All language subtitles for Moonshiners.S14E00

When these moonshiners
were bootlegging,

they had souped up cars

and they'd leave the cops
in the dust.

The centuries-old conflict
in the American South

between moonshiners
and revenuers

spawned fast cars,
daring drivers,

and countless
criminal exploits.

Police had factories
show 'em stock cars

in which to chase
these bootleggers.

Bootleggers had a little bit
of expendable mining.

But one crime stands out

in the history of these
dangerous back roads.

The thing is,
when you're in an illegal
liquor business,

anytime you start dealing
with money and family,

more than unlikely,

you're gonna have
some problems.

In 1941,

moonshiner Lloyd Seay

was one of the fastest outlaws
the South had ever seen...

Spike drop, they're off.

...and on the cusp of becoming
a national racing champion.

Until he was murdered
in cold blood

over a few bags of sugar.

How awful to die
at 21 years old

and be one of the most
promising race car drivers

that's ever walked
the face of the planet.

It just don't even seem real.

The shocking tragedy
would cement Lloyd's legacy

as the founding martyr
of American stock car racing,

and serve as a warning
to others on the dangers

of the outlaw life
in the Appalachian backwoods.

The fact that Lloyd was shot
over a bag or two of sugar,

it makes me feel
that there was a conflict

that went much deeper
than some sugar.

Here we are
in downtown Dawsonville,
Georgia.

Lived here all my life,
changed very little.

Nearly like it was.

This was the moonshine capital
of the world.

The moonshining era
has become popular again,

and the moonshine stories
is on TV now.

Well, it was authentic here.

There was no story.
It was a way of life.

I was a star race car driver,

and my dad was Gober Sosebee,

one of the early
stock car pioneers.

And he ran moonshine.

That's where he honed
in his driving skills.

The skills
these moonshine runners learn
hauling liquor

contributed directly
to Dawsonville's
other claim to fame.

Dawsonville has
a lot of titles,

and one of them
is the birthplace
of stock car racing.

People said, " Well,
there's never been a racetrack
in Dawsonville."

We had Highway 9

that the moonshine runners
ran down to Atlanta.

The curves were treacherous.

That's a pretty
good racetrack.

As early as the 1920s,

bootleggers souped up
stock cars to outrun the law

and deliver illegal liquor
to thirsty drinkers

first on back country roads

then for prize money
on oval tracks.

And they're off.

It's a sight to thrill
to any race man.

After prohibition ended
in the 1930s,

the sport of stock car racing
exploded in popularity

with hard-charging
former outlaws

like Red Byron,
the Flock Brothers
and Gober Sosebee,

who wowed fans
with the daredevil
driving skills

they learned
from hauling liquor.

But one of the fastest drivers

to ever compete
with these legends

never got his chance
to become a household name.

Most people today
have never heard
of Lloyd Seay.

And he is really
the first superstar

of stock car racing.

Lloyd Seay's nickname
was Lightning Lloyd,

because of his fast
driving skills.

And as a gifted
race car driver,

Lloyd Seay grew up
in the perfect time and place.

Lloyd Seay was born in 1919
in Dawsonville, Georgia.

You know, Lloyd grew up poor,

grabbing at whatever straws
he could, I'm sure,

to try to make a living.

In Dawsonville,

we had a lot of big families

that were all connected
to each other somehow.

And so he had a lot of cousins
and two brothers.

Fifty miles out of Atlanta,

I mean,
we were in the sticks up here.

This area right here,

we're between Dawsonville
and Dahlonega.

This is where Lloyd Seay
would have grew up,

where he would've resided at
with different family members

and things like that.

And it's where he lived
and where--

it's where he died.

Dawson County
was this rural county

where it's very difficult
to make a living as a farmer.

There's just a long history
in the South

of the decline of agriculture
and the rise of industry.

But there's a certain
class of people

that the last thing
they wanted

was to leave their farms
and lose their land.

You know,
Dawsonville, Georgia

is about the size
of a little town I grew up in,

Newport, Tennessee.

Back in the 20s, you know,
things were very shy.

Not anything for people to do
to earn an honest living.

So, you know, naturally,

it drove 'em
into the moonshine business.

