Schoolfield, Founder of Southern MotoRacing Passes Away

by Skip Wall

Hank Schoolfield, a pioneer of racing media and founder of Southern MotoRacing for over 40 years has passed away. He was 79.
Schoolfield, a North Carolina native, passed away this past Thursday in Winston Salem.

He was perhaps best known as editor and publisher of the first bi-weekly racing tabloid with emphasis on racing in the southeast. His business and his name grew from there.

It started out as Southern Motorsports Journal in 1962. But in 1964 he changed it to Southern MotoRacing. SMR peaked in the eighties when its circulation peaked at around 20,000. Southern MotoRacing was the only racing source to many throughout the southeast. Schoolfield sold the publication almost two years ago to Speedway Scene and retired.

Schoolfield spent 41 years in the same building in Winston Salem and auctioned every thing off, including a printing business, lots of racing memorabilia and many memories. It was at that auction and an interview with Schoolfield, that this web site, Southern Motor Racing.com was in the makings. In that auction was a Royal typewriter that Schoolfield had worn out many times over, writing articles about the racing industry.

In an interview with the Winston Salem Journal, Schoolfield reflected on how racing has passed.
"It was a time when people were genuine," Schoolfield said. "You could talk to racers, and they would talk to you like regular people. They were more likely to be standing around in the pits rather than hidden in their motor homes."

But Southern MotoRacing wasn't the only thing that made Schoolfield well known for.

With a bachelor's degree in journalism from UNC, Schoolfield became the sports editor for the Winston Salem Journal, resigning in 1961 to pursue his love for racing.

He opened up Universal Services, a public relations and advertising firm. That opened the doors to all the advertising, publications and public relations for North Wilkesboro Speedway until the track closed in 1996. His friendship with Bill France in NASCAR and Alvin Hawkins, track promoter for Bowman Gray Stadium led him to be track publicist until last year. During that time Schoolfields company provided the track with not only his knowledge, but with souvenir programs loaded with information. He was also the father of the inverted starts for the most powerful cars in NASCAR, the Modified division.

He also helped Bowman Gray Stadium be the most attended track in weekly series racing, a mark that still stands today.

Schoolfield also co founded the Universal Racing Network, a broadcasting company that started covering live NASCAR races on radio. Competing against the small town radio stations, Schoolfield found it a huge challenge to compete against Sunday church services. With Bob Montgomery doing the broadcasts, Universal Racing Network went from 40 radio stations to 300 until NASCAR switched over to MRN in 1982.

When he retired, Schoolfield donated a lot of old tapes of racing broadcasts and articles to Appalachian State University.

Schoolfield also helped make the first television broadcast happen.
In 1967 and 68, he was a producer for TelePrompter, a company that televised live, the Daytona 500, on closed circuit TV. From there CBS television bought the rights.

Schoolfield was well known and respected in the racing world during its heyday.
Randy Myers, track promoter for Friendship Speedway, remembers Schoolfield well. "He nominated my father, Billy Myers, to the National Motorsports Press Association and was involved with the Myers Brothers races at Bowman Gray Stadium and helped establish the Myers Brothers Award presented annually by the NMPA. He was a special man who had a real passion for the little guys in the sport and his work will be long remembered and appreciated."

Schoolfield had a passion for auto racing. Many have forgotten that it was Schoolfield who pioneered the start of broadcasting of live racing on TV and radio. He pioneered in helping promote Bowman Gray Stadium, what it is today.

Though in the past few years, Schoolfield slowed down and spent time fishing down on Tuckertown lake, he will long be remembered as a pioneer in the racing media world.