NORTH WILKESBORO
When a production company recently needed film footage to tell the story of Junior Johnson running from revenuers back in the day, former champion driver Dean Combs got behind the wheel of a 1940 Ford and made a bootleg turn for the camera crew.
It was a make-believe reenactment of the legendary roots of moonshine and racing.
In real life yesterday, Combs was charged in connection with running a moonshine still that authorities blew up within the shadow of North Wilkesboro Speedway, one of the cradles of NASCAR.
Combs, 57, is a five-time champion of the series that started as the Baby Grand Nationals, a former Winston Cup driver and a former crew chief for a NASCAR team once owned by Johnson. When Johnson drove moonshine, he was considered a master of the bootleg turn in which he would slide his speeding car 180 degrees and then speed off in the opposite direction of his pursuer.
As rain fell yesterday morning, Combs used his cell phone's camera to snap photos of the remains of a moonshine still that lay broken and blown apart on a hill behind his home and just a couple of hundred yards from the speedway that Combs' father had once co-owned.
Combs said he used the still to make cold medicine or brandy.
"I'd drink it for a cold," he said. "It was mostly for cold medicine. There's not been any good apple brandy out here for years. It's better than what you buy at a store."
The Wilkes County Sheriff's Office destroyed the still in two explosions. Residents as far as four miles away reported hearing the loud booms Thursday night.
Authorities seized about 200 gallons of corn liquor, said Shon Tally, an agent with N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement. Twenty-four gallons were in plastic gallon jugs, and the rest was in glass jars. They also seized 3,000 pounds of sugar.
Combs was charged with manufacturing nontax-paid liquor, possessing nontax-paid liquor, possessing ingredients to manufacture nontax-paid liquor and possessing equipment to manufacture nontax-paid liquor.
It has been about a year-and-a-half since authorities found a still in Wilkes County, Tally said. They often make purchases of nontax-paid liquor, he said, "but to actually find a still, they're few and far between."
Authorities acted on a tip.
"He had just finished running that morning," Tally said. "When he was draining the water out of it so we could move it, the steam was rolling off it."
Combs owns a defunct go-cart track near the speedway, and he said that the still was in one of the buildings there. When Tally and other agents came to his door Thursday afternoon, he took them to the still, he said.
"The ALE man he was very nice and very helpful," Combs said.
The still was made of stainless steel, and just the boiler weighed about 1,000 pounds. Agents were trying to figure out how to get it out to destroy it.
"He got his tractor, he pulled it up there for us," Tally said. "That's how accommodating he was. You couldn't ask for a nicer fellow."
Combs said that authorities were complimentary of the quality of his moonshine.
"They even bragged on it, said they'd never seen spring water that clear," he said. "I said, ‘You need to put a label on it and stick it in the store.'"
Combs said that his interest in moonshine reflects part of Wilkes County's heritage.
"It's something I was always interested in," he said. "I wanted to see if I could make something drinkable. I guess I gave someone a quart I shouldn't have."
■ Monte Mitchell can be reached in Wilkesboro at 336-667-5691 or at mmitchell@wsjournal.com.
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