Dirt-track auto racing was the subject of Thunder and Grace: Racing on American Dirt, a photo exhibition showcasing the work of former Center employee Susan Bauer Lee and displayed at the Center this winter. Lee has attended hundreds of dirt-track races in the past 13 years and, in an interview with journalist Jennifer Southall, talked about her experiences.

“ Some friends invited my husband and me to our first race, at Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Georgia,” said Lee, a native of Mendenhall, Mississippi who lived in Oxford in early 1990s. Lee said she was “completely hooked” by the noise, the fans, the excitement, and the overall “carnival atmosphere.” Lee, who in 1988 earned a bachelor’s degree in art from Millsaps College in Jackson, was also taken by the cars themselves. “I’d been photographing a lot of roadside church signs before, so when I saw all these battered hunks of steel covered with religious messages, I was really excited.”

According to Lee, of the 900-some racing facilities in the United States, about 700 are short dirt or clay ovals. Besides the religious messages, local sponsors advertise on the sides of the cars, as well. “Local sponsors advertise on the sides of the cars alongside the religious messages, local preachers pray for everyone’s safety, and a local talent sings the national anthem,” she said. Lee says that for many rural areas, dirt racing is the equivalent of high school football. “It’s where people gather to cheer friends or family and swap stories. Wives keep score in the stands; children play in the dirt; drivers and crew members work on machines in the pits.” In addition to the cars, it’s this sense of community at the races that Lee has tried to capture in her work.

“ This is a really dynamic, energetic set of photographs,” said Center Director of Documentary Projects David Wharton, who was largely responsible for bringing the exhibition to the University campus. “I saw some of Susan’s photos about three years ago and was struck. There’s clearly a personal connection in these pictures.”

“ I had rarely taken portraits before we started going to the dirt tracks, but the great thing about dirt racing is the access,” said Lee. “You can pay extra and get into the pits, and after a few years the drivers and crews got really relaxed around me and just forgot I was there taking pictures.”

Lee began taking her racing photos to submit to dirt-track magazines along with articles written by her husband, Tim Lee. She now serves as art director and Tim serves as editor for two Powell, Tennessee-based dirt-racing magazines–Late Model and Sprint Car. In the early ’90s, Lee designed publications for the Center and said she was “very tickled” to return to Ole Miss for the exhibition, her second ever and her first to feature only racing photos.

Jennifer Southall