Like most people,
Lloyd grew up very poor.

And here in Dawsonville,

everybody was involved
with moonshine.

Well, you know,
when you're part
of a moonshine family,

everyone chips in
and at all ages.

I mean, even if you was a kid,
they call it squirrel hunting.

You know, you can go out
and be on the lookout,

you can be helping mashing in,

you can carry raw goods in,

you can carry
finished product out.

Everyone in the whole family
plays a part.

But particularly young men
like Lloyd Seay,

their role was driving liquor
to market.

Up until the 1930s,

transporting liquor
to market in Dawson County

was mostly a local endeavor.

Access to cars was limited.

So, a moonshiner's
customer base was small.

But 1932 marked a major moment

for the automotive industry
and moonshiners.

The flathead Ford engine
that came along in 1932

was a game changer
for the bootleggers.

Now, this right here
is the go-to car

back in the day
for moonshiners.

Pretty affordable
for the average family.

It had the powerful Ford
V8 flathead.

Right off the bat,

they were much more powerful
than the previous engine.

They started out originally,
I think, at 60 horsepower,

which was more
than any model by far.

By '39, they was up to
85 horsepower.

'40, they was up to 100.

Of course,
it wouldn't have been
a '53 Mercury engine in it.

But you know,
everything was basically
the same.

This is just more power.

The introduction
of cheap speed to the masses

transformed bootlegging
by connecting the backwoods
to the city.

Demand for homemade liquor
was sky high

and showed no signs
of slowing down,

even with the repeal
of prohibition in 1933.

I think
back in the day,

a lot of people
sought out moonshine

from this part of Georgia.

They knew it was quality made.

You know, a lot of people
took pride in what they did

and it sold very well
down in Atlanta.

At one time,

7000 gallons a week
was going from Dawsonville
to Atlanta.

That's unheard of

when you're making moonshine

on just a copper still
up here.

Who consumed all of it?

It, it's hard for me
to imagine that today.

So, this is the environment
where Lloyd Seay grew up.

And so, as a very young man,
he started hauling liquor.

About the age of 13

is when Lloyd Seay ran
his first load of moonshine.

And it's hard to imagine
a 13-year-old kid

driving this bulky V8 Ford,
but he did it.

The bootleggers would make
at least one load a night.

You know, you could make
200 bucks on a load of liquor.

And so, it was very lucrative
for the bootleggers.

Some of 'em even tried to make
two trips a night to Atlanta.

That was pushing it.

Because if you wrecked,

you could lose your life
like any other wreck.

Most of these roads,
they got bootleg turns in 'em.

Windy, treacherous,

back and forth
through the mountains.

Crashing the car
during a bootleg run,

that was always a big risk.

Every trip these guys made,
they had very high stakes.

That was the dangerous part
of the business.

I think
Lloyd got involved

with the moonshine trade
in the first place

just because of the money
that he could make from it.

Lloyd may have made more money
in one night

hauling in bootleg liquor

than he made all week
farming or in a factory.

But then, on the other hand,

if you get caught, you know,

you're probably going
to the penitentiary
for a little while.

And if you're not willing
to accept that risk,

they got in another line
of work.

Everybody can't haul liquor.

For some
like Lloyd Seay,

the danger of hauling liquor

was a gamble
they were willing to take

- in order to escape poverty...

...despite the clear
and present threat of the law
in Dawsonville.

Let me tell you something.

This right here
is the jail that Lloyd Seay

and all the other moonshiners
had been rounded up.

This is where they bring 'em
right here.

The sheriff and his wife
were the people

that actually fed
the prisoners.

So, you better be pretty good
once they get you locked up,

'cause that's where
your meals came from.

Lloyd Seay,
he was laying his life
on the line,

doing what he was doing,
hauling liquor

against the cops chasing him.

But it was almost, like,
preparing him

to be the best
stock car driver

that the state of Georgia
has ever had.

Back in the day,

Lloyd Seay getting
an automobile,

I mean, it'd be like me today,
getting a jet airplane.

They jumped
from a horse to a car.

I mean, God,
this is day and night.

I can travel
further and faster
and deliver moonshine.

If you make more
and sell more,

you get more money.

