PAST IMPERFECT:All the early stars of Nascar started out as bootleggers, writes BOB MONTGOMERY
BETWEEN 1880 and the first World War many states in the US exercised their right to enforce the ‘local option’ or prohibition laws which gave them the right to ban the sale of alcohol. A great increase in alcoholism in the years following the war led to the ratification in January 1919 of the 18th Amendment which made it illegal to manufacture, sell, transport, import or export intoxicating liquors. In October of the same year, Congress passed the Volstead Act, which provided for the enforcement of that amendment, and so it was that at 12.01am on January 17th, 1920, “the noble experiment” began: America was on the wagon.
The Prohibition Enforcement Bureau – “the Revenuers” – were given the job of destroying every still and arresting every “shine runner” they could catch. Their efforts did little to stem the flow of illegal whiskey, which found its way to the big cities by boat, plane and even by gasoline tanker. For a while fast boats were used to transport illegal whiskey from Mexico and South America and despite the involvement of the US Navy a fast boat nearly always got through.
But no matter how it found its way into the country, eventually the whiskey had to be delivered by road. In the early days of Prohibition, bootleggers used large “highway schooners” such as a Packard, Cadillac or Pierce-Arrow, which could carry large quantities of whiskey and still outrun the law. Many were chauffeurs who ‘borrowed’ their employers’ cars and would use his name if they were caught. Usually, the owners were prominent businessmen a police officer was reluctant to tangle with.
Before long there were just too many of these high-powered cars on the road and something less conspicuous was called for. In the 1920s that usually meant a Ford. But the Fords were rarely fast enough so the bootleggers began to modify them. Harry Hosterman was a well-respected mechanic typical of the men who developed a reputation for tuning these bootlegging Fords. He developed a single overhead-cam head for the Model A and B Ford which gave the cars a top speed of 100mph, usually good enough to out-run the law. So successful was Hosterman that his products became known as Hal Speed Equipment. Hosterman went into the racing business developing a double overhead-cam head for the Model B Ford that became known as “the poor man’s Offy”.
Not surprisingly many of the bootleggers developed into good drivers who when prohibition ended in December 1933, looked for other outlets which would let them continue to drive cars fast. It was future Nascar founder Bill France Sr who started promoting races for the ex-bootleggers on half-mile dirt tracks.
All the early stars of Nascar had started as bootleggers. That America’s most popular form of motor racing should be born out of Prohibition was something no one could have anticipated, but then the ‘good old boys’ were always a law unto themselves.