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20 | Tough Times B eauchamp and Swanson rushed to Michigan to pick up the promised Chevy. Swanson would have to work fast to build a new race car for the upcoming season.The good news was that Chevrolet planned to pay its most winning 1956 team to compete in 1957. At a meeting with Vince Piggins and Mauri Rose, Piggins asked Swanson what he would like as a monthly salary. Swanson hesitated, not certain how much money to ask for. Under the table, Rose signaled with his hand for Swanson to bid up his asking price. Swanson said $500 a month, plus expenses. Piggins agreed and the season was set. What remained was the task of converting the new Chevy into a race car. Back in Harlan, Swanson went to work, his fourteen-­year-­old son, Dale Jr., eagerly helping his father and being rewarded with permission to skip high school classes and go to Shreveport for the opening race of the season . Weeks later, Chevrolet made Swanson a tempting offer to move south. Frank Delroy had left SEDCO, and Jim Rathman, his replacement, was managing the Atlanta shop temporarily. Piggins asked Swanson to take it over. The Harlan mechanic told Piggins he needed time to discuss the matter with his family. Swanson pondered the offer, and his family sat around the supper table evaluating the pros and cons. Managing SEDCO appeared to be a good opportunity. He could become a prominent racing mechanic with Chevrolet in the increasingly important NASCAR circuit. But it also had downsides . Phyllis did not want to leave Harlan. Her family lived in the area and her children, born in the community, attended school in town. Dale, meanwhile, had observed the racial turmoil in Atlanta. In January 1957, six of the one hundred local ministers belonging to the Law, Love, and Liberation organization were arrested for sitting in the white section of a bus.1 Also, civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s headquarters, within a few blocks of the center of Atlanta, was not far from SEDCO’s race shop. Tough Times | 109 The public schools were under siege because of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision ending the legal segregation of public schools. Atlanta, although largely without riots and other violence, was a tense powder keg and a stark contrast to the pristine Harlan community. Another consideration was that Dale would have to close the Swanson garage in Harlan. The move would risk the modest security he had built up with his auto shop. Beauchamp, on the other hand, saw the move as a good idea. If Swanson relocated to the South, his top driver would accompany him. He eagerly embraced the possibility to race for more money and to defeat the NASCAR drivers. Leaving Harlan would also put many miles between him and Nettie Belle, his ex-­ wife. After much thought and discussion, Swanson decided not to accept the SEDCO position. He valued his family and his wife’s wishes and chose to remain in Harlan. In the first week of June, Swanson, who sometimes needed rest from the schedule, went fishing in Minnesota. Upon his return, he discovered that the Automobile Manufacturers Association on June 6 had unanimously voted to recommend that the industry stop supporting racing. Ford, Chevrolet, and the other companies promised to stop the flow of money for the sport. The factories divested their involvement, giving the cars and equipment to the mechanics. SEDCO closed. Swanson hurried to Atlanta to recover a promised car and his share of the parts and equipment , but everything had vanished. The sudden termination of support from the automotive industry is usually blamed on the number of injuries and deaths occurring on the track. The most frequently mentioned event is a June 1955 European Le Mans race, in which a car careened into spectators, killing seventy-­ seven people and injuring many more. Drivers, mechanics, and fans died somewhere every racing season. Indeed, on May 19, 1957, at a NASCAR race, Billy Meyers’s car crashed over a wall, seriously injuring spectators, including an eight-­year-­old boy. This accident fueled people’s suspicions that the factory pullout occurred because management did not want to be associated with the injuries. But it was more complicated than simply deaths at the track. The automotive companies were already ambivalent about racing. A number of executives preferred to have no connection with racing because they believed that the deaths and injuries at races, when coupled with...

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