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Fading Thunder...Abandoned Racetracks in Virginia and the Carolinas

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by phartman, Aug 19, 2011.

  1. pcracer
    Joined: Oct 2, 2011
    Posts: 5

    pcracer
    Member
    from Virginia

    Fairystone and Oak Level aka Fork Mt. are different speedways
     
  2. Is Fairystone still around? I'm told it was all the same place. Please elaborate.
     
  3. pcracer
    Joined: Oct 2, 2011
    Posts: 5

    pcracer
    Member
    from Virginia

    Fairystone Speedway late 60s? off of RT 57 near Fairystone State Park. A 1/4 mile built and run by Pee Wee Martin. Also in the same timeframe Patrick had Hillbilly Speedway in Patrick Springs also a 1/4 mile built by Red Ashburn. Homes are on or around these two tracks. Wayside Music Park in Stuart started life as Wayside Speedway a 1/2 mile track owned to this day by the Hazelwood family. In the SW part near Mt. Airy NC was Aaratt Speedway a 1/2 mile track that was a Nascar track at some point. Just below the Va/Nc line was Asbury Speedway. Both these tracks are now overgrown.
     
  4. Thank you, thank you for the clarification. When French Grimes told me that Fairystone and Oak Level were the same I was skeptical, but posted anyway. I recall that Oak Level was built late '70s/early '80s? Correct?

    Here is another pic of Fairystone:

    [​IMG]

    Got looking for the Asbury Speedway. Found something called "Pilot Mountain" speedway. Same track? Please let me know. Here is a pic:

    [​IMG]

    And since you're familiar with the area, can you add anything to what we know about the dragstrip near Fieldale? When it operated? Any details.

    Again, thanks for your contribution and welcome to the HAMB!
     
  5. Yes, there is a topo footprint of "Asbury Speedway", located on Speedway Road in Westfield, NC. Here you go:

    [​IMG]
     
  6. pcracer
    Joined: Oct 2, 2011
    Posts: 5

    pcracer
    Member
    from Virginia

    Pilot is different from Asbury which ended its time as a moto-cross track.
     
  7. pcracer
    Joined: Oct 2, 2011
    Posts: 5

    pcracer
    Member
    from Virginia

    Eddie Naff, Foots Fulcher,Johnny Bryant,R L Young,Anthony Terry,Joe Thurman,Harry Hale,Kyle Lee,Larry Hodges, Clifford Harris, Toby Nolin,Clarence Pickurel, Roger Hill are just a few of the locals then. Clarence just won the 2011 Nascar Hometracks championship with Phillip Morris has raced over the years with Satch Worley, Paul Radford, Paten Sellers, Ray Hendricks among others in the Clarence's Steak House cars. Roger Hill,Eddie Flemke,Ted Christopher,Ronnie Silk still win Nascar Whelen Modified races. The #26 & #79 have both raced over 40 years
     
  8. Ebert
    Joined: Feb 13, 2006
    Posts: 1,920

    Ebert
    Member

    Phartman,

    Thank you for starting this AWESOME thread!!! Love it and the history about these old tracks!!!
     
  9. love this thread

    i raced CA in the 70's Valejo speedway and many others closed many years ago
    the intake manifold on my TT Truck was off an old sprint car befor injection
    i have lost intrest in BIG NASCAR
    i liked the home tracks and traveling to them
    i worked last at Petaluma Speed way in CA moved to FL and worked at southern in milton
    not to hyjack this
     
  10. ods53
    Joined: Jan 14, 2011
    Posts: 1

    ods53
    Member

    Correct me if I am wrong. After reading this thread: French Grime's
    Fork Mountain Raceway is not Satch Worley's Log Cabin Speedway. Not even close to each other.
     
  11. pumpman
    Joined: Dec 6, 2010
    Posts: 2,674

    pumpman
    Member

    I use to watch nascar when only espn would broad cast the races in the 70's. They have lost their way and now it's nastycar, cookie cutter tracks, cars, drivers and results. They really screwed up but greed has a heavy foot. North Wilksboro was one of my favorite track to watch races at, what a shame

    Great thread, thank you very much!
     
