What Fairgrounds is in this photo? Is this Spartanburg?

Robert Mitchell
@robert-mitchell
10 years ago
327 posts

This photo was labeled Greensboro Fairgrounds but I don't think it is. The buildings behind the grandstand aren't in any other known Greensboro photos or aerials. Also, the grandstand roof at Greensboro didn't have an overhang like this one does. Judging by the cars in it, it appears to be around 1950-51. I see Joe Weatherly and Buddy Shuman in the front, then Cotton Owens and Fireball Roberts. It looks like the #91 of Tim Flock behind Fireball.

What other Fairgrounds tracks looked like this? Is this Spartanburg Fairgrounds? I couldn't find any Spartanburg photos to compare it to. I know it's not Danville Fairgrounds because it was hilly and didn't have a covered grandstand in the photos I've looked at.

Now compare it to some early and later photos of Greensboro -

1947 or 48-

Early to mid '50s before the grandstand burned down -

1948 aerial of Greensboro showing no buildings behind the grandstand -

1953 Map of Greensboro showing no buildings behind the grandstand -


updated by @robert-mitchell: 12/05/16 04:08:38PM
Dave Fulton
@dave-fulton
10 years ago
9,137 posts

Does RR member, Perry Allen Wood have Piedmont Interstate Fairgrounds photos in his book, Silent Speedways of the Carolinas ?

From what I read, the original grandstand at Spartanburg was torn down in 1956 and replaced with a concrete grandstand.




--
"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"
Robert Mitchell
@robert-mitchell
10 years ago
327 posts

Awesome! Thanks Dave, and thanks Perry for identifying the photo. Misidentified and unidentified photos have always bothered me a