Once the capitol of North Carolina, this antebellum city on the banks of the Cape Fear river, could claim, even boast, of a rich stock car racing history. Much documentation surrounds native sons Sonny Jergenson, Roman Gabriel, Michael Jordan, and Meadowlark Lemon, but rarely mentioned are the names of "Hoss" Ellington, "Runt" Pittman, Jackie Rogers, or Richard Brickhouse. The truth is that Wilmmington's NASCAR affiliation is almost as old as NASCAR, itself............ What was the story? Who were the players? And what happened to it all?......... Pull up a Pepsi crate, and let's take a closer look:Along the North Carolina coast, the port city of Wilmington is a bit of an anomaly. Due to its connection to the sea, it's always had a cosmopolitan flair. Until the early 1960's, Wilmington was the home office of the Atlantic Coast Line rail road. During World War II, the NC/Wilmington Shipyards built and launched the "Liberty Ships" at a pace never thought possible by Hitler's Germany. The Elizabethan tounge or "hoi-toider" accent, so common to the North Carolina coast, is foreign to Wilmington, always has been. With the exception of Wilmington, the North Carolina coast has largely been rural and isolated. The economics, demographics, and local culture all combined to set the "port city of progress and pleasrue" apart from its North Carolina brothers and diametrically opposed to anything that made noise and dust and was followed by social low-lifes.......... But, it took a while to stamp it all out.In the early 1950's, Wilmington treasure, Legion Stadium, had a 1/4 mile horse/athletic track that enclosed the football field, just like Bowman Gray stadium, exept Wilmington's was dirt. In 1953, Legion Stadium hosted cut-down home-made "hot rod" races. The success of '53 carried over into 1954 with NASCAR sanctioning and weekly sportsman racing. The city even crowned a "Miss NASCAR-Wilmington-1954". The point standing for the '54 season at Legion stadium included (5th) Bobby Meyers, (13th) Glen Wood, (20th) Billy Meyers. Interestingly, finishing in third place, that season, was Dick Burns who listed Hollywood, CALIFORNIA as "hometown"!The nereby residents of "Sunset Park" had just about had enough of the dust and the noise and the crowds and the loss of quiet Sunday afternoons. The whole-nine-yards went belly-up after the '54 season. Ten years would pass before the city would, once again, loose quiet Sunday afternoons amid the stock cars and the dust and the rowdy crowds!However, all was not lost. Between the closing of Legion Stadium racing in 1954 and the opening of the Carolina Beach Speedway in 1964, Wilmington stock car racing centered around Davis Raper's Texaco station on Carolina Beach road. At the Texaco station they built modifieds for the beach at Daytona, and a '37 Ford coach for the first couple of modified events at the "big" Daytona speedway in '59-'60. Accordng to local flathead-coupe racing legend, Walt Zawaski, the Raper-built '37 Ford was to be driven at Daytonal I'ntl speedway by Fireball Roberts. Fireball became a tad concerned, and declined the driving invitation, when the old coach's front-end, began "lifting" at racing speeds.Large "air-holes" were quickly cut in the front fenders and Red Farmer was signed to drive the #42 Wilmington entry. The aerodynamic issues were either solved, or didn't bother Farmer. He never complained, but finished well back in the pack. Although snubbed by the city fathers, and their constituency, Wilmington stock car racing was poised for a re-birth, and one that would ultimately lead back to Daytona!