OCCONEECHEE SPEEDWAY

'Occoneechee Speedway' was one of the first two NASCAR tracks to open. It closed in 1968 and is the only track remaining from the inaugural 1949 season. ^[1]
It is located just outside the town of Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Contents

Site history

References

External Links

Site history

The Occoneechee farm occupied the land in the late 1800s. The farm was named after the Occaneechi Indians that lived in the area in the late 1600s and late 1700s. The landowner, Julian S. Carr, raced horses, and built a half mile horse racing track. ^[2]
Bill France noticed the horse racing track and expansive of open land while piloting his airplane. ² On the site of the earlier horse track, he built a 0.9 dirt mile track in September, 1947, two months before NASCAR was organized. In its earliest days, Fonty Flock and his brothers Bob and Tim dominated the track. Louise Smith became NASCAR's first female driver at the track in the fall of 1949.
The Occoneechee Speedway hosted stock car racing legends such as Fireball Roberts, Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson.
The track was renamed Orange Speedway in 1954. ^[3]
In part due the resistance of the local religious authorities, William France Sr. finally gave up on the ''Occoneechee Speedway''. On September 15 1968 France shut down the operation after Richard Petty's win. ³ He moved to Alabama, where he had bought an 1,800 acre site forty miles east of Birmingham. There he built the biggest and fastest NASCAR track of them all: the famous Talladega Superspeedway.
The Occoneechee Speedway site is now heavily forested with pines and sycamores. The grandstands are still visible, as is much of the mile–long oval track. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places and now comprises 44 acres with over 3 miles of trails. ¹ A walking trail was built in 2003 that crisscrosses the clay track.

References

1. Brief History, Page 1
2. Brief History, Page 2
3. Brief History, Page 3


★ Occoneechee Speedway: from Eno River website

★ NASCAR track history at racing-reference.info

External Links

★ The Historic Speedway Group

★ Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail