Hogg, Hizer Challenge Salt Flats Again
An Atlantan on Wheels is part of my Archive Spotlight — true stories I wrote back in the ’80s for the hudspeth report about Georgia folks and their love affairs with cars. I rode shotgun, took notes, and now I’m re-issuing each piece just as it ran then — plus fresh updates on where those cars (and people) ended up.
Hop in. Windows down. Let’s roll. Read how the series first hit the road here.
Back in 1961, Georgia Tech students Bobby Hogg and Courtney Hizer had a dream. They hoped to one day indulge their love of race cars by building and racing their own.
Hogg went on to become president of Better Brands, Inc., a Miller beer distribution hub for 10 metro Atlanta counties. Hizer became president of North Georgia Distributing Company of Rome, Georgia, which distributes Miller brand beer to Rome’s 10 surrounding counties.
But Hogg and Hizer never forgot the vision of owning a race car. Hizer especially. At the age of 15, he had built a 1939 Mercury convertible with an Oldsmobile engine.
Eventually, Hogg and Hizer formed Hinton Performance, impressed Buick with their idea of racing a Buick V-6 turbo engine in a Buick LeSabre body, and in the winter of 1986 began building the frame of a race car in Norcross, Georgia. Their plans were to race the car at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
Bobby Hogg & Courtney Hizer with their in-progress Buick racecar.
“I always wanted to be in the 200 MPH Club,” Hizer said. “Not many people achieve it because a driver has to have a certified time of better than 200 mph at the Salt Flats. And it has to set a classification world record.”
The Salt Flats are what is left of a huge sea that once covered much of the far west, stretching from Salt Lake City toward Reno, Nevada.
The team received their race car in pieces shipped in big boxes. E. J. Trivette, an ex-NASCAR GM driver, did most of the designing and building while Mike Colt, crew chief, did a majority of the welding.
Designing, building and welding were only the start. In the meantime, McLaren Engines in Lavona, Michigan, was designing the engine. Soon, the following car buffs from around the country were involved in getting the car ready for an August 28th race date:
Don “Ledhead” ledingham, a former crew member of the Junior Johnson NASCAR
racing team
Parker Merrill, an industrial arts teacher from San Francisco
Kurt Roehrig, an employee at McLaren Engines who took a week’s vacation to come
down to Atlanta to work on the car
Jim Captain, owner of a tire company in Rome who, according to Hizer, “can build
anything”
Roger Hornsby, a mortgage manager and former bike drag racer
Pat Ryan, a civil engineer and owner of a construction company, helped with parts
fabrication and assembly
Eric Duncan, longtime race car builder, lent his experience
Hizer credits his wife, Villa, with much of their success. She took over the running of North Georgia Distributing Company while the car took Hizer away.
As the racing deadline approached, and many small and large crises occurred, the crew had to work night and day. Averaging three hours of sleep a night, they would take turns napping and eating. Creepers, which they use to slide underneath cars, often became their beds.
The countdown continued until Wednesday night before the Friday they were to qualify in Utah. At midnight, they completed the car and, although groggy, prepared a motor home and trailer for the 38-hour drive to the Salt Flats.
“On the way,” Hizer said, “Captain pulled into a Krystal’s drive-thru and fell asleep at the window. Two of our fellows went into a convenient store for drinks and snacks, paid and walked out of the store without their goods. Everyone was so tired, it was to the point that if I had said, ‘Guys, I don’t think we can make it,’ they would have agreed and given up.”
But the team did not give up. They made the long trip west and arrived at the Salt Flats at 3:15 p.m. that Friday, making it just under the deadline wire. “After sundown,” Hogg said, ”there would be no more qualifying.”
They joined the lineup and put the finishing touches on the car as they rolled forward in line. Hogg succeeded in placing all the decals on the car just before take-off time.
And, boy, did they take off!
Hizer managed an average speed of 215.539 on his two runs up and down the four-mile stretch, setting a new world record almost 20 mph faster than the old record of 195.794 set in 1971 for the D-Altered V-6 class. That night, there was a lot of celebrating from this group of Georgians.
It’s that time of year again. The Bonneville race, which normally lasts a week, is set to being on August 13, 1988, and Hogg, Hizer and their team are back in action:
The transmission is in Tennessee
The engine is back at McLaren Engines in Michigan
The body is sitting at Better Brands, Inc.’s office on Jefferson Street in Atlanta
The trailer is in Rome, Georgia
The body is stripped, taped and ready for a new paint job. This year they are painting the car gold, with a white section for their insignia, to resemble a Miller Lite can. The trailer is being customized with a live-in lounge for those hot, salty souls to escape into once they’ve set up housekeeping on the 60,000 acres of Salt Flats.
