Mississippi Racing Legend
Fats Harvison
The crew from Miss Chicken recently spent a Saturday afternoon visiting with a very active 86 year old Hilton “Fats” Harvison in his home in Laurel. Fats, as he’s been known since he was a baby, is the dean of Mississippi race track announcers. His career began in 1948 when he announced a motorcycle race at the old Laurel Fairgrounds Track. When the track changed to stock cars, he continued to do the announcing and since then has been the man on the mike at most every track in south and central Mississippi as well as some in Louisiana. In addition to Laurel, he has worked with tracks in Meridian, Hattiesburg, Gulfport, Jackson and Baton Rouge and was considered by most everyone to be the original ambassador of stock car racing in our state. In addition to his work with race tracks, Fats also did the play by play of high school sports all over the state for the Laurel radio station. Our visit with Fats was particularly enjoyable for me, having grown up listening to his running commentary at Speedbowl Park in Jackson. During the nearly 6 hours we visited and talked, Fats told us story after story of the great drivers of the 50’s and 60’s. All I had to do was mention a name and Fats would immediately come up with a story or two about each of them. I was fascinated and entertained by these tales the entire visit. By the time late afternoon had arrived, Fats had talked so much he was about to get hoarse so we bid him goodbye and promised to come back again to continue our lap around the track full of memories. As we shook hands and walked outside, Fats commented that he had not had that much fun on a Saturday afternoon in a long while. That goes double for the Miss Chicken crew. He is truly a legend and a large part of Mississippi racing history.
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Mississippi Racing Legend
Joe Fascio
Recently, I received a wonderful letter from the wife of a Mississippi Racing Legend, Joe Fascio. Ms Margaret Fascio was excited about the website. She were hit hard by Katrina and lost almost everything. In her letter, she included some pictures of her husbands racing career from the 1950's. She also included some racing static's of her husband and their son Joe Fascio JR.
Joe Fascio started his racing career back in the late 1940's. Although he was from New Orleans, Joe raced all over Mississippi and the south. One of the first pictures of Joe racing was taken at Brookhaven Speedway in 1950. By this time in his racing career, he was winning races and was hooked on the sport. At Brookhaven Joe raced against Jake Howard who was driving a fast California Roadster #13. The car behind the fast roadster is Joe Fascio. Joe was never behind for long. This picture shows the same car 5 years later and a top had been added to the old roadster. Joe Fascio was behind the wheel of the "Black Cat 13" and another Mississippi racing Legend, Joe Caspolich, is doing everything he can to take the lead.
Joe Fascio was one of the fan's favorite modified driver at Pass Road Speedway in Biloxi. Joe won races at Pass Road driving the #30 in 1954 and in the #57 in 1955. All in all, Joe Fascio started 2017 races during his long racing career. He went on to take over 725 Feature wins.
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