Gone Too Soon

 It takes a while to come up with something to write about in this space. I was well on my way to writing about the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame Class of 2022 when I heard about the unexpected passing of long-time Senoia Raceway driver Dow Kirkland.

 I wasn’t particularly close to him, but I’ve written his name countless times in racing stories over the decades.

 I knew him better through his friends Glenn and Cheryl Morris, who always spoke mighty highly of him.

 By all accounts his was a life well lived. And he is gone way to soon, at just 67 years old. Prayers to his family and friends as they deal with his loss.

 Back to the Hall of Fame, this year’s list of inductees includes two whose lives were cut short.

 My daughter Stephanie and I have been processing nominations and collecting votes for several years. It’s a tedious process, which this year was made easier due to the help we got from Ronnie Sanders and his daughter Pam Fulson.

 Over the years, Stephanie and I have been frustrated to see several nominees, whom we thought were very deserving of induction, continually come up short in the voting.

 There seems to be a “sweet spot” for getting inducted. If the candidate is too young, voters pass for the time being, which isn’t all bad. And if the candidate is too old, and too long removed from the sport, voters seem to have forgotten them.

 At the top of our list of overlooked candidates was Dale Singleton, a legendary independent motorcycle racer from Dalton who stunned the racing world twice by winning the prestigious Daytona 200, outrunning the factory-backed teams and their drivers.

 Singleton, known as the Flying Pig Farmer, had already embarked on a NASCAR career when he and fellow driver Richie Panch died in a plane crash en route back to Georgia from the NASCAR races in Darlington, S.C. That happened in 1985. Singleton had just turned 30 years old.

 This year the voters came through, and he made the Class of 2022 along with Billy McGinnis, Randy Couch, Henley Gray, the late Ed Massey and the late Phil Coltrane.

 When it comes to Hall of Fame voting, Coltrane beat the odds. He got in on his first time on the ballot, at a relatively young age, by a single vote.

 It’s awkward to write “late” in front of Phil’s name. I wrote often about him as he rose through the ranks on the local dirt track scene and eventually became mostly a car builder.

 Phil died two years ago at the age of 53.

 Another one gone way too soon.




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