I mean, I probably
would never sleep.

Once bootleggers
like Lloyd Seay

gained access to faster cars
in the early 1930s,

their moonshine customer base
expanded rapidly.

And the town of Dawsonville
expanded as well.

Dawsonville hasn't really
changed much

since when Lloyd was alive
and driving these kinda cars.

So, we're coming into
the old Harben Brothers
Service Station,

the first place in Dawsonville

to have public
telephone service.

And the big reason for that
was for the moonshiners.

They'd wait on calls
for a load of moonshine.

Sometimes they'd use,
um, code words

like, "order a bushel
of apples,"

or, or something
to that effect.

And then they would leave
out of Harben Station.

It was right here
on Highway 9,

and we could come down
to Atlanta.

Harben Station
opened in 1932

and was one of the first
24-hour gas stations
in the country,

playing an integral role
for bootleggers

moving moonshine
at all hours of the night.

This right here
is the gathering place

for the moonshiners
and the trippers.

This hasn't changed
a whole lot.

Back in the day

when Lloyd Seay
was still alive,

if you can imagine
all the Fords

that were sitting in the area
at that time

were getting ready to go,
to head to Atlanta.

You wouldn't wanna say

moonshine money
built Dawsonville,

but it probably did.

It probably even started
the first banks here.

I'll be in trouble now
sure enough, won't I?

But it's the truth.
So, what you gonna do?

Lloyd, he was driving
for his cousin, Raymond Parks,

one of the kingpins of Atlanta
during the 1930s,

when it came
to the moonshine trade.

Parks early on had recruited

both Lloyd and his cousin,
Roy Hall

to transport the moonshine

from the mountains
down to Atlanta.

Raymond was a tall,
lanky guy.

Didn't say that much.

Always wore
his business suit and hat.

My dad and Raymond
was within one year
of each other's age,

and my dad
still called him Mr. Parks.

He was looked up highly.

What Lloyd Seay did
for Raymond Parks,

taking a car, filling it up
with illegal liquor,

and then going down Highway 9
from Dawson County,

which is mountainous.

And so,
it is very curvy and hilly.

We're now on,
Georgia Highway 9,

which is more
commonly referred to as
the old Thunder Road.

There's thunder roads
all over the South.

Thunder Road was any road
that was a main route

for bootleggers and trippers

transporting moonshine
to the big cities.

The thunder being the roar
of their engines.

At night,
you could just lay in bed

and hear all these
moonshine cars,

these trip cars
just blaring through
the mountains.

And so, it was kinda like
thunder coming.

These cars
had four headlights on 'em.

I could just imagine
what it would've been like

flying down Thunder Road

with the cops
chasing you after dark,

running off the side
of one of these roads.

They've got the opportunity
to die.

A lot of moonshine
haulers and trippers

were actually killed
in the process.

You know,
you don't hear a lot
about that

because there's nothing
romantic about somebody
being killed.

But, it happened.

It was a very dangerous job.

Thunder Road.

That's where
it really made the drivers.

'Cause that was
treacherous road

and they were loaded

and they had to make sure
they didn't get caught.

Brakes were small,

so you had to learn
how to maneuver the curves
with little brakes.

Once you thought
you had it made,

there'd be another curve
down there.

And that's where
everybody had to watch out.

'Cause a lot
of the bad curves,

the law could be
even sitting there.

Thunder Road.

That's where Lloyd Seay'd go

with his load of liquor
for his runs.

That's where
his driving ability grew.

And his maneuverability
with his driving skills,

that's what made him
Lloyd Seay.

When Lloyd
was hauling moonshine,

he was absolutely fearless.

He wouldn't really
slow down for the turns.

He'd accelerate
through the turns,

whereas a lot of people,
they would break.

And once you do that,
you lose all your momentum.

So, Lloyd bashed the gas,

and this is how
he would lose people.
that would be chasing him.

I can only imagine
what it felt like

being 13 years old,
hauling a load of moonshine

and making a pile of money
doing it.

Lloyd Seay
must've felt untouchable.

You know, bootleggers
employed a lot of means

to get their liquor
from point A to point B.

Back in the day,
speed was the ultimate factor.

