February 3rd, 2009 
Journo You may have noticed in the last couple of months a few new pictures added to the website header. They feature two tracks: North Wilkesboro Speedway, and the much lesser known Occoneechee Speedway.
TC and I decided in the beginning we would see how long it took for someone to ask before we wrote something about it. So the grand prize winner is Savannah, who wrote us this past week asking about the history of the track with the funny name.
The Occoneechee Speedway is located in Hillsborough, NC, about 45 minutes west of Durham on I-40. The track was originally built as a place to run out horses. In the 1940s while out flying his plane Bill France Sr. spotted the river-front facility and along with several investors converted it into a .9 mile oval (the track opened in 1948).
When the NASCAR Strictly Stock Series began racing a year later Occoneechee (later Orange Speedway) helped fill the schedule of that first season. Twice a year for the next 20 years, NASCAR’s founders competed on the mile long dirt track.
In 1968 though, after mounting pressure from local religious groups and the construction of the modern Talladega Superspeedway, Occoneechee Speedway was dropped from the series.
So for almost 30 years the track sat unattended, eventually becoming overgrown and largely unrecognizable, until 1997 when it was purchased by Preservation North Carolina with help from the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust. Since then, the trust along with the Historic Speedway Group has been working to preserve and partially restore the track.
They have cut down some of the 40 year old Sycamore trees to expose the track surface once again, and they have rebuilt some of the long collapsed structures on the site. Today there are several trails on the property that are open and free to the public.
The group proudly boasts that the track is the only dirt track remaining from the inaugural season and one of only three race tracks on the National Register of Historic Places.
This day trip is great if you love nature, and especially great if you love NASCAR. They have even hosted a car show and racers reunion for the last two years. As a great lover of history in the sport I recommend the trip to Hillsborough for anyone.
In the coming weeks we are going to add pictures from our excursion to the Metrolina Speedway, located on the Metrolina Fairgrounds property in North Charlotte. This track had a short lived stint as an asphalt oval in NASCAR, but has spent most of its life as a dirt track.
The forty year old track last saw a race at the beginning of this decade and has sat largely dormant since then. It is currently for sale (so if you’re interested) and in not so great condition. This track is not open to public, but if you’re feeling adventurous (which I am not condoning) it is not hard to get in.
Thanks Savannah for the question, we have been waiting for a while to write this post! Look for more pictures throughout this upcoming season.
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Great article! If you like racetrack history, Pete Hylton’s book, “Ghost Tracks” is a really neat collection of stories and photos of racetracks gone by. If you’ve ever attended races at some of the famous, and not so famous, tracks this book brings back memories. As a kid, my parents used to take me to the old Lakewood Fairgrounds in Atlanta to both the State fair and the dirt races. Some Smokey & the Bandit footage shot there as well. Neat stuff! For a neat rebirth story of an old track, go to VIR (Va Int’l Raceway). It has been transformed into a beautiful road course w/ a country club setting. A lot of NASCAR testing and awesome sports car racing takes place every year. If you liked watching the 24 hrs of Daytona this year, check out VIR when they come to town.
Why were religious groups upset about the track? Too much noise on Sunday?
windowlicker: This link has the info about the religious stuff:
http://www.historichillsborough.org/images/Speedway-Complete.pdf
Thanks. Awesome article.
As Bobby Boucher’s momma would say, “racin’s be da work of da debbil!!”
No Sunday racing at Lime Rock Park (Connecticut) either. So we take the day off to watch the Indy 500 and Coke 600 and then get back to racing on Memorial Day Monday.
Isn’t the Little Debbie sponsored car not allowed to race on Saturday because the company is Seventh Day Adventist? Just seem to remember that.
Neon
That’s correct. They cover everything up that has Little Debbie on it on Friday night & Saturday for practice, qualifying, etc. & will run a different sponsor for those activities. Even the hauler has a tarp thrown over it. Then they put the LD paint scheme on the car Sunday morning. 7th day adventists can’t do business on Friday nights & Saturdays & advertising includes doing business.
A bit off topic, but kinds makes you wonder if teams like Alltel (now Verizon) and Cingular (now AT&T) could have taken the Marlboro approach to simply replacing the actual letters w/ vertical lines, like a barcode. They keep the recognizable Marlboro roof top in orange/red. This allows them to advertise where it is forbidden and still get there logo on the car. Team Penske Indy and Ferrari F1 and others have perfected this so well, to the point where they asked fans after the race if the letters “Marlboro” appeared on the car. Almost everyone said “yes”, when in fact no where was “Marlboro” scripted…just lines. Ahh the subliminal mind….
Guess the difference there is that the promoter or sanctioning body (i.e. NASCAR) is not the one calling the shots! Winston brand got there name on TV thirty something Sunday’s a year, plus print, while it was forbidden to actually advertise on TV.
Wouldn’t be great in NASCAR put the Truck, Nationwide & Cup series on a dirt track once a year. Let them change shocks, spring & tires. This is a 1 mile vintage race track waiting for rehab. NASCAR needs to re visit their history. The cookie cutter tracks are annoying. I know NASCAR has a DIRT division, but lets make things interesting.