SportsLine wire reports

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Eloise Hawkins, chairman and chief executive of the authority which ran stock-car races at Bowman Gray Stadium, died Monday after a battle with cancer. She was 82.

Since 1970, Hawkins was head of the Winston-Salem Speedway, Inc., which conducts NASCAR-sanctioned stock-car racing at the municipal stadium under a lease from the city. She remained active in its operation until the illness struck her earlier this year.

Hawkins was born Sept. 1, 1916, in Spartanburg County, S.C., and was one of 11 children. She entered the auto racing industry when she married J. Alvin Hawkins, who co-founded the stadium's racing in 1949 in a partnership with NASCAR founder William France.

France withdrew from the enterprise in the 1960s and Hawkins became the stadium's racing chief after her husband died in 1970.

Survivors include five daughters, 16 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at the Hayworth-Miller Funeral Home. Memorials may be made to West Side Baptist Church in Winston-Salem.