Cops didn't have
the technology
that we do today.

If you got away, you got away.

There was no two-way radios.

They couldn't call ahead

and get roadblocks
established.

There was no
traffic cameras.

Speed was their key to escape.

When it came
to outrunning the law,

bootleggers relied on
daredevil driving skills

and a willingness
to live on the edge.

But they also got creative
under the hood,

and transformed
their stock cars

into supercharged machines.

Bootleggers bored out
the engines,

they added
additional carburetors.

The V8 flatheads
were very easy to modify.

A lot of speed parts
were made for 'em.

You know,
it was a moonshiner's dream.

Red Vogt
was the chief mechanic
on Raymond Parks' cars.

He had a shop
in downtown Atlanta,

and he was just a wizard
with the Ford flathead.

In fact, Henry Ford himself
even came down to visit

just to see what he was doing
with these engines.

Red Vogt was asked one time,
who gets the best car,

and he said the bootleggers
because they pay in cash.

"Money equals speed"
was one of his sayings.

And the more money you paid,
the faster your car can go.

Police had factory showroom
stock cars

in which to chase
these bootleggers.

Bootleggers had a little bit
of, expendable money.

Lloyd Seay had an incredibly
well-prepared car

not only with
a high speed engine,

but with the suspension
modified

to handle the curves
and hills of the roads

that he hauled liquor on.

When these moonshiners
were bootlegging,

they had souped up cars

and they'd leave the cops
in the dust.

One of my favorite
Lloyd Seay stories,

just south of the courthouse
in Dawsonville,

he was pulled over
for speeding.

And the officer said, "Fine,
for speeding it's $5."

And Lloyd hands a $10 bill.

Lloyd said, "Keep the change.

I'm paying it in advance
'cause next time
I come back through,

I'm not gonna be willing
to stop."

It was one thing to outrun
the police or law enforcement.

For the most part,
that wasn't a great challenge.

But when the guy down the road

thought he had a better car
than you did,

you know, them's fighting
words in many ways.

And so, you gotta get out
and see who's fastest.

More than anything,

they wanted to show
their competitors
what their cars could do

and what they could do
with their cars.

Before racing become a thing
and they raced on tracks,

bootleggers would race
on old country roads

and open fields,

anywhere they got
the opportunity.

And in a roundabout
sort of way,

that is directly what started
stock car racing

in this part of the country.

That's what propelled it

to the first organized
stock car race
in the Southeast.

It's history from there.

The buildup was huge
in the Atlanta papers.

20,000 people showed up.

You had all kinds
of avenue of people

to see what this was,

never heard
of such before.

Lloyd was only 18 years old
at the time,

and he convinced
his cousin Raymond Parks,

who he worked for moonshining,
to enter a race car for him.

He had a broken arm,

and a lot of the competitors
wanted to ban him,

saying that
he was unsafe to drive

because his arm
was in a sling.

And he said, "I don't use
that arm to drive anyway."

And, he went out

and he drove
a 1934 Ford Roadster.

When Lloyd Seay
came on the scene
of stock car racing,

no one had really heard of him
at all.

Lloyd had
a unique driving style.

Where most people
wrapped their hands
around the steering wheel,

he drove it open handed.

I don't know
how he's doing it,

because there was
no power steering back then.

And then,
Lloyd Seay shocks everyone.

He went out
and he won the race

with his left arm in a sling.

He was just
a natural born driver.

The word of that
went out everywhere.

The next day,
The Atlanta Constitution

has a major article
on Lloyd Seay,

and it said
the racing community
did not know Lloyd Seay,

never heard of him.

But the Atlanta police
sure did.

Bootleggers back in the day,
they was unstoppable.

I mean, they was fearless
and it was aggressive.

This is how
they made their money
for their families.

And Lloyd Seay was right
in the heart of this.

And I think
because of his background

of moonshining
and driving a fast car,

made him so great
at stock car racing.

In 1938
at the age of 18,

Lloyd Seay shocks
the racing community

and wins a major
stock car race.

After Lloyd won his first race
at Lakewood,

his cousin Raymond Parks

dove into stock car racing
headfirst.

He bought two
brand new 1939 Fords.