Hizer is now a member of the 200 MPH Club. He thinks he will better his record this year.
“The car is capable of 95 inches of boost,” Hizer said, “and we only used about 65 inches of boost when we set the record.”
The Salt Flats have a grip on Hizer. He smiles when trying to describe the sensation of driving 215 mph. He can’t explain it. But he can’t wait to do it again. And faster.
“I don’t think a speed of 250 mph is totally unrealistic.”
All the team members are back for their second trip to Utah. Some guys will meet there, some will drive out with the car. One thing is for sure; they’ll enjoy the adventure even if a record isn’t broken and even though they may not have every decal in place at the start time.
Hogg says half the fun is getting there. Hizer says the other half is driving a dream.
Hogg & Hizer’s Racecare Dream
Originally published in the August 1988 edition of the hudspeth report.
Ridin’ Shotgun: with Bobby & Courtney
Beer, Bucks & Bonneville
I still remember the hum of the fluorescent lights inside Better Brands’ Atlanta office. It was 1988 — I was just a staff writer for the hudspeth report, pencil in hand and happy/anxious at the chance to sit across from Bobby Hogg and Courtney Hizer.
I’d come to hear about their latest turbo Buick build and the dream they shared of conquering the Bonneville Salt Flats yet again. I expected a standard business chat — what I got instead was a peek behind the scenes of two Atlanta originals who turned beer money into speed records.
Bobby’s office was a shrine to both worlds — Miller and Löwenbräu signs, die-cast racing models lined up like trophies, shelves loaded with keepsakes that told the story of Better Brands, Inc., Atlanta’s Miller distributor for nearly seven decades. Just outside, guys were welding, wrenching, and fussing over a race car — the same one they’d haul all the way to Utah’s salt flats for a shot at the record books.
They could’ve written a check and let someone else do the dirty work. But that wasn’t the point. They wanted to stand close to the roar, to share the laughs, to watch that engine come alive right behind their own business walls. That mix of big money and everyday grit stuck with me — a sign that speed doesn’t always come from a fancy pit crew; sometimes it’s built in the back of a beer warehouse by a couple of Georgia boys who never lost their taste for the chase.
And chase they did.
Bobby Hogg, the quietly charismatic force behind Better Brands, kept Atlanta’s taps flowing and the city’s racing pulse alive. When he passed, his estate sale read like an Atlanta history tour: racing collectibles, vintage Miller and Löwenbräu memorabilia, fine antiques, music archives, even a full-sized restored Coca-Cola machine — every piece an echo of the life he built and the passions he funded.
And then there was Courtney Hizer, born in Atlanta in 1942, a military man, lawyer, and speed junkie who owned North Georgia Distributing Company with his wife, Villa. For 28 years, they kept Rome and North Georgia stocked with cold beer, while Courtney fed his need for the open salt flats. By the time he left us in 2011, he’d racked up seven land speed records at Bonneville, punched his ticket to the exclusive 200 MPH Club, and inspired a next generation to push the pedal just a little harder.
Even after Courtney was gone, Villa kept the dream alive — and when she passed in 2023, she left behind a legacy of civic work and a piece of their speed history on permanent display. The Hizers’ beloved “Bonneville Buick” now sits gleaming in the Grand Hall at the Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, reminding every visitor how a local boy and a big dream can put a Georgia name in the record books.
Two friends, two families, one intertwined legacy. Beer, bucks, and the thrill of going faster than you ever thought you could. That’s Bobby and Courtney — Ridin’ Shotgun together, even now.
So next time you raise a Miller Lite in Buckhead or hear the echo of a turbo engine tearing up a Georgia backroad, tip your hat to Bobby and Courtney — Atlanta originals who proved that a good life runs on cold beer, fast cars, and the kind of friendship that never runs out of gas.
About the Author
Cindi Brown is a Georgia-born writer, porch-sitter, and teller of truths — even the ones her mama once pinched her for saying out loud. She runs Porchlight Press from her 1895 house with creaking floorboards and an open door for stories with soul. When she’s not scribbling about Southern music, small towns, stray cats, places she loves, and the wild gospel that hums in red clay soil, you’ll find her out listening for the next thing worth saying.
