KEEPING THE SPIRIT ALIVE SINCE 1999

Bowie was the first-ever African-American NASCAR driver.

Elias Bowie died 16 years ago, he was 95

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Bowie was born in 1910 in San Antonio, Texas, to a laundress and a hotel porter. He was a transportation entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay, California area with a number of jitney buses and taxi cabs at a time when it was rare for African-Americans to own businesses. A colourful character who loved his Cadillacs, Bowie awlways wore a fedora when he drove (though not in races!). He made his lone NASCAR Grand National Series start on July 31, 1955. Driving at Bay Meadows Speedway, a mile-long dirt track, Bowie completed 172 of 252 laps and finished 28th of 34 cars. He was noted for having the largest pit crew of all the drivers in the race. Though he never achieved the success of Wendell Scott in NASCAR racing he does deserves a mention as the first-ever African-American NASCAR driver.
historicracing.com

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  Gordon Bennett, Jr 1841 - 1918
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  Kay Petre 1903 - 1994
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  Sir David Brown 1904 - 1993
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  George Barringer 1906 - 1946
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  John James 1914 - 2002

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  Jock Horsfall 1910 - 1949
  

  Aston Martin and ERA exponent Jock Horsfall won the 1948 Spa 24 hour race. He was killed the following year in an ERA at Silverstone. During the war he was involved in Operation Mincemeat, a highly successful British plan to convince the German High Command (OKW) that the Allies would invade the Balkans and Sardinia instead of the island of Sicily, the actual objective.

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  Phil Walters 1916 - 2000