Stock Car Pioneer, NASCAR Founder France Dies at 82

William France, the father of big league stock car racing and founder of the Daytona 500, died Sunday at 82 at his home in Ormond Beach.

He had been seriously ill for the past two years.

The National Assn. for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) was a personal dream that the 6-foot-5, broad-shouldered auto mechanic turned into reality.

He came to Daytona Beach in 1934 when his car broke down there, short of his Miami destination while moving his family from their Washington, D.C., home.

It was during the heyday of beach racing. The first stock car race there was a 250-mile event over a 3.2-mile course that France helped plan and construct on Ormond Beach.

He drove in that race and others. But auto racing in the South still was in its infancy until France, giving up his driving for organizing and promoting races, founded NASCAR late in 1947 in an effort to assure race purses and standards.

The high-banked 2.5-mile Daytona track was another France dream. It took years to overcome political, financial and practical problems, but the first Daytona 500 was run in 1959.

France then put together the International Speedway Corp., which now owns not only the Daytona track, but Alabama International Motor Speedway in Talladega and Darlington (S.C.) International Speedway--the oldest stock car oval--as well as operating the Watkins Glen, N.Y., International road circuit.

France stepped down from the presidency of NASCAR in 1972, turning over the reins to his sons, Bill Jr. and Jim.