The Wild Indian
Photos/Story by Mike Slade
I originally pick up the assignment to shoot the feature on this Gober Sosebee 39 Ford coupe race car when I was covering the 1988 Daytona 500 for Circle Track Magazine.
After getting to Daytona that week I headed over to the Circle Track Trade Show to catch up with then editor, C.J. Baker. I found him with Gober Sosebee in the National Batteries booth where the Sosebee race car was on display. C.J. wanted me to go to Gober Sosebee’s home in Dawsonville, after the 500 to contribute for the monthly vintage stock car feature.
A couple weeks later, on a Sunday morning my wife and I loaded up my photo gear and headed out from our home in South Carolina to make the three-hour trip to Gober’s.
When we arrived Gober was there in his vintage white coveralls and the car in the long driveway. I shot the old race car from different angles details of the interior and engine. I also did some shots of Gober standing with the car. After finishing the shoot Gober told me he had a trophy room in his house where he had many of the trophies, he had won during his racing career. Gober, was 72 years old at this time in 1988. So we headed up to his trophy room to check out and photograph his trophies. One wall of his trophy room was a long book case where all the trophies were displayed. There must have been 50 or 60 sitting on the shelves of the bookcases.
After shooting several pics we sat down and Gober told us about some of his racing days and the many tracks he raced on. I didn’t know it but Gober started on the front row of the first Southern 500 at Darlington in 1950
It was getting late and my wife and I were ready to head back to South Carolina. About this time Gober’s wife came in and said she had supper ready and would my wife and I like to have supper with them. Wow, what treat it was to sit down with Gober’s family for supper. While we were eating, Gober continue to tell us stories about some of the races he ran in.
Here are some of those stories:
Gober Sosebee is one of the many legendary race car drivers to come out of the hills of north Georgia in the late 40s and early 50s. He started his career racing on the many dirt tracks of north Georgia. Besides being a racer, Gober ran a paving company.
Gober bought his 1939 Ford coupe off a used car lot in Atlanta, Georgia in 1947. Gober ran that coupe around the dirt tracks of Georgia before making his first appearance at the 4-mile beach course in 1949 at Daytona. He didn’t make too many laps before flipping the car in turn four. He went back to the beach in 1950, and qualified on the pole for the modified race at a speed of 114.43 MPH. On the first lap of the race a brake drum failed, but Gober didn’t need any brakes winning the 160-mile race at a speed of 99 MPH.
Gober was often called the “WILD INDIAN” because of the name of the garage that was painted on the side of the car, it was called the “CHEROKEE GARAGE”. He was also sometimes called “INDIAN GOBER SOSEBEE”. He would wear an Indian head dress sometimes to help promote the race to draw a crowd.
When the WILD INDIAN returned to the beach for the 1951 race he entered the Sportsman Race. All though the competition was tough he again won this 160 mile race at an average speed 82.37 MPH. His brakes ran hot again but didn’t fail this time.
The race car used stock brakes with larger wheel cylinders. Above the single rear leaf spring, Gober placed a track bar out of sight and a stabilizer. Another of Gober’s innovations was a welded leaf spring inside the car to keep the roof from caving in when the car would roll over.
Gober made many modifications to the engine, they were simple but inspiring. One innovation was Gober would cut the impellers of the water pump to slow down the water flow which would allow it to cool longer inside the heavy duty truck radiator.
Unless the track was a half mile or less no fan was used on the motors. The compression ratio was around 10:1, and Gober favored Colorado Heads. Most of the rest of the internal parts including special valves, pistons and wristpins were from So Cal Speed Shop.
Gober raced his ‘39 coupe in both the NASCAR Modified and Sportsman Beach Races. Because of this he had two engine set ups and would change the engines for which ever race he was running in. For the modified races, the engine was fueled by methanol and equipped with a pressurized fuel delivery system running three carburetors with a progressive linkage system and magneto ignition. The pressure for methanol fuel came from an on board compressed-air tank. This engine put out about 300 HP. When running in the sportsman race the engine setup was a little more basic running gasoline with a single barrel carburetor and put out less than 300 HP. The two engines that Gober ran were the basic Ford flathead V-8. They used small Ford rods and the cranks were turned to match them. The engine had a bore of 3 3/8 and a stroke of 4 ½ inches. Winfield cams were used because they were some of the cheapest around at the time and were made in California. Adjustable lifters were also used.
The engine oil pressure was boosted by the insertion of a spacer inside the Foster oil pump on the engine. The oil filter and lines were moved so they wouldn’t be torn off when running on the dirt tracks. Offenhauser header were used or ones made by Gober. Gober used Stromberg carburetors from ‘35 Fords which had the largest venturi around at the time.
Gobers last race in the ‘39 was the 1953 Beach Race. His engine setup for that race wasn’t quite right, and he didn’t finish too well in that race. After the race Gober took the ‘39 back to Dawsonville and parked it behind the shop where it sat till 1987 when Gober started the restoration.
Gober continued to race using a variety of cars and racing in a number of different series. Gober won the NASCAR GEORGIA State Championship in 1960 driving a 57 Chevy which is the same car he finished fifth in the first race at the new Daytona Speedway in 1959. He also won two NASCAR Grand National Races. One at Augusta Georgia in 1952 and the other at Macon Georgia in 1954. His last race of his career was at the Charlotte World 600.
In 1987 Gober and his sons decided to restore the old ‘39. It took a lot of work since the car had been sitting outside for over thirty years. Because of all the rust the body had to be acid dipped which left many holes in the body work. Lots of welding and fiberglass work was done to get the body in shape and the frame had to be sandblasted. Except for the engine, the running boards, the gauges, and the rubber window moldings the car is all original. Even the seat, which was from an airplane and the nylon seat belts that Gober bought from an Army Surplus Store in 1947 are still original. The restored car is equipped with a flathead Ford V-8 much like the ones when the car was being campaigned. The car now resides in the Georgia Motorsports Hall of Fame along with cars raced by many other famous Georgia race car drivers.
Gober passed away on Nov 11th 1996
During my years of covering stock car racing, I have got to do a lot of interesting things and meet a lot of famous people in racing, but this is one of those assignments I got to do that I will never forget.
