Rural Habersham County, Georgia is known for many things. There’s the county seat of Clarkesville, with its classic hometown look. There’s the city of Cornelia, with its railroad museum and annual Big Red Apple Festival. Not to mention the hamlet of Demorest, home to Piedmont College.
But what it’s not as well known for is being host to a pair of race tracks that, despite having short histories, brought in some of the top drivers of the day.
The Habersham Speedway and the Hollywood Speedway were separated by about 10 miles on the map and about six years on the timeline, but neither has faded form the memories of many long-time area race fans.
The Habersham Speedway was a built in 1947, near the county line with Stephens County. It was owned by Bill Irvin, with Toccoa, Georgia native Pee Wee Dooley serving as the first promoter of the speedway.
Dooley, who was friends with Georgia Racing Hall of Fame inductees Tommie Irvin and Swayne Pritchett, was an early racing mechanic, owning and operating his own garage out of Toccoa. He and Irvin oversaw the construction of the half-mile dirt track, which boasted a huge set of grandstands on the front stretch, as well as trackside parking in a manner not usually seen until the ‘60s or ‘70s at area short tracks.
When the speedway opened later that year, it drew many early area stars, including Billy Carden and Jack Ethridge. Tommie Irvin and Pritchett were among the early winners at the track.
But the speedway ran into early trouble from local authorities. During an event held on October 7, 1947, some 30 people at the track were charged by local authorities with “violating the Sabbath.”
That trouble was followed soon after by tragedy, when Dooley lost his life in a bizarre home accident.
Upon returning home from the speedway, Dooley failed to notice that the pilot light had gone out, filling his home with gas. He tried to light a cigarette, triggering an explosion and fire that left Dooley dead.
The track would sit dormant until July 5, of 1948, when Tommie Irvin stepped in to promote a race in honor of Pee Wee Dooley. That event, notably, was run on a Monday afternoon as to not violate the county’s “Sunday law.”
With Irvin having competed on the NASCAR circuit, he was able to draw in a number of notable drivers from the tour, including Red Byron, piloting the famed No. 22 Ford owned by Raymond Parks, along with Dawsonville, Georgia’s Gober Sosebee, the Flock Brothers – Tim, Bob, and Fonty – from Atlanta, Jack Ethridge and Ed Samples, both from Atlanta, and Florida ace Bill Snowden, among others.
Of note is the entry of Olen Allen, driving the Jack Edwards-owned No. 17 Ford. Two months earlier, local racing hero Swayne Pritchett lost his life after an accident in the car at the Jackson County Speedway in Jefferson, Georgia.
With an estimated 2,000 people in attendance, Georgia Racing Hall of Famer Billy Carden scored the win, with Allen following in second.
The speedway ran at least one more event, in December of 1948 with drivers such as Samples, Sosebee, Ethridge, Skimp Hersey, Bill Blair and Bob Flock in competition, according to a program from the event. It’s unclear who won the event.
That was the last great hurrah for the Habersham Speedway. The track would sit abandoned for many years, with the stands, infield structures and other items disassembled and sold off for the lumber.
In the early 80s, there was talk of reopening the speedway, but a local politician, who owned an adjacent piece of property, put the kibosh on that idea.
The outline and track surface remains today, with a greenhouse built on a portion of one of the straightaways.
Hollywood Speedway
Almost ten years later, the sound of racing engines returned to the hills of Habersham County – but it was all too brief.
Area native Tom Fountain got the idea that his hometown, the small, unincorporated hamlet of Hollywood, Georgia, would be the perfect spot for a race track.
Built on what was at the time Georgia Highway 17 – now Hollywood Church Road – Fountain would serve as the owner and operator. Rufus Tribble, who had also constructed nearby Toccoa Speedway, graded and built the ¼-mile clay oval. Fountain would run the track under the sanctioning of the Drivers Auto Racing Enterprise (DARE), which was operated by Tribble and Toccoa Speedway owner Garland Sheriff.
To say that the Hollywood Speedway’s run was brief is a gross understatement. The track would hold only two races before it was shuttered.
The Hollywood Speedway opened on Sunday, May 13, 1956. Georgia Racing Hall of Fame inductee Roz Howard of Macon, Georgia scored the victory in the 100-lap DARE Sportsman feature, with a pair of Toccoa natives – Bill York and Tommy Sheriff – winning their respective heat races.
The following Sunday, Howard would again visit victory lane at Hollywood, scoring the victory ahead of Gainesville, Georgia’s Bud Lunsford.
But that was as far as the speedway got. The Hollywood Baptist Church was located less than a quarter mile from the track. Despite the racing programs running well after church services – both events held qualifying at 2 p.m. with races starting at 3 p.m. – the church fathers objected to the races being run on a Sunday.
Fountain was a member of the church, and despite this, there was no reasoning with them. Adding to the woes was a lack of fan turnout on Sunday afternoons.
“Had to go borrow money to pay the purse on both of the races,” said Gainesville, Georgia native Bobbie Whitmire, who competed in both events. “It’s kind of a sad story.”
Whitmire had good memories of the track, remembering that it had larger payouts than others of the day. He said the only issue the drivers had before racing began was a problem with the banking in turns one and two, which Fountain quickly rectified.
“There wasn't enough banking or something,” said Whitmire. “He corrected that. It left a pretty deep bank there when he fixed it.”
Whitmire also said the speedway was one rarity of the day, as it had very little dust.
“It would have been a good track,” he said. “They just didn't get a crowd.”
After those two events, Fountain had enough of track ownership. He gutted and razed the speedway, and then built chicken houses on top of the track. Without time to even get started, the Hollywood Speedway was dead.
Fountain never built or ran a racetrack again. He would go on to become police chief in nearby Tallulah Falls, and would serve in that capacity until his retirement. He passed away on October 10, 1986 at the age of 72. He is buried at the Hollywood Baptist Church cemetery, just up the road from where the race track was.
Today, nothing remains on the property to suggest there was ever a track there. Only the lay of the land shows some of the grading for the banking. A private home now occupies the tract of land.
Racing is still very popular in the area, with fans flocking to nearby Toccoa Speedway, Hartwell Speedway and Lavonia Speedway for their weekly dirt track fix.
But how different the local racing scene could be had one of the Habersham County tracks – or even both of them – had survived to host racing action today.
*Editor's note: Part of the challenge of telling the stories of these early race tracks is a lack of photos and information. If you have clippings, photos or other information you want to share to help the Georgia Racing Archives preseve Georgia's racing heritage, please contact us here.*
