Perk Brown


Kerry Viar sent the photos and this biography on Perk Brown

Perk Brown's real name was Jack Thomasson. He was from
Spray, N.C. which is about 30 miles from the Martinsville track.

He "owned" the local tracks in the early to mid 60's.Bowman-Gray in
Winston-Salem,N.C., and Starkey Speedway(Roanoke,Va.). He also
won 7 features at Martinsville over those years.. He traveled to
Trenton often and had one of his worst crashes there in 1960 driving
the Mason's Garage '37 Chevy sedan. He finished in the top 5 several
years in a row in the race of champions and was always at the top of
the yearly National Modified driver list.

He drove for William Mason in the #45 using a small block Chevy
from the late 50's until 1968. He then drove his own #0 "Honey Bear"
and the #04 coach and sedan of Donald Bryant.He drove a #22
Hudson Hornet in the '50's and found he didn't like the traveling
in the Grand National ranks.

The biggest compliment I've ever heard about Perk, (besides all the
old timers around here saying he was the best), was on seeing a photo
of Bobby Allison driving Perk's #45 coupe on the internet ,and the
caption saying they didn't know who 'Perk' was, but the driver was
Bobby Allison. Harold Smith, who worked for Mason, said that
Bobby drove the car for 2 years while Perk had kidney stones,
and won 2 national championships during those 2 years....
but the ride was Perk's and if he would have been healthy,
Perk would have been in it!

Perk in the #22 Hudson Hornet,early 50's

Perk in the #45 36 chevy coupe.
First car that Mason built for him. I think it was Mason's first car.

Perk Brown and William Mason

One of the old '36 chevy coaches at Mason's Garage. That's Terry Rae, Mason's grandson and the builder of the later #45 Gremlin that Satch Worley drove.

Perk getting spun by the great Eddie Crouse around 1960

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