One for Lloyd Seay
and one for Roy Hall,

and they started
a racing team.

Raymond Parks,

he hires Red Vogt
to prepare the cars

and then having these
liquor-hauling drivers

to finance on his business
of bootleg.

Lloyd Seay
and other moonshiners

saw racing as a way
to escape the dangers
of their outlaw life

by harnessing
the skills they learned
bootlegging liquor.

But it wasn't easy leaving
their high-risk past behind.

Well, you know,
even after Lloyd

began having
a lot of success racing,

he continued to bootleg
and haul moonshine.

And it's absolutely
because of the money.

Racing did not support racers.

You know, if you grow up
in the moonshining business...

it was really treacherous.

Especially in the mountainous
areas of the South.

But it seems like
once you get it in your blood,

it's hard to shake it.

You know, you know
it's a dangerous job.

There's just something
about it

that keeps
winding you back in.

Stock-car racing
spread quickly through
moonshine country

following Lloyd's win,

and the lines between
moonshine, bootlegging
and racing were blurred.

Not only were the drivers
primarily bootleggers,

but the car owners, the fans
and even the tracks

were all closely tied
into moonshine culture.

We're in Hillsborough,
North Carolina,

at the Occoneechee Speedway.

We're in the grandstands here.

This is one
of the great historic tracks

in stock-car racing history.

The Occoneechee Speedway
was formerly a horse track,
which was a common thing

in the early days
of stock-car racing.

Many Hall of Famers raced
on this track up until 1968.

You could put
8,000 or more people,
and then all around the track,

people would have
been standing.

So, there's just
tremendous excitement

generated in a place
like this.

And people would be
drinking moonshine,

perhaps a fight
would break out.

There might be some
disreputable behavior
involving women.

You know, anything goes,
pretty much.

It's kind of an unusual track
for those days

because it was a mile,
and you can see

very long straightaways,
which allowed the drivers

to get to over
100 miles an hour.

But very tight turns.

We're heading down the track
here at Occoneechee Speedway.

This type of track
was perfect for the skills

that a lot of these
bootleggers perfected

trying to outrun
law enforcement
on dirt roads.

They understood
how to slide through turns.

Look at that dust.

Here's where air cleaners
come in handy.

They understood
how to drive at high speed.

How would
you like to loan your car
to one of those fellas?

And they had the courage
to drive side by side.

Both are driving Fords,
and how they are driving it!

To be really good,

you had to be able
to push it to the very edge.

I mean, it goes
without saying,

if you make a good bootlegger,

you're gonna make
a great race car driver.

When the race starts,
the cars would come

two by two
down by the flag stand,

and they'd throw
the green flag,

and they hammer
those accelerators.

And then off they would go
down the track.

The cars freaking rumbling
like hell.

The smell in the air,
it was the best part,

that burning racing fuel,
my gosh, I love it.

You got these cars
that are souped up
and they're loud,

you can feel them all the way
through your freaking soul.

The whole experience
is just amazing.

The people
that ran the moonshine

were local folk legends,
you know?

And so they brought
fans to the stands.

In those early days
of racing,

Lloyd Seay was the guy.

He was this hard-charger,

working-class
Dawson County bootlegger.

Just a compelling story
for so many people.

People like Lloyd Seay
and Roy Hall were looked at

as local legends
and local heroes.

They just had these
Hollywood good looks.

They had a cool job,
they drove cool cars.

They were not
the overall-wearing
hillbillies from the sticks.

I mean, they played
the part very well.

The roots of stock-car racing
are in the Piedmont South.

They're working-class people

who'd become very tied
into car culture.

You can imagine
the passion of these fans,

as they're watching drivers
that they see as one
of their own,

who have, in some ways,
made it in a world
that's very difficult

for people
in the working class.

And so you see
this intersection

in a powerful way
in this place

between the world
of moonshining and bootlegging

and early stock-car racing.

Even the track itself
was built by a group

of what we're refer to
in the newspapers
as "sportsmen"

from Wilkes County,
North Carolina.

And all of these individuals
were involved

in the illegal
liquor business.

And so this was a track
that was built by moonshine.

