Best Damn Garage in Town
Wins Culture Book Award

Carbon Press was recently notified that the Pocket Edition of
Best Damn Garage in Town Was the Winner in the Culture category of the 2004 Writers Notes Book Awards. The awards will be featured in an upcoming issue of Writers Notes Magazine (www.WritersNotes.com).

According to the magazine, "the Art, Culture and Self-help categories were extremely competitive, and the winners beat out terrific books." Smokey would probably be quite amused that his book won and award for "Culture."

We are honored that Smokey's book has received additional critical acclaim even three years after the original coffee table sets were published.




Smokey Receives Florida Senate Resolution
at the Request of Senator Bill Posey

On Friday, April 28, 2004, The Florida Senate recognized Smokey Yunick. We were totally surprised when we received the copy of the Journal of the Senate that Senator Posey sent us with the Smokey resolution highlighted. Senator Posey is a true Smokey fan!

A resolution recognizing and commending Henry "Smokey" Yunick.

WHEREAS, Henry "Smokey" Yunick was born in 1924 in Nishaminy, Pennsylvania, where he grew up and lived on his family's farm until he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and became a B-17 Bomber pilot in World War II, flying more than 50 bombing missions in the Balkan theatre for the Flying Tigers, and

WHEREAS, upon being honorably discharged from the Army Air Corps at the war's end, Smokey settled in Daytona Beach, Florida, where in 1947 he opened a truck repair shop that he named the "Best Damn Garage in Town," and

WHEREAS, shortly after opening his Daytona garage, Smokey accepted the invitation of fellow Daytona resident and stock car owner/racer Marshall Teague to join the Teague racing team and begin a career in automobile mechanics that would become the standard by which others in the auto racing business would be measured, and

WHEREAS, in the years that followed, Smokey established himself as a mechanical genius in the eyes of race car sponsors, owners, and drivers, repeatedly introducing mechanical innovations that led automakers to adopt his engineering designs, gave his cars a clear competitive edge over others, and enabled his drivers to achieve racing dominance on the tracks, and

WHEREAS, while pursuing his career in automotive mechanics, Smokey patented 11 of his automotive inventions, led in designing and building cars that won 39 Grand National races and two Grand National Championships between 1955 and 1962, designed and built the car that won the Indianapolis 500 in 1960, wrote articles published in Popular Science and Circle Track Magazine, founded and served as Director of Emory Riddle University, became Professor Emeritus at Daytona Beach Community College, and served as a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and

WHEREAS, in the course of his career, Smokey receive numerous awards recognizing and honoring his extraordinar talents and successes in the sport of auto racing, including becoming a two-time winner of NASCAR's Mechanic of the Year Award, receiving a Mechanical Achievements Award from Indianapolis Motor Speedway and from Ontario Speedway, receiving an Engineering Excellence Award from Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and being recognized as Inventor of the Year in 1983, and

WHEREAS, on May 9, 2001, Smokey succumbed to the ravages of leukemia, ending a remarkable life of innovative leadership in automotive mechanics, marked by extraordinary success in the sport of auto racing, and leaving a legacy of personal and professional accomplishments unlikely to be duplicated by his peers, NOW, THEREFORE,

Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

That the Florida Senate posthumously recognizes and commends Henry "Smokey" Yunick for his dedication to the highest standards of excellence in pursuit of his ambition to build the most competitive race cars on the tracks, establishing the "Best Damn Garage in Town" as an exemplary business establishment that became a local landmark, and advancing the sport of auto racing to help make Daytona Beach, Florida, the stock car racing capital of the world.





Marvin Panch Rebuilds his Winning 1961 Daytona 500 Car