tim Flock is officially inducted, Frances will be over the moon. She’s given 57 pieces of her husband’s memorabilia to the hall. Her scrapbooks, available for digital viewing, show the early history of the sport. She’s converted her two-car garage into a Flock racing museum.įrances is an ardent supporter of the Hall of Fame, which opened in May 2010. He remained affiliated with the track until his death from liver cancer March 31, 1998.įrances moved to Lancaster County after his death and now lives near family off Possum Hollow Road. Tim Flock then worked at Charlotte Motor Speedway as the track’s ambassador.
He went on to win championships as a driver until he hung up his helmet in 1961 after a disagreement over a proposed driver’s union. In his second year as a driver, he finished third in points, behind Red Byron and his older brother, Fonty. But when NASCAR was formed in 1948, he proved to be a force in it. Their uncle, Leonard “Peachtree” Williams, was one of the biggest bootleggers in Georgia.įrances and Tim Flock married in 1944, and had five children.įorbidden to drive by his mother, Tim Flock didn’t become a serious racer until his mid-20s. Tim Flock, along with his older brothers, Bob and Fonty, were among the NASCAR pioneers who saw the sport transform from a group of moonshiners who raced for pocket money on Sunday afternoons to a multi-billion dollar sport.įrances said whiskey trippin’ – transporting moonshine from the Georgia mountains to Atlanta – became a way for the Flock boys to supplement the family’s income after their dad, Lee Preston Flock, died from cancer in the 1930s. He was really, really good for the sport when it was rough and tumble.” “You could count on one hand, maybe, the times he crashed. “He’s one of the true early pioneers,” said McKim, who always admired his cautious driving style. But his driving made a lasting impact on the sport. The monkey made Tim Flock a household hit. “Jocko Flocko rode for eight races in 1953. “He’s the only driver who had a live monkey race with him,” McKim said. NASCAR historian Buz McKim remembers Tim Flock as a tremendous competitor, for his lifelong promotion of the sport and his showmanship. Tim Flock’s 18 wins stood as a single-season victory record until Richard Petty surpassed it with 27 wins in 1967. In 1955, he posted 18 wins, 32 top fives and 18 poles in 39 races.
#FONTY FLOCK WINS SERIES#
He won his first series title in 1952, driving Ted Chester’s Hudson Hornet, and his second in 1955, driving Carl Kiekhaefer’s Chrysler. In 187 racing starts, Tim Flock had 39 victories, which still ranks him 18th on the all-time win list. Her husband, known as one of sport’s first dominant drivers, will be inducted Jan. “I throwed my hands up and yelled and cried I couldn’t hold back tears. “Everyone could hear me for miles,” said Frances Flock, 84, of Indian Land, who attended the announcement at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in uptown Charlotte. Flock topped the votes among the five Class of 2014 inductees, which also includes Dale Jarrett and Maurice Petty, who were chosen from a group of 25 nominees. The two-time NASCAR premier series champion received 76 percent of the vote by the 54-member panel.