  12. Hmm, didn't know that Satch had a hand in the racetrack. Interesting. Thanks for adding to the discussion here. From your profile page, I see you were a track operator. Sumerduck? What track(s) did you run?

    But in any case, French bought the old speedway that used to be known as Oak Level and Log Cabin. It is there near Henry, VA. French is from Madison, VA (north of Charlottesville) and that may the reason for the confusion, but his track is just north of Bassett, VA off 220-North on the way to Roanoke. The little intersection off 220-N is known as Oak Level.

    Fork Mountain (aka Oak Level) is NOT the same as Fairystone racetrack, which was located between Bassett and Stuart, VA off VA-57.

    Confusing, isn't it?

    The point to remember is that Virgina and the Carolinas had a ton of dragstrips and oval tracks. More than 150 that were operating at one time.

    Modern day archeology, if there ever were such a thing.
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2011
  13. Deuce Roadster
    Joined: Sep 8, 2002
    Posts: 9,519

    Deuce Roadster
    Member Emeritus

    [​IMG]

    Columbia Speedway ... Columbia SC

    Has not held a race since the mid 70's. Large pine trees in the infield. The pavement is cracked and has large holes.

    Recently ... attempts have been made to have reunions ( race car related ) and car shows there.

    Sad to see the place where I watched many Nascar stars race ... just drift in to nothing. :eek:
     
  14. Deuce, thanks for adding to the discussion. I didn't know anything about the track (located in nearby Cayce, SC).

    [​IMG]


    Here's a nice article about the historical significance of it. It involves this guy, whoever he is...:D From the article:

    You'd never know it today, though. The old racetrack is still there, deep in the forest in an industrial area of Columbia, hidden from view by trees and protected from trespassers by a fence. The only people to use it now are cyclists, who occasionally turn the old racing oval into a training track. Weeds sprout up through the asphalt, pines and willow oaks grow in the infield, and the old frontstretch guardrail is being eaten away by rust. Grandstands have long since been removed or crumbled away. It's hard to believe the place hosted NASCAR's premier series for two decades, from 1951-71, converting from dirt to asphalt in a vain attempt to thwart the inevitable, finally done in by more modern speedways elsewhere and encroaching neighborhoods that didn't want the dust and the traffic and the noise.

    But while it existed, it was legendary.


    http://www.nascar.com/2008/news/features/07/04/rpetty.birth.of.king.dcaraviello/index.html

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Oct 3, 2011
  15. Here you go, buddy.

    [​IMG]
     
  16. DaveHFulton
    Joined: Sep 23, 2011
    Posts: 43

    DaveHFulton
    Member

    The first two years we raced NASCAR at Sears Point, I stayed first in Vallejo then after that at Petaluma. Didn't make it to the Petaluma track, but could hear the cars from the motel. Used to eat at an awesome old Italian place in Petaluma downtown.
     
  17. nimrodracing50
    Joined: Oct 3, 2011
    Posts: 68

    nimrodracing50
    Member

    Aloha,
    How sad, those were great times. When I grew up near Pittsburgh Pa. in the 50's,
    guys could make a living racing on the tracks 5 days a week or more. They are all gone now. Too dusty, too noisey, too useful for homes or malls, $$$, etc.
    Big Al
     
  18. 64 Thunderbolt
    Joined: Feb 8, 2011
    Posts: 277

    64 Thunderbolt
    Member

    Guys, I think what your talking about here is the old Lakeview Dragstrip here? They have a car show there every year. They just had it within the last couple of weeks again. I have been there & taken pictures of it & will try & get them posted on here soon! It is two lanes & the stand is still there as well. Donnie Minter heads up the show there. It's just down the road from his shop.
     
  19. 'Mo
    Joined: Sep 26, 2007
    Posts: 7,432

    'Mo
    Member

    Pete, I couldn't capture the image on Joe Generic's above post (nor access the link), but if you can enlarge the photo on the right, pictured is the Hoehns and Eanes '55 Chevy.
     
  20. dmc3113
    Joined: Jul 28, 2007
    Posts: 235

    dmc3113
    Member

    The "Moonlighter" '41Willys in the near lane in the top picture belonged to Gene Cromer form Anderson, SC. He first raced it as a NHRA legal A/Gas car. He later match raced it on nitro. It was powered by an injected side oiler 427 Ford. He later raced a Mustang roadster F/C also with Ford power.The altered WB Mustang was owned by Ed Skelton also from Anderson.
     
