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The hard packed
sand between Daytona Beach and its northern neighbor Ormond Beach was
the site of the world-record automobile speed trials. They started
in 1902 and picked up speed right up to the '30s. By then the
speeds were approaching 300 miles per hour along the firm and smooth
inviting sand. In the spring of 1935 Sir Malcolm Campbell was taking his
Bluebird rocket car to Daytona Beach in hopes of running at 300 miles
per hour for yet another land speed record. One of the spectators
in Campbell's 1935 run was a man named William "Big Bill"
Henry Getty France.
France had moved his
family to Daytona Beach from Washington D.C. in 1934 and later bought an
Amoco gas station at 316 Main Street. Though he was a banker, he was
also a skilled mechanic and was one of those original stock car racers
who finished 5th in the inaugural beach race in 1936. In December 1947,
France, Bill Tuthill and 18 racing men gathered in the Streamline
Hotel (now a Youth Hostel) at 140 South Atlantic Avenue in Daytona
Beach to form the National
Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) with France as its
President.
William Henry Getty
France is the founding father of the National Association for Stock Car
Automobile Racing (NASCAR), considered the most popular form of motor sports
in the United States. From humble beginnings, he directed it through
uncertain growth and into the multimillion-dollar industry it is today.
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Benny Carvagno owns the
real birthplace of NASCAR- the former Amoco station at
316 Main Street !
He converted the station into an open air bar and grill, calling it
"Main Street Station." After a few years of putting up
with so-called expert managers, Benny took the operation into his own
capable hands. His first managerial decision was to refuse to go along
with the discriminatory unofficial local law of " no biker club
colors allowed." |
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This was hailed by local patch wearers as
revolutionary and they thronged to the bar. Now patch holders again had
a bar down on Main Street, a bar that had a huge outside yard on Main
Street. Families are always welcome, with soda and food. Check
out the Main Street Station Menu.
The local law
enforcement establishment flipped over Benny's operating policy and
threatened to close him down. Benny, not one to back down to
intimidation, got into his most belligerent fighting stance and
challenged them head on.
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