SPECIAL OR EXTRA STORIES
These are usually prepared for
newspapers that want additional race coverage.
Sometimes a newspaper will be
putting out a racing tabloid of several pages just prior to a race, and will
need extra stories and photographs.
Arrangements are usually made
in advance as to the type and number of stories and photographs that will be
needed.
In addition to advance racing
stories, this might include track info, driver profiles, graphics and
photographs.
Where the information is at
hand or on file, these type stories with photo run about $25, but they could be
more, depending on the length of the story. Prices are always discussed in
advance.
A WOMAN NAMED “LOU”
By Gerald Hodges/the Racing Reporter
When NASCAR founder, Bill France Sr. sought out ways to increase the attendance at his local racing shows he went looking for a woman racer.
That woman turned out to be Louise Smith of
Smith, who became the first woman inducted into the International Motor
Sports Hall of Fame, in
After racing on local tracks, she sneaked off to Daytona in February,
1947, to see if she could tame the famed beach course. She planned to use her
husband’s new Ford, and hid a special engine in the trunk.
Never having raced on the sandy beach before, she was following a line
of cars through the north turn, when there was a seven-car pileup.
“I hit the back end of one of them, went up in the air, cut a tire and
landed on my top,” she said. “The cops were standing next to an old wooden
grandstand, and they ran over, turned the car back on its wheels, and I
finished the race 13th.
“I couldn’t take the car back home in that condition, so I drove it as
far north as
After arriving home on the bus, her husband asked her where the car was.
After an explanation that refused to convince her husband, he pulled out
a local
Smith had fallen in love with the sport and though her husband refused to watch her race or approve, there was always help waiting at the track in the form of a couple of his mechanics from the family auto-related business.
“I won a lot of races, crashed a lot too, and broke just about every
bone in my body,” she said during a 1996 interview. “But I gave it all I had.”
Smith was born in Barnesville
In 1946 with a race at the Greenville-Pickens track, Big Bill sought the advice of locals for a woman driver to boost attendance and was told of the terror to the local official, who often outran them during a chase.
Louise finished third that night, however she didn’t realize that the checkered flag signaled the end of the race, so she kept on whizzing around the track until someone threw a red flag, the one she was told that meant stop.
She was notorious for some of her wrecks, with one in particular that nearly ended her life. At Hillsborough one year she crashed her car after it launched into the air, and it took workers over thirty minutes to cut her free. She ended up with four pins in her knee and forty eight stitches to close the wounds.
Her career spanned from 1945-1956, with 38 wins over the next 11 years, often competing against the true legends of early Stock Car racing. Richard Petty, Buck Baker, Tim and Fonty Flock, and more all came to respect her talent for driving, even dubbing her the “Good Ol’ Gal.”
What makes her accomplishments even greater is that she competed at
tracks from
After retiring in 1956 she remained active within the community and was
affiliated with the Living Legends Club in Daytona and The Old Timer’s racing
club in
Louise Smith was duly recognized for her importance to the sport with
her induction into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame at
For additional information, call;
Courtesy of NASCAR
Copyright HNS