  21. fredmotorco
    Joined: Apr 4, 2010
    Posts: 27

    fredmotorco
    Member

    Loved North Wilkesboro, best place I've ever been to watch a race. I got a black eye from a chunk of rubber being thrown up from the track in my face on the frontstretch. Really miss that place.
     
  22. frank spittle
    Joined: Jan 29, 2009
    Posts: 1,672

    frank spittle
    Member

    North Wilkesboro is still open....at least it has been this year. Former T/F racer Danny Dunn owns and manages it.
     
  23. fredmotorco
    Joined: Apr 4, 2010
    Posts: 27

    fredmotorco
    Member

    The website says all remaining 2011 events are cancelled, I was planning on going to the chump car race in Nov.
     
  24. edweird
    Joined: Jan 4, 2009
    Posts: 3,186

    edweird
    Member

    WOW !!! thanks phartman.
     
  25. edweird
    Joined: Jan 4, 2009
    Posts: 3,186

    edweird
    Member

    i was just gonna ask if anybody had pics of this place.
     
  26. 'Mo
    Joined: Sep 26, 2007
    Posts: 7,432

    'Mo
    Member

    Sorry. Memories are a bit faded after 40+ years.
     
  27. Thanks for sharing...makes my imagination go wild!
     
  28. cherokee
    Joined: May 23, 2010
    Posts: 12

    cherokee
    Member

    [​IMG]

    This aerial photo shows the Salisbury Super Speedway as it appeared in 1958 during a race in NASCAR's convertible stock-car series.

    I had forgotten about this track until the following post appeared in out local newspaper. As a kid, I had gone with my dad to several of the races held there.

    Sunday, October 23, 2011

    Salisbury Post, Salisbury, NC

    On Oct. 6, 1958, the Salisbury Evening Post’s front page carried the news that Pope Pius XII had suffered a stroke and lay “at deaths’ door.”

    A racially motivated bomb blast had wrecked a high school in Clinton, Tenn.

    The Yankees had beaten the Milwaukee Braves 7-0 in the fifth game of the World Series.

    And inside the sports pages was this headline: “Lee Petty drives Olds to win at local track.”

