Remember Hank Schoolfield's "Southern Motor Racing", THE information super-highway of the 1960's? My dad was a suscriber, and our edition arrived in the mail box every other Thursday. It was about as a big a deal as the arrival of the Sears Christmas catalogue. The Grand National news made all the headlines, of course, but by Thursday, that was all pretty-much old news and I didn't usually re-read GN articles. No the real treasure of SMR, for me, was the extensive coverage of weekly racing scene. Several pages were necessary, as short tracks, (many that I now search for as ghost tracks), were at the zenith of their lives........we just didn't know it.Columbia Speedway was very well represented, often with pictures! I was convinced Columbia was the top of racing's mountain. The best of the best ran there.....Sam Sommers, Haskell Willingham, Lil Bud Mooore, Ralph Earnhardt, Tiny Lund, Sam Smith, Don Bumgardner, a who's who of the Carolina short track world. So, when my dad and his best friend decided to visit Columbia for a Thursday night show.............................. Man, COLUMBIA!!Well, there was an issue or two to solve. For one thing, Columbia always ran on Thursday nights, a 'work' day followed by another 'work' day,Friday. There was one other teensy thing.... we lived 150 miles from Columbia, and we could not leave before 5:00 PM and there were no interstate highways betwen us and them in 1968.A black '65 Plymouth Fury, with the pedal ON the medal........the whole way............solved the problem. We were there in PLENTY of time. Unbelievably, as we were flying along higway 378, approaching Columbia, there was a white '55 Chevy #34, in front of a road-side garage, being loaded on a trailer. Later, about the same time we were taking our seats at the speedway, the same #34 rolled into the pit gate. Forty years later, via the network of RacersReunion I've learned this particular #34 was none other than Mack Flemming, African-American Columbia hobby-stock racer.Entering the grand stands, the PA system was crackling " #27........SAM SOMMERS out of SAVANNAH, GEORGIA............." Wow, I thought, they have drivers all the way from Georgia! The feature event that night was won by Little Bud Moore drivng a yellow #87 '65 chevelle. But it was not an easy victory, and the field was, as always, stellar. Haskell Willingham, in the Marion C. Cox #50 sported an "international" orange Bell helment, high tech in 1968!Looking back on my lone trip to Columbia: the announcer could have been Dargan Watts or Jim Seay.......Ralph Earnhardt was in the field and a teen age Dale was very likely in those same pits.........the iconic Tiny Lund would be lost in a few years, at a strange-named place called Talladega.............and Ralph Earnhardt to a heart attackSam Sommers would graduate to the Winston Cup ranks, and Little Bud Moore was Little Bud Moore RACER. Dale, Sr. pit-crewman that night became bigger than the Beatles. I remember cruising the pits after the event and coming upon a red Ford 1-ton flat-bed truck. Each door was neatly lettered: "Marion C. Cox Automotive Engineering, Hemingway, SC......'famous #50' "What nobody knew that night: the speedway, a NASCAR corner stone that launched Richard Petty's and Buddy Baker's carreers, was very near death. RJ Reynolds' NASCAR vision did not include venues like a dirt Columbia; pavement was the future. At least that was the theory. Cyrstal balls are often cloudy, and what makes sense on paper don't always pan-out in every day life. The speedway didn't make it out of the '70's. But the story don't end.......As a result of the vision, dedication and efforts of lots of fans of Columbia Speedway, these sacred grounds will come alive, once again, with the first annual Columbia Speedway festival. Thanks each and every one that is involved in this great event. Can't wait 'til April. I'll be making my second trip to the SPEEDWAY!By the way, the bleary-eyed zombies made it to work, on time, that next Friday morning........... what memories!