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Outside city hall are old, abandoned cars from the days when Ford Coupes and other models from the 1930s and '40s hauled moonshine down Georgia Highway 9. The windy mountain highway became known as Thunder Road, because it was filled with the screaming sounds of car engines as bootleggers hauled their moonshine to Atlanta. The young drivers were sometimes pursued by "revenue men" from the federal government, and the chases sometimes led to overturned cars and deadly wrecks. Townspeople are proud of how young Dawsonville men raced their cars at places like Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta after moonshine deliveries, which helped stock-car racing gain a following in its early days.

Dawsonville, the home of 'Awesome Bill from Dawsonville', Bill Elliott.(Beside 'The King' and 'The Intimidator' one of my favorite drivers growing up.)

“MACON, GA (Nov. 12, 1967) — Bobby Allison held off a late surge by Richard Petty and won the Middle Georgia 500 at Middle Georgia Raceway ...

The 267-mile event went on as scheduled even though Federal and State officers located a huge moonshine still neatly tucked under the .534-mile facility. Peach County Sheriff Reggie Mullis called it “one of the most well-built stills ever operated.”

The officer said the still was located under the Middle Georgia Raceway with the only entrance through a ticket booth at the north end of the track. Mullis said agents climbed down a 35-foot ladder leading from the trap door. There they found a 125 foot tunnel where the still was located.

“This is one of the most cleverly run moonshine operations I have ever seen,” said one Federal agent. Following an investigation, it was discovered that the still was capable of producing 200 gallons of actual whickey every five days.

At the end of the tunnel, there was a 2,000 gallon cooker, a 1,200 gallon box fermenter and a 750 gallon gas fuel tank for cooking. The operators had installed yellow lights to keep bugs out of the mash.

Authorities put the still out of operation a couple weeks before the race. Most of the 6,800 spectators who attended the race were unaware the still was ever located at their hometown track.

Track President H. Lamar Brown, Jr. was charged with possession of apparatus for the distillery of illegal liquor.

The case came to trial on December 12, 1968, with Brown being found not guilty after a two hour deliberation by the jury.”

IIRC, they had built the still under the high banking of the turns. A deputy had stopped by the track and noticed that the fuel truck, which had just dropped off a load of racing fuel at the track, seemed to be going up through all the gears as he left the track, like he still had a heavy load.

The deputy watched the same thing happen with later deliveries of fuel. They finally figured he was hauling high octane racing fuel INTO the track, and leaving full of the SUPER HIGH OCTANE WHOOEEE BOY stuff.