While many tracks
in the South

were built by moonshine,

stock car's most famous track
of the era

was defined by speed.

Daytona is known
as The Birthplace of Speed.

By the 1930s,
you started getting vehicles

that were specifically made

to try and break
the land speed record.

In 1936, Daytona held
its first stock-car race.

The hard-packed
sands of Daytona Beach
Speedway

for the stock-car races.

Marking the golden jubilee
of automobile progress.

Ooh! My aching tires.

Daytona was the biggest race
of the year anywhere.

Up until 1958, races were ran
on Daytona Beach itself.

They would run two miles
right on the sandy shores,

and they'd make a sharp turn

and run two miles
up Highway A1A.

The crowd at Daytona
loved Lloyd Seay's driving

because he was such a showman.

He would put his car
up on two wheels,

and he would bicycle his car
through the turn
of the racetrack.

And in July of 1941,
there's a very famous picture

of him doing this
at Daytona Beach,

where his car is completely up
on two wheels,

like it was a movie stunt.

He would go through
the North Turn on two wheels.

I mean, it's just crazy.

And people just loved it.

He just showed no fear.

That's just something
that he wanted to do

'cause he could do it
and he wanted to show off.

Lloyd's previous
performances at Daytona

had wowed the crowd,

but he entered
yet another race

at the famed track
on August 24, 1941,

still looking
for his first win.

In 1941,

Lloyd's biggest goal
was to win at Daytona.

He had raced there
several times before,

and he always had
some bad luck.

He flipped his car
or had mechanical troubles.

He just couldn't seem
to finish a race in the front.

In August of 1941,
he qualified 15th.

These jalopy jockeys
are in

for a jarring, jolting time,
and they know it.

He's flying blind.

One thing you could do
at Daytona,

because the beach was wide,

if you're daring enough
to get down close
to the water,

you can really make up
a lot of ground.

So that's what Lloyd Seay
was able to do in this race.

By the end
of the first lap,
he was in first

and never gave up
the lead again.

It was his day.

He was the star of the show.
And it wasn't even a sport,

it was just the birth
of a sport then.

I think Lloyd
would have been loving it.

He is so young,
and he's proven hisself

over and over again
as a bootlegger
and a race driver.

Lloyd is on his way

to becoming the best
bootlegger-turned-
stock-car-driver

that the South
has ever seen.

But the thing is,
when you're in the illegal
liquor business,

it's hard to leave.

And Lloyd could
never outrun his past.

Lloyd Seay
just won at Daytona,

and he had won
at High Point, North Carolina,

so he was on a hot streak.

He won major
stock-car races back to back,

and then came back to Lakewood
for the famed Labor Day race.

Lakewood Speedway,
it's in Atlanta,

so you have
a huge population of fans.

And they had
the largest crowds,

particularly for
the Labor Day race.

That was one of the few days

working-class people
would have off,

and so that was a big deal.

Lloyd showed up
to Atlanta late,

and he had
to start dead last...

because he missed qualifying

because he was racing
the day before.

So, he started last.

And by the midway point,
he had taken the lead over
from Bob Flock.

And he went on
to win the race.

Lloyd Seay, coming
from being dirt poor

to being a moonshining,
hell-raising champion,

he probably felt like
he was on top of the world.

After Lloyd Seay
got the checkered flag
at Lakewood,

he was very celebrated
by his fans, by the press.

And after it was all said
and done,

he collected his winnings

and headed home
to Dawsonville.

He was heading home
on Highway 9.

He decided to stop
at his brother's house

to spend the night.

The following morning,

just hours after Lloyd won
$1,000 at Lakewood Speedway,

valued at nearly
$22,000 today,

his cousin, Woodrow Anderson,
arrived at the house,

claiming Lloyd owed him money.

Woodrow came after him

because he'd just won
this race

and he had the prize money,
and so he thought

this would be the time
to approach him.

Woodrow
was a business partner
in the moonshine still

with Lloyd and his brother,

although Lloyd
was more as an investor.

You know, moonshining
is a family business.

There's nothing out
of the unusual

for them to share
a still or a still site

and be partners
in the business.

Lloyd had charged
a few 50-pound bags of sugar

on Woodrow's store account.

