Lloyd Seay poses in front of Raymond Parks’ Hemphill Service Station in Atlanta, GA. He went on to win at Atlanta's Lakewood Speedway in 1938. Photo courtesy Eddie Samples
The short but daring career of Lloyd Seay began somewhere around the summer of 1934 in the hills of Dawsonville, GA.
When he was as young as 13 years old, he was driving some sort of jalopy to haul a small load of Dawsonville’s finest moonshine out of the woods and down to Atlanta.
He most likely at the time worked for the legendary Raymond Parks, his older and successful cousin.
Many lawmen that covered “the old bootlegger’s trail” also known as GA Highway 9 were quoted as saying Seay was the best automobile driver they’d seen. When running the precious white liquid to Atlanta, you had to be careful. If any bottles or jars broke, you lost money.
But that certainly didn’t apply to Lloyd Seay. He could ease in and out of the winding mountain roads and make his way down to the re-built city of Atlanta. He could easily top 100mph while driving with his palms at the bottom of the steering wheel facing up. That allowed him to make a complete turning motion at once if he ever needed to make a 180 degree bootlegger’s turn.
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