Page updated: 09.11.2018
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A few years ago we began a search of the 1937 Ford Fastback Bob Morris raced from around late 1964 to the end of the 1966 season. We were stuck for a long time on just learning the identity of the person who bought the Ford at the last race of the ’66 season at Coweta Raceway. The week before, Bob Morris accepted the “A Sportsman” Championship in front of a sold out crowd. The next weekend was the last race of the season. During a heat race, the ’37 Ford was involved in an accident that prevented it from being raced in the feature event. The car was sold that day since Bob was now working on a new car for the ’67 season. This is where the search begins.
It was learned last year the identity of the person who bought the car. His name was A.J. Costley from Newnan Georgia. It was discovered while looking at images in a Facebook page called Troup County Raceway. There was a pic of a flyer with a gentleman kneeling in front of the car. I don't think most people would have recognized it due to the small size of the pic, but I did immediately. So now I had a name, but knowing this was 52 years ago, I still knew this was going to be a long search, assuming the car or parts of it even still existed. I then ran across two more images showing Mr. A.J. Costley and a younger gentleman standing next to the car. The other image shows the car parked in the grass. That picture was dated September 1967. I have several newspaper articles reporting race results for the 1967 Coweta season mentioning A.J. Costley by name. I have since found images showing two grave sights of Mr. A.J. Costley from Newnan along with his son A.J. Costley Jr. who died at the young age of 23 from as of yet unknown causes.
I am under the idea right now that the older A.J. Costley bought the car for his son to drive. That may be his son in one of the pics below. After the ’67 season the driver nor the car was mentioned again at least in the Newnan papers. This is where I stand at the moment in the search for this car. It seemed to have survived the ’67 season and that is where the trail is lost. I have found several people in Newnan with the last name of Costley on Facebook and have written them with no luck so far with a reply.
Anyone with any information related to this car please email me at: rsmorris@rsmorris.org
Image showing damage to the car last race of the ’66 Coweta season.
Troup county flyer showing A.J. Costley as the new owner.
A.J. Costley and I believe his son as ther new owners.
Car shown at the end of the ’67 season
This is the last known pic of this car.
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