Now, why this took place,
who knows.

But, Woodrow
took exception with it,

and he came
and was ready to settle up.

This sugar was used
to make moonshine back then,

and it was a hot commodity.

So, anytime someone
was dealing with moonshine,

you know, they was
dealing with sugar.

So, Woodrow, Lloyd
and Lloyd's brother, Jim,

all got in Woodrow's car,

and he said, "We're gonna go
to our aunt's house

so she could do the figuring."

You know, neither one
of them was really educated,

so they were gonna go down
to, Dawsonville,

and let their aunt
kind of figure out
how much it was that...

each owed what.

Along the way,
Woodrow asked,

"So, do you think
that number 13
was lucky for you?"

Lloyd had drove number seven
for most of his career,

and on the last race,
he actually drove number 13.

Mostly because all
of his competitors said

that was the only reason
he was winning,

was 'cause of
lucky number seven.

And so Lloyd basically
said, "I'll show you,"

and he took some paint,
crossed out the number seven

and put number 13.

They set off to Dawsonville
through the aunt's house.

But Woodrow Anderson
pulled the car over
at his father's house.

He said, "I need to get
some water for the radiator."

He pulled the car up,
he opened the hood,

acting like he was going
to fill the radiator.

I... I guess something
snapped in him.

And as he was uncapping
the radiator...

Woodrow pulled a pistol out
of his pocket,

come over to the door.

Shot Lloyd's brother
in the neck.

And then he turned to Lloyd...

and shot him
right in the heart.

And he was killed
almost instantly.

Lloyd Seay died not even
24 hours after standing
in victory lane in Lakewood.

It's really hard
to believe that one
of the most promising

race car drivers
that's ever walked
the face of the planet

was killed over
a few bags of sugar.

Crazy.

The first thing
that Woodrow did
after Lloyd was killed,

he told his brother, Jim,

to get the money
out of his pocket

and give Woodrow $120 of it

because that's how much
he felt like he had owed him.

So, he collected $120
and a silver dollar
from his pocket

and went about his day.

You know, it's sad
for a young man

to lose his life over a bag
or two of sugar.

It makes me feel that
there was a deeper conflict
between him and his cousin

and went much deeper
than some sugar.

You know,
it sounds pretty rough
to shoot someone

over a bag of sugar.

But, I mean, this is
the way it was back then.

I can tell you
that back in the day,

people were cut
from a different cloth.

Like, my grandpa
cut a man's throat over $20,

and it was over the principle,
not over the money.

So, that may have
been the same thing

that was going on
back in the day.

We don't really know
where it was,

but, you know,
somewhere in this area
is where Lloyd got shot,

and it's where he,
would have lost his life,

would have took
his last few breaths.

The last words that Lloyd
spoke was, "Tell Raymond."

And that was it.

Raymond being Raymond Parks,
his cousin and car owner.

I wish I could know
what that meant.

Like, what did he need
to tell Raymond

in those last few moments?
What could it have been?

There's... there's no telling.

The moonshine background

that Lloyd Seay
was dealing with,

you know, it just
caught up with him.

His life was cut short
before he could achieve
his full potential

and become a stock-car legend.

When you're in
an illegal business,

anytime you start
dealing with money
and family,

more than likely
you're gonna have
some problems.

You know, it was just
a matter of time.

You know, driving
these old Fords,

I mean, there ain't
nothing like it.

You know, they're not like
modern cars.

There's nothing easy
to drive about 'em,

but I love 'em.

Yeah, they rattle,
they shake, they be.

But, I mean, I'm as happy
as I can be

behind the wheel
of a '39 or a '44.

I mean, this is
Mark's happy place.

You know, I mean,
just look at the hood
on this thing.

Ooh! Damn.

It's just like
you're following an arrow.

I can just imagine
what it would've been like

flying down Thunder Road,
hauling liquor,

cops chasing you.

You know, for me, that would
have been the ultimate high,

and I think it was
for the bootleggers
back in the day.

These cars, you know,
they're not for everybody,

but they're for Mark Ramsey.

Lloyd Seay's cousin,
Woodrow Anderson,

shot him in the chest
over a bag of sugar
for some moonshine.

