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Bobby Williamson

Southern States Fairgrounds

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Charlotte NC's Southern States Fairgrounds Speedway was host of NASCAR GN and Convertible division events from the 1950's through the 1960 season and the opening of the Charlotte Motor Speedway

photo courtesy of djSnuffy
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Aldo Canzian
@aldo-canzian   8 years ago
I think that you are wrong. The place you show is near Eastway Drive, just south of the railway and is called "Eastway Park". In the picture I show you here, the oval is not there until 1971 (no trace of a racing track until 1968).




The Southern States Fairgrounds was instead on east side of East Sugar Creek Road, just 250 yard south from North Tyron Street. The track was there in 1961 and seems to be abandoned in 1965. No trace of the track in 1968. That view is similar to 2012 one. The place of the track is now a huge parking lot for a supermarket.
Johnny Mallonee
@johnny-mallonee   8 years ago
And more information for the discussion continues -- gotta love it "memories"
flyinphill
@flyinphill   3 years ago

I know this thread is old, but I went down a long Google tunnel looking up information about this old race track. I can tell everyone with 100% certainty that the above aerial is NOT the location of the old Fair Grounds. This is what the location looks like now: Incorrect Dirt Track Location 2.jpg This is now a park, and you can see from my shot that some of the track is still in existence. I went and walked this park and the remaining track elements, and this was no race car dirt track. It looks more like it was a horse track at some point in time. The correct location for the track is almost exactly 1 mile due West of the location in the above pictures. The original fair grounds was converted into one of Charlotte's early (maybe very first) indoor shopping malls in the late 1960's. We lived at the time, and in fact I still live, about 2-3 miles from this location, and I went there many, many times as a kid. There is literally nothing remaining of the old track facility, one would never be able to identify it from any aerial photo after the completion of the mall.
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