    The story began like this: “Veteran driver Lee Petty of Randleman practically put ‘locks’ on the 1958 Grand National points championship by winning the 100-mile late model hardtop race at the new Salisbury Super Speedway yesterday.”
    For his Sunday afternoon drive — which was delayed because of a muddy track — Petty pocketed $800 in prize money. His ’57 Olds led a field of legendary names in stock-car racing. Buck Baker finished second (the only other car on the lead lap). Tiny Lund, Cotton Owens, Gober Sosebee and Roy Tyner were among the field. Back in 22nd place was a promising young hotshoe named Richard Petty.
    Big time NASCAR racing in Salisbury — at a “super speedway”?
    Today, Salisbury is merely a way station for NASCAR fans passing to or from Charlotte Motor Speedway or the new NASCAR Hall of Fame. But more than half a century ago, NASCAR’s top tiers of competition made a detour here, giving Rowan County a slice of stock-car racing lore. It also connects Salisbury to one of the formative figures in racing — speedway mogul O. Bruton Smith — and ultimately leaves a tantalizing question: Why did the track’s days of NASCAR thunder so quickly disappear?
    Today, the track has been obliterated from the landscape and largely from local memory. It was situated at the old fair grounds, about three miles south of the city, on the west side of what was then called the “national highway,” now U.S. 29. It was incorporated by Smith, at the time an ambitious 31-year-old promoter staging races around the region, including tracks in Concord and the Charlotte fairgrounds.
    Smith began work on the track in the summer of 1958. A June 12 Post article describes it as “a super speedway for major stock car racing,” scheduled to open that fall. The track was “located on property owned by Walter McCanless. It was once used for horse and automobile racing.”
    In that early era, with NASCAR barely a decade old, there was nothing unusual about a red-clay race track stuck along the roadside. The South’s major asphalt-surfaced track, Darlington, had been in operation only eight years; Daytona International Speedway would hold its inaugural race the following February. In his book “Silent Speedways of the Carolinas,” author Perry Allen Wood writes of 29 former tracks that held at least one major race, including a short segment on Salisbury Super Speedway. But when Smith ventured into Salisbury, he apparently had grander plans than simply carving out another cow-pasture arena for jousting jalopies.
    The track work cost $150,000 — the equivalent of more than $1 million today — the Post reported. The oval speedway, officially recorded as .625 miles in length, had banked corners and featured a new brick and concrete grandstand that would seat 6,000 spectators.
    It was the first stock-car racing course to be added to the circuit in North Carolina “in several years,” the Post reported, describing the facility as a “modern racing plant.”
    “Smith calls the Salisbury Super Speedway one of the finest courses in the East,” one story recounts, “and has announced that only major stock-car racing will be staged here.”
    An earlier promoter
    Smith’s renovated track followed the red-clay ruts left by another larger-than-life figure with a penchant for speed. Three decades before, in the summer of 1929, textile tycoon Walter F. McCanless had set the area abuzz with his plans for a grand county fair.
    Born in Gold Hill in 1887, the son of Napoleon Bonaparte McCanless, W.F. McCanless was himself a showman as well as a cane-toting industrial titan who made and lost several fortunes, according to contemporary accounts. Today, he’s chiefly remembered for the grand mansion he built on Confederate Avenue, one of Salisbury’s historic showcases. At one time, he owned five textile mills in Rowan. His Circle M. Ranch encompassed upwards of 2,000 acres, where he operated a thoroughbred stable known as Maple Grove and later raised prize-winning cattle.
    McCanless did things in a big way, and the fairgrounds was no exception. A June 2, 1929, Post article sets the scene: “Salisbury and Rowan County are to have a great district fair this fall, to be staged on a new and modern fairgrounds, one of the best in this entire section of the country.”
    Built on more than 50 acres, the fair site featured brick exhibition buildings, a large swimming pool and bath houses, a “large and beautiful dance Hall” and spacious midway, all illuminated by an “electric light system.” McCanless even bought two elephants, apparently intending to establish an exotic zoo.
    The centerpiece, however, was a half-mile race track, built to showcase thundering thoroughbreds, and a steel-frame grandstand that could seat 3,000.
    On Oct. 13, 1929, as the fair’s opening drew near, another Post article noted “From boyhood Walter McCanless has been a lover or horses and ... has taken special interest in the racing program to be presented. Horses from a number of states are already quartered in the splendid large brick Maple Grove racing stables. ... The running races will be the best ever put on a racing card in North Carolina.”
    (McCanless also wasn’t averse to a wager; he attempted to bring parimutuel betting to the county, personally paying for a 1933 referendum that voters rejected.)
    The initial horse races proved popular, filling the stands and drawing entrants from as far away as Ohio and New York. The only mention of autos on the track, however, concerns a one-lap race between a horse named Warren and a “special Dodge runabout.” The Dodge won.
    In subsequent years, McCanless expanded the calendar to include summer horse racing — and “big car” competitions, featuring open-wheeled, Indy-style cars. On July 4, 1931, an auto race drew several entrants wheeling fenderless “specials.” The highlight of the event, apparently, was when a driver named Banks Lopp crashed through a fence while attempting to negotiate one of the unbanked turns “but was not injured to any serious extent.” By 1932, McCanless had contracted with Gray Auto and Air Races Association of Lexington to stage auto races. “Some six or eight prominent dirt track racers” signed up for a late October race, the Post relates, including racers from Jacksonville, Fla., West Virginia and Atlanta.