I know it was just
a bag of sugar,

but, you know, you could just
see how times was hard.

And if you had did
something wrong,

even if it was family,

it was time to pay up.

And when Woodrow
come a-calling,
Seay took the bullet.

When Lloyd Seay
died in 1941,

I mean, it was a big deal.

You know, one of the sport's
biggest racing stars

was killed a day after
he won the biggest race
of his career.

How awful
to die at 21 years old

and be one of the most
promising race car drivers
that's ever walked

the face of the planet.

It just don't even seem real.

There was a lot of shock
in the racing community

and in that working-class
community,

where Lloyd Seay was a hero.

And I think
it probably shocked

the racing world
as well as his family.

How can something
this tragic happen?

Lloyd's funeral
was a very big deal

for the people of Dawsonville.

Their hometown boy was killed.

Lloyd's Silver Bullet race car

led the hearse
to the cemetery.

And still today, Lloyd's grave

is one of the tallest

monuments out
in the city cemetery.

This right here
is the Dawsonville Cemetery,

where the moonshiners
didn't wanna wind up.

Look at this largest tombstone
in the cemetery, Lloyd Seay,

one of the greatest trippers,
moonshine haulers,

a stock-car driver
in the pioneer days.

No telling
what he could have been.

And Raymond Parks
put this here for him

in commemorance
of what a great person he was.

Looky here,
got a picture of a '39 Ford

with his name
and his number seven,

and even a porcelain inset
put in that in 1941,

at his death,
when the headstone was put up.

Most people never even
start today racing at 21,

and he had done
done it all by that time.

Nearly six weeks
after Lloyd's death,

Woodrow Anderson
stood trial for murder.

Lloyd Seay's brother,
Jim Seay,

recovered from his injuries
and he stood on trial

to convict Woodrow Anderson.

At the trial, there were
two versions of the story.

Woodrow's story
was that he was jumped
by the Seay brothers...

and he run inside
the house...

to grab a pistol.

And shot in self-defense.

But the jury convicted
Woodrow of his crimes

for killing Lloyd Seay.

The trial
lasted one day.

Jurors convicted Anderson
of his cousin's murder

and sentenced him
to life in prison.

Justice had been served,

but Seay's tragic passing left
a huge hole in the community.

Lloyd Seay was an icon
here in the city,

doing things that most people
only wish or wondered about.

He was like an OG.

I feel like I might be
kin to Lloyd Seay

from somewhere down the line
because race cars,

moonshining, bootlegging,
going fast, pretty girls,

all of it, yep, we're probably
long-lost cousins.

Well,
he's a folk hero.

Excuse me.

Well, it's just...

My dad went to Lakewood

and saw Lloyd
run his first race,

he said, "I'll not be back
till I'm in it."

He didn't go
to the second race
and the third race,

he bought
a brand-new '40 Ford.

That's when they built 'em
over there in Atlanta,

out from Sears, Roebuck,
off of Ponce de Leon.

My dad started 18th
out of 24 cars

and ran third that day
to Lloyd Seay and Roy Hall.

And that set my dad
on his career in racing.

That's how much
it means to me.

Lloyd Seay's legacy,
from my standpoint,

the guy did
what he loved doing.

And, you know,
even though he died
at a young age,

he started at a young age.

I mean, think about it.
The guy started
at 13 years old,

and he was making money,
picking up his end

of the family deal here.

And he found the best way

he could get in
was to drive cars.

I think he went out on top.

Who knows what
he would have brought
to the racing world.

His skill
was definitely there,

but sadly,
it wasn't meant to be.

Lloyd Seay's legacy is
an incredibly talented driver,

a pioneer in the sport
of stock-car racing

and largely responsible
for the growth and popularity

of stock-car racing
in the pre-World War II era.

I think the time
has passed for moonshiners

to get their due
from their contribution
to stock-car racing

because most of the ones
that had any part of it
are no longer with us.

However, their legacy
should never be forgotten.

As the moonshine run out
of the mountains here

at the Appalachian foothills

as freely as water runs
from Amicalola Falls...

here lies a person
that will never be matched.

Lloyd Seay,
may you rest in peace.