With NASCAR running a Busch series race in Mexico City this weekend, much has been made of the appearance of such Mexican drivers as Adrian Fernandez and Michel Jourdain Jr. becoming part of the NASCAR driver landscape, as though it were something new. In its first year of existence, 1949, NASCAR had a Latino presence in Francisco Eduardo Menedez, who drove four races in the inaugural season and won three in 1951. In the record books, he is known as Frank Mundy, the “Georgia Rebel” from Atlanta. Mundy was born in 1918 to a Mexican father and Irish mother and as a teenager got his racing lessons at Atlanta’s Lakewood Speedway. Mundy also drove in the first NASCAR race west of the Mississippi, April 8, 1951, at Carrell Speedway in Gardena. After coming west, Mundy learned that the car he’d expected to drive was not ready, so he rented a Plymouth from Hertz, whitewashed numbers on its sides, installed a seat belt and went racing. Stock cars really were stock in those early days.
“I collected $100 for finishing ninth or 10th and the car rental was $37, so I cleared $63, which was a pretty good payday back then,” Mundy recalled. He still lives in Atlanta and received a lifetime achievement award from the Living Legends of Auto Racing organization last month in Daytona Beach.(Los Angeles Times)(3-4-2005)
