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9781609381974

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John Havick has written an important, informative account of the early days of racing in the Midwest. He focuses on the life and times of Iowan Johnny Beauchamp, the Ghost of Playland Park, the declared victor of the very first Daytona 500--until NASCAR czar Bill France and racing legend Lee Petty conspired to cheat him out of his victory. The Ghosts of NASCAR is a winner. --Peter Golenbock, author, American Zoom, Last Lap, and NASCAR Confidential

""A detailed account of stock car racing's overlooked pre-TV days, a simpler era when a big-hearted, lead-footed, small-town midwestern boy could reach NASCAR's top tiers. This is more than an investigation of the controversial first Daytona 500. It's the story of the sport's coming of age.""--Neal Thompson, author, Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR ""Dale Swanson was a top race mechanic, careful and creative. Tiny Lund was a good, ferocious competitor, particularly on dirt tracks, and Johnny Beauchamp in fewer than thirty races proved he could race and win against the top NASCAR drivers. This book describes how these three learned to compete on midwestern tracks. . . . It is a story not to be missed.""--Rex White, 1960 NASCAR Grand National Champion ""John Havick has written an important, informative account of the early days of racing in the Midwest. He focuses on the life and times of Iowan Johnny Beauchamp, the Ghost of Playland Park, the declared victor of the very first Daytona 500--until NASCAR czar Bill France and racing legend Lee Petty conspired to cheat him out of his victory. The Ghosts of NASCAR is a winner.""--Peter Golenbock, author, American Zoom, Last Lap, and NASCAR Confidential

John Havick has written an important, informative account of the early days of racing in the Midwest. He focuses on the life and times of Iowan Johnny Beauchamp, the Ghost of Playland Park, the declared victor of the very first Daytona 500 until NASCAR czar Bill France and racing legend Lee Petty conspired to cheat him out of his victory. The Ghosts of NASCAR is a winner. Peter Golenbock, author, American Zoom, Last Lap, and NASCAR Confidential

Author Information

When John Havick’s grandfather sold his car to local boy and aspiring racecar driver Johnny Beauchamp, the young Havick went to see how the car performed. Falling in love with the sport, he kept scrapbooks of newspaper articles and programmes tracking the triumphs and defeats of Beauchamp, Tiny Lund, and many other successful racers from the town of Harlan, Iowa. Then he went away to high school and college, leaving his childhood hobby behind but never forgetting it. After a career teaching public policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, he revived his interest in the sport and decided to tackle one of its longtime controversies: who really won the inaugural Daytona 500 in 1959? The result of years of research and scores of interviews, this book tells the whole story.

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