Anatomy of a Ghost Track - Fredericksburg Speedway Remembered 1953 - 1963, Including Photo of Joe Weatherly Winning Inaugural 1953 Event in #9 "Rhodes Special" Modified

While researching information on one of the drivers in my posting titled "Racers Helping Racers Nothing New" - I came across a wonderful November 1999 story in the Fredericksburg, Virginia Free Lance Star by Larry Evans titled Pushing the Pedal to the Metal . It is the story of Fredericksburg Speedway , from its opening in 1953 until its closing in 1963.

It is a great piece with terrific photos, including one of Joe Weatherly winning the inaugural 1953 race in the famed #9 "Rhodes Special" Modified.

I've tried to get clips to post, but I'm afraid I've not done a very good job.

Here's the link below to the entire archived story with photos :

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=u-wyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=mAgGAAAAIBAJ&pg=2384,1329927&dq=jimmy+dillard+auto+racing&hl=en

Please forgive the way I've chopped this up and not used a number of the photos:

Sent a note to our RR member JAck Approved Redd to see if he ever got over to the Fredericksburg track. Also wondering now if member Jack Carter's dad ever ran those beautiful #37 DeSoto powered cars he owned between 1955-1963 driven by Butch Torrie at Fredericksburg.

1963 photo of DeSoto powered #37 owned by Jack Carter's dad, driven by Butch Torrie out of Hampton, Va.

Dave - This is a great find, and a part of race history !!!

CoastalJack

Got this response back this morning from member Jack Carter regarding whether he knew if the cars his dad owned - the #37va DeSotos - had raced at Fredericksburg Speedway:

Dave I don't remember hearing them talk about running at Fredericksburg Speedway. But they could have because they traveled a lot back in the day running at many tracks. My brother and I were just kids back then and didn't get to go to all of the tracks that were miles away. We had so much fun back then even going and com

ing, I guess that I will never forget those times at the races. Dave here are 14 tracks that I remember listed below the car ran on.

Brunswick Speedway Lawrenceville, VA

Dinwiddie Speedway Petersburg, VA

The Dog Track Moyock, NC

Wilson County Speedway, Wilson, NC

Edgecombe Speedway, Tarboro, NC

Strawberry Hill, Richmond, VA

Langley Speedway (Dude Ranch) Hampton, VA

Georgetown, DE

Myrtle Beach Speedway Myrtle Beach, SC

South Boston Speedway South Boston, VA

Sportsman Speedway Elizabeth City, NC

Occoneehee Orange Speedway Hillsbough, NC

Chinese Corner Speedway Norfolk, VA

Peanut City Speedway Suffolk, VA

A 1959 edition of the Fredericksburg paper noted that six Fredericksburg folks were up for awards at the MARF banquet in Arlington, Virginia - to be emceed by announcer Ray Melton, with Joe Weatherly and Bob Welborn to be in attendance. Pete DePaolo was to be the guest speaker and the article mentions that Melton, Weatherly and Welborn had just completed "roles" in the soon to be released Thunder in Carolina movie.

MARF was the Metropolitan Auto Racing Fans Club of the Washington, DC area, a highly respected group with many members.

One of the potential folks up for an award was the Fredericksburg Speedway's Goofy Proffitt - a driver with a wonderful nickname who can be seen in the original article above with a race car full of children. Proffitt was a winner at Fredericksburg, but he must have had a temper to go along with his "goofy" disposition. A 1955 article notes that Goofy Proffitt was suspended for two weeks at Fredericksburg after starting a fight in the pits. The promoter said Proffitt had been warned for three consecutive weeks about starting fights!

The Frank Southworth in the new article above prepared the famous "3 ACES" car driven by Al Grinnan to many Fredericksburg wins. If anyone has or can find a photo of the 3 Aces car, I'd sure like to see it.

Very cool !!!

I worked with Larry at the local newspaper when he did this. His dad and mine raced at Fredericksburg also. They ran in the " B " feature class. I remember some of the races there.

Got to ride around the track in my dad's car and with Goofy on kid's night. There are some good pictures on facebook You're probably from Fredericksburg if site. Click on photos and you will find some good photo's of the cars including the 3 aces car.

Fredericksburg Speedway, Fredericksburg,Va.

Another one bites the dust - Fredericksburg Speedway
http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/another-one-bites-the-dust-fredericksburg-speedway/59564/page1/
Found following photos from above website and blown them up:
#1 Former front straight
#2 Turn 4
#3 Google earth view of the complex
#4 Close up, you can see the broken pavement
#5 Bing bird's eye view
#6 Panorama today

http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/042011/04262011/612667
http://fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2011/042011/04262011/612667/index_html?page=2


Thanks for any information or photos posted.
Dennis Garrett
Richmond,Va. USA

Thanks, so much Roy for the personal memories of Fredericksburg Speedway and riding in the cars with your dad and Goofy Proffitt. Perhaps YOU are in the photo in the article riding with Goofy. I'm not a Facebook member, but if one of our Facebook members could copy and post some of those car photos, particularly the 3 ACES car, I'd be very grateful.

Thanks, Dennis. What a sad site to see an unused racetrack.

ESRI World Imagery - It looks like the pavement has been removed.

But it's stillactive as a fairground - http://fredericksburgfair.org/

More fun with themap sites. Here is a USGS aerial photo. Dated 3/17/94 and the whole photo is 800 meters by 400 meters.

Anda USGS topo, dated 7/1/89. The whole shot is 1600 meters x 800 meters.

So, we can run it now in the original dirt configuration! Thanks, Mike.