    “The immense grandstand was pretty well filled,” the Post reported, “and great crowds were packed around the railings of the half-mile race course to witness the demons of the track as they pushed their respective cars for all they were worth.”
    During the late 1930s, the fairgrounds track attracted the interest of the Piedmont region’s early stock-car racers. In his book “Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay and Big Bill France,” historian Daniel Pierce cites the Salisbury track and another in Spartanburg, S.C., as among the first in the Carolinas to organize stock-car races, starting in 1939, and “both remained major stops for stockers throughout the prewar period.”
    In a notable competition in 1940, the Salisbury track hosted one of nine major stock car races held in the Piedmont that year, Pierce writes. The winner of that race, the season finale, was Bill France Sr., a dominant driver in the day before he became NASCAR’s founding father.
    A ‘perfect layout’
    By 1958, the fair site’s glory days had passed, and the track had fallen into disuse. Some of the original facilities had been converted for textile manufacturing and other uses. The county fair had moved to a new location on Julian Road. Walter McCanless was now an old man worn down by a lengthy battle with the IRS, which charged that he owed more than $2 million in unpaid taxes and interest. In 1955, after initially pleading not guilty to income tax evasion, he changed his plea to no contest, resolving the legal battle but not the tax liens placed on his holdings.
    Bruton Smith, in contrast, was on the cusp of an extraordinary career that would make him the owner of super speedways across the country, dealerships and other business interests.
    The Oct. 5, 1958, race won by Lee Petty was the the third major event Smith brought to the renovated track that year.
    The inaugural race was Sept. 14 and featured NASCAR’s now-defunct “convertible series.” Smith signed several top-name drivers for this 100-mile event, as well, including Glenn “Fireball” Roberts and Bob Welborn, who would win the race in a 1957 Chevrolet. Others in the 26-car field included Richard Petty, Roy Tyner, Tiny Lund, Neil Castles and Marvin Panch.
    Along with the sounds of raucous V8 engines, fans enjoyed pre-race music provided by Joe Smith and his Southern Playboys.
    Two weeks later, on Sept. 28, a field of 28 cars competed in a 100-mile modified championship race billed as the track’s “grand opening.” “Kannapolis speedster” Ralph Earnhardt — father of Dale — jumped out front and held the lead for 40 laps before engine trouble struck. Another local driver, Dink Widenhouse of Concord, took the checkered flag, with Banjo Mathews of Asheville coming in second.
    From the accounts in the Post, the 1958 races in Salisbury were successful. The convertible race drew more than 6,500 spectators, while the October event pulled in 3,800. In the run-up to the races, Smith praised the site as “a perfect layout for a track” and said he believed it would become one of the most popular in the South. Drivers seemed to agree.
    “It’s a real fine one,” Roberts said of the track. “I think it will improve with every race.”
    Yet after 1958, the championship events were never to return, and the track would soon cease operations.
    The final chapter
    After such a highly hyped birth, what happened?
    Smith did not respond to requests for an interview through his company Sonic Automotive or Charlotte Motor Speedway. But a glance at NASCAR history shows that his energies turned elsewhere.
    As one of the sports early visionaries, Smith had his sights set on a bigger venue, closer to Charlotte. Less than a year after promoting races at the Salisbury track, he and partner Curtis Turner broke ground on Charlotte Motor Speedway, which after a rocky start that included bankruptcy would eventually become the cornerstone of his racing empire.
    In a 2005 interview with writer John Davison (archived at the website www.fastmachines.com), Smith talked about his transition from itinerant promoter to ownership of a 1.5-mile paved speedway in Charlotte.
    “I was promoting three to four races per week at various facilities in the region, which I didn’t own,” he said. “Everything regarding these promotional efforts centered on my effort, and if I got in a wreck or was laid up for six months, I’d be totally broke. I had no security. I decided Charlotte needed a serious speedway.”
    The legal entanglements attached to the McCanless property also may have been a factor. McCanless died on Oct. 9, 1958, only four days after Lee Petty’s victory. His death set in motion the breakup of his estate, with the majority of his holdings, including the racetrack property, being sold and subsequently converted to industrial and residential development.
    It’s fascinating to ponder the red-clay past and wonder what might have been, but we can only know what was. For a few raucous days in the fall of 1958, Salisbury and Rowan County were home to a NASCAR venue. The Grand National win in Salisbury was Lee Petty’s final first-place finish of the season, and it did clinch the points championship for him. Bob Welborn’s win was also part of his convertible championship season. In yet another footnote, the October race marked the fourth and final pole position captured by Gober Sosebee, who would retire from competitive driving the next year.
    The track is gone, but Salisbury and Rowan County can still claim a piece of NASCAR history and a permanent place in the 1958 record books.
     
  29. Cherokee, thanks for the story above. Never heard of that track. More and more seem to be coming out of the historical woodwork.
     

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