I bring up the Historic Columbia Speedway tonight because it is this weekend, Friday, April 6, and Saturday, April 7th that the track will host the Fourth Annual Love Chevrolet Racers Reunion. It is most interesting that this track, which lay dormant for almost 40 years and was overgrown with very large pine trees in the infield, came back to life, so to speak, four Aprils ago when the first reunion was held. What has been accomplished at the track since the RacersReunion crew showed up that first February day in 2009 to present speaks volumes about the dedication of this site and its members to the preservation of a significant part of stock car racing history. To see the track today, with the beautiful grassy infield, is to see a rebirth of a piece of property that lived in the hearts of the die hard race fans that grew up watching great drivers battle that track and each other to claim a portion of history which NASCAR has, for the most part, discarded. All the weekly racing records from the Late Model Sportsman and Limited Sportsman Divisions are gone, discarded, destroyed. The accomplishments of Tiny Lund, Billy Scott, Lil Bud Moore, Dink Widenhouse, Johnny and Dick Dangerfield, Haskell Willingham, Joe Penland, Johnny Cooper and so many more are recorded only in the memories of fans that gathered there every Thursday evening for so many years. The Grand National records are available and contain the names of almost every driver who drove a race car between 1950 and 1971. Fireball Roberts, Buck Baker, Ned Jarrett, Rex White, Bobby Isaac, David Pearson, Curtis Turner, Joe Weatherly and so many more. They all raced there.
Oh, and did I mention Richard Petty? You know that guy most refer to these days as King Richard? It was at the Historic Columbia Speedway in July of 1958 that he drove his very first ever race, a NASCAR Convertible Division Race. He was driving a 1957 Oldsmobile Convertible and finished sixth that night. A year later, he was back for a convertible race and this time he won! That victory does not count in his overall total of 200 Grand National Wins, but it was the first stock car victory for Richard Petty and it happened at The Historic Columbia Speedway. Richard told Jeff and I, back in 2009, that he told Dale Inman on the way back from Columbia Speedway that very first race that he thought “he was going to like this race driving”.
Please allow me a minute to list a few “firsts” for Historic Columbia Speedway in addition to the start of the King’s career.
Historic Columbia Speedway was the first speedway under NASCAR sanction to race “under the lights”. That’s a pretty common place scenario these days, but the half-mile speedway located in Cayce, South Carolina was the first to do so.
Buck Baker won his first Grand National Race at Historic Columbia Speedway and, in so doing, gave Chevrolet its first Grand National victory in NASCAR.
The ONLY victory in Grand National Racing by Studebaker was recorded at Columbia Speedway.
Just those things I have listed so far indicate the place of significance this track has when the history of NASCAR is considered although NASCAR prefers to overlook that part of its history these days. As I’ve stated, there is more to learn from the articles in RacersReunion Scene. But, even more than reading about it, you can be a part of history by joining me and many other RacersReunion members this Friday and Saturday at the Historic Columbia Speedway. The events planned for the weekend include an actual drive in movie on Friday evening in the infield on a huge movie screen with free popcorn. The evening will begin as a cruise-in at Maurice Bessinger’s Piggy Park about a mile from the speedway at 5:00p.m. The show cars and classic race cars will cruise from Maurice’s to the track at 6:30 where beach music will entertain the fans and maybe even entice some to shag on the beautiful infield grass until dark when the movie will begin. The movie for the night is “Thunder in Carolina” which was filmed in Darlington at the 1959 Southern 500 and at the dirt track in Hartsville as well as other locations around South Carolina. The movie stars Rory Calhoun and Alan Hale, Jr. (The Skipper from Gillians Island) and contains some very exciting racing action from that 1959 Southern 500. Having seen that movie when it first came out, I can attest that what kids learned from that movie fashioned certain beliefs held for years. Watch the movie and see what superstitions you can pick out that were still around in the 80s.
Saturday the gates will open at 9:00 a.m. and opening ceremonies get underway at 9:30 a.m. Marvin Panch, 1961 Daytona 500 winner will be our Grand Marshall. You can also think of Marvin Panch as the man responsible for our own Tiny Lund winning the 1963 Daytona 500 in that fairy tale like story of remarkable events and remarkable men. Marvin is definitely an entertaining individual and a true icon of historic NASCAR racing. His stories not only entertain, but present an inside view of what racing once was. What racing was like when so many of us believed in the sport with all that we are. There will be many other drivers with rich historic backgrounds in NASCAR and with Historic Columbia Speedway available to meet fans and sign autographs. People like Billy Scott,Lil Bud Moore, Dink Widenhouse. These guys raced Columbia Speedway every week. I’m not going to attempt to list all the others who will appear but there are some surprises on tap for the true fans of the sport.
We all know that an inanimate object cannot breathe, nor is there a heartbeat. We all know that real estate is just that, land, trees, grass, weeds. There are places on the planet, like Gettysburg, Normandy, Iwo Jima, that qualify as special property, hallowed ground if you will. Places of historic significance. Places that shaped the destiny of the nation, indeed of the world. While Historic Columbia Speedway is not of such overall significance, consider all that it has contributed to our sport. I have spent the past two Saturdays at the track, first of the World’s Biggest Yard Sale and this past Saturday at the Tartan Festival. Our Team South Carolina Midlands crew was there to promote this coming weekend’s event. In talking with so many people, from age 17 to 87, comments ranged all over the board. The 87 years old who could not read or write but who talked for 30 minutes or more about all the races he had seen at the speedway. The 21 year old race fan who has lived in Columbia all his life and didn’t know of the existence of the track until this past weekend. The wonder in his eyes as we talked only grew more intense as I told stories of the years past. He says he will be back this Saturday and I hope he will.
Many of us, and we have addressed this issue before, felt, on our early visits to the Historic Columbia Speedway, that there is something special there. That the history of the track is alive in a realm not quite visible to the naked eye and visible, in fact, only in the memories of those who raced there, watched races there , and in the imagination of fans who never saw competition on the track but know of the rich history. Surely Historic Columbia Speedway is not a ghost track but is, in fact, a living entity with the heart beat of hundreds of fans who want the history of the track to live as we all want the history of the sport to live. We are the older fans. We are the builders of the sport. We have several opportunities throughout the year to experience and touch pieces of our heritage and to talk with the men and women who made the sport into a viable competitor in the sporting world. We can thank RacersReunion Founder Jeff Gilder for those opportunities and the so many more individuals, too numerous to name here, who contribute to make these things happen. We can thank Love Chevrolet for their past, present and continuing support of these opportunities. Piggy Park and Lizard’s Thicket have both been on board since the first event.
Personally, I hope that everyone within decent driving distance of the Historic Columbia Speedway will make the trip. Four years ago, over 35,000 folks from 17 states made the trip. Check the events calendar here for any information you may need, or, you can e-mail me at legendtim83@yahoo.com and I will answer any question you may have. This coming weekend is about heritage and history as well as Memories.
Memories drifting through the shadows of my mind
Memories sweetened through the ages just like wine
Memories come floating down and settle softly on the ground
Like golden autum leaves around my feet.
Sweet Memories…………………..
