CARL D "LIGHTNING" LLOYD SEAY - 12/14/1919 - 09/02/1941
was an early stock car racing driver from Georgia. NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. described Seay as the "best pure race driver I ever saw". A Georgia deputy described Seay, "He was without a doubt the best automobile driver of this time. He was absolutely fearless, and an excellent driver on those dusty, dirt roads. I caught him eight times and had to shoot his tires off every time." A different deputy described another night when he pulled Seay over for speeding as he was transporting a load of moonshine through a city north of Atlanta. After he gave the deputy two five dollar bills, the officer said, "Dammit Lloyd, you know the fine for speedin' ain't but five dollars" Seay replied, "Yeah, but I'm gon' be in a hurry comin' back, so I'm payin' an advance." Lloyd began racing in 1938, winning in his first stock car race at Lakewood Speedway driving a 1934 Ford owned by his cousin and tuned by Red Vogt when he was 18 years old. At age 21, he joined his cousin, Roy Hall, for the beach races in a car owned by another cousin, Raymond Parks. "Lloyd Seay put his heart and life into racing long before the era of great material reward. He raced flat out simply because he loved going fast," says racing historian Greg Fielded. On November 21, 1938, Seay won a 150-mile darkness shortened national championship stock car race at
Lakewood. He flipped his car twice during the July 27, 1941 race at the Daytona Beach Road Course and finished fourth. He returned to the track later that year on August 24, 1941, against his cousin Roy Hall in Parks' cars. After starting fifteenth, he led all 50 laps in the race. He won his next race on August 31 at High Point, and left immediately for the Labor Day race at Lakewood Speedway on the following day. He arrived late at the event, missing qualifying. He had to start last, and he passed into the lead on lap 35. He battled Bob Flock all afternoon before winning the $450 race. It was his last race. He had won three races in 15 days. After winning at Lakewood, Lloyd drove to the home of his brother, Jim, in Burlsboro to spend the night. The following morning their cousin Woodrow Anderson, who had a police record for making moonshine, came to the house to settle a disagreement about some sugar that Lloyd had purchased and charged
to Woodrow. Lloyd, Jim, and Woodrow left Jim's house and went to the home of Woodrow's father. Jim later described the shooting in a police statement: "Woodrow got out of the car to see if it needed any water. Then he told me if I didn't want to get mixed up in anything I had better get out of the car. He jumped on Lloyd, hitting him with his fist. "He pulled a gun out of the bib of his overalls and as I spoke he shot me in the neck. He turned the gun on Lloyd and shot him through the heart and told me if I opened my mouth he would finish me off." Woodrow told a different version: "We had a little fuss about a settlement. Lloyd had bought some sugar to produce some moonshine, and charged it to my credit and when I asked him about coming to some agreement about it he said, ‘Well, you got it, didn't you?' I told him, ‘Yes, I got it, but it
ought to be figured in when we settle up.' Then both of them jumped on me and I run. I run through the house and got my daddy's .32 Smith and Wesson pistol and come out and tried to get in my car. "They wouldn't let me get in and it looked like they were about to give me a whuppin' so I started shootin'. One word led to another. The first thing I knew we was quarreling, then I was runnin', then I was shootin'. That's all there was to it." Woodrow Anderson was tried in late October and sentenced to life in prison. Seay was buried in Dawsonville GA Cemetery. He was perhaps the first "great" driver to come from Dawsonville GA. The November 2, 1941 race at Lakewood Speedway was dedicated to Seay. Seay's head stone had a race car on it and a picture of his head is in the race car's window. (see photos). Seay was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in it's initial class in 2002. Some info from Wikipedia
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