Charlie Mincey (left) and flagman Neal Roberts shake hands in victoyr lane after a win by Mincey at Gainesville, Georgia’s Looper Speedway in 1954. Photo: Courtesy Mike Bell
Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Charlie Mincey passed away on Thursday at the age of 84.
Mincey was a true pioneer of the sport, and the last of an almost extinct breed – the mountain moonshine hauler turned professional race car driver.
Mincey was born on November 19, 1931 in the Bellwood community of Atlanta, GA.
While many of today’s racing drivers start at a young age, Mincey may well have been a trend setter. He began driving an automobile around Atlanta at the age of 10, and by the time he turned 14, he was already an experience moonshine hauler.
Between the ages of 14 and 19, Mincey said he ran the illegal brew once a night, seven days a week. In five years as a moonshine runner, he never once lost a load.
At the age of 19, Mincey discovered the legendary Peach Bowl Speedway in Northwest Atlanta. A group of car owners made the move to put Mincey into a race car to keep him from going to jail.
Mincey won the first two races he ran in the Jalopy class, leading the track to move him up to the Sportsman division, where he beat fellow Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Jack Smith the first night out.
“Jack took a lot of ribbing in the pits because this ‘kid’ beat him,” Mincey said in an interview with racing historian Mike Bell in the 2002 issue of the Pioneer Pages magazine. “That was probably the reason Jack Smith and I never really got along.”
From there, Mincey became one of the toughest competitors around the southeast. In a career that spanned three decades, he competed and won at tracks such as Max Looper’s Gainesville Speedway in Gainesville, GA (which is now under Lake Lanier), Columbus Super Speedway in Columbus, GA, Athens Speedway in Athens, GA and Toccoa Speedway in Toccoa, GA.
Mincey fought against and beat some of the best drivers in the business, including Buck Simmons, Jack Smith, Gober Sosebee, Luther Carter and Leon Sells.
When the racing scene shifted from the popular “Skeeter” Super Modifieds to Late Model Stock Cars in the late 60’s, Mincey changed with them, and proved he was just as talented – and successful – in those types of car. Seeing his familiar No. 16 was a common sight at Woodstock, GA’s Dixie Speedway, at Rome Speedway and at West Atlanta Raceway.
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During the early 70s, Mincey got a chance to work as a stunt driver in a pair of Hollywood movies. The first was in a 1970 racing film called “Corky”, filmed around Georgia and starring Robert Blake.
Mincey doubled for Blake in a sequence filmed at West Atlanta Raceway in Douglasville, GA, driving a car that Mincey had won all over the southeast in. In the scene, Blake’s character was supposed to take the checkered flag and then crash after spinning across the finish line.
“Those Hollywood people wanted me to wreck the car into the wall and limp across the line in first,” Mincey said in the 2002 interview. “Take that car, that had won so many races, and wreck it for their movie. No way.”
Mincey was offered a job as a stunt driver after filmed wrapped up, but he did not want to make the move to the west coast.
He got another opportunity to work in a film a few years later in a movie called “Moonrunners”, which was the precursor to the “Dukes of Hazzard” television show. The movie starred Jim Mitchum, the son of Hollywood legend Robert Mitchum. In the finale of the film, three cars were supposed to be chased by the police.
“As we raced along the road into town, you came to a big curve,” Mincey said in 2002. “These old cars were just junk and real loose. Mine didn’t make the big curve and ran into the ditch on the side of the road. They didn’t show that in the movie.”
Mincey had a couple of opportunities to go big time racing in NASCAR, but preferred the action and competition he found on the southern short track circuits. Mincey finally hung up his helmet in 1981. In 2004, he was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in Dawsonville, GA. For the remainder of his life, he would be a constant supporter of the facility, appearing at autograph sessions, car shows and reunions. He was a driving force behind the Northwest Georgia Racers Reunion, and was a constant at Hall of Fame events at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
With a career that ran over 30 years, Mincey said he enjoyed it all.
“It was all fun,” he said in 2002. “It wasn’t about the money. I liked Lakewood but I really loved the Peach Bowl.”
Funeral services will be held on Monday, April 11 from the chapel of Winkenhofer Pine Ridge Funeral Home in Kennesaw, GA at 2pm. To read his full obituary, click here.
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