"Well, we built the race track, BECAUSE WE WERE RACE FANS!"........ Mrs. Betsy Adkins' simple explanation for why she and her former husband, Buddy Burnette, and his family, had built the Carolina Beach Speedway. "We liked to go to the dirt tracks and we went to the big tracks, too. We went to Charlotte, Rockingham, and North Wilkesboro...........we all just loved racing.....and I was in charge of the consession stand, not the big stuff, just the concession stand"Mrs. Adkins was recalling events over forty years ago................ the Carolina Beach Speedway.In the summer of 1964, for hazy reasons, south-eastern North Carolina and north-eastern South Carolina experienced an explosion of dirt tracks. Dirt tracks, in the region, was not exactly a novel concept. In 1964, Myrtle Beach (for example) had witnessed the life and times of the down-town Coastal Speedway and Rambi Raceway, its replacement. And, by 1964, Rambi (racing association of Myrtle Beach, Inc.) was on the decline. Opened in 1958 ( in the boonies of US 501 West, the area off the third and fourth turns came to be known as the "gator hole") Rambi had been NASCAR sanctioned from day ONE. The Grand National circuit usually wound through Rambi once or twice a season and the modifieds and sportsman cars were the weekly staple. It was at Rambi that Ned Jarrett successfully launced his high risk and oft told gamble of racing on a slightly bogus check.However, by 1962, Rambi was experimenting with "special event" racing, instead of the familliar weekly format. This strategy continued through the '62, '63, and into the 1964 season. Although conceived as entry level. by 1964, the NASCAR sportsman division had financially evolved beyond its original purpose. Life in the modified class was hardly any better. The old coupes were getting harder to find, and more valuable when they were located. In the early 1960's, NASCAR, realizing this dilema,, were desparately trying to introduce and promote the "late model" sportsman, as the next generation car for the countless week-end warriors.At Rambi's annual "Sun Fun 101", in June 1962, among the entrants was veteran Jacksonville, NC racer Acey Taylor. Acey had entered a brand new '57 Ford late model, a red and white #12 for the Sun Fun classic. Maybe it was one of them "racing deals" and (then again) maybe it was something more, but VERY early in the 1962 "Sun Fun 101" Acey Taylor and his late model crashed, BIG TIME into the rail-road-iron retaining wall separating the track from the "Gator Hole". The #12 flipped to a grinding halt, destroyed. Resentment ran high among the staunch supporters of the pre-war coupes and sedans, and change was NOT a popular notion at Rambi Raceway in 1964.What NASCAR could not accomplish, was becoming a roaring success only a few miles away. Conway businessman, Wendell Hucks, opened the paper-clip, low banked, 1/4 mile dirt bull-ring "Conway Raceway" in the early summer of 1964. It was outlaw (of course), admission was NINETY NINE CENT, and the program consisted of six cylinder "jalopys" and the featured V8 powered "Eastern Late Model" divison. Tri-five Chevys and Fords, a Pontiac, a Plymouth and even a Buick, the racers were LOCAL and the crowds could not get enough of the action.Perhaps Conway was an outgrowth of Hemmingway, Andrews, or even Sumter, but it was vastly different than the NASCAR world of Myrtle Beach's Rambi Raceway. In 1964, Rambi soon closed, but opening into the created vacum was the newer tracks of Twin City (Loris, SC), Marion County (SC) Speedway, Columbus County (Whiteville, NC) Cerro Gordo (NC) Raceway, and.............. the Carolina Beach Speedway. The end, however, was not yet in sight. Little River (SC) Raceway would open in 1966, Leland (NC) Raceway in 1967, and Rambi would re-emerge (with new owner Nick Lucas) as a powerful force in 1969.In spite of it all, Carolina Beach Speedway had advantages unique to its position, far removed from this dirt-racing mecca of the mid '60's. Carolina Beach Speedway had Wilmington, a city of thousands, a year 'round economy.................. and Wilmington had an appetite for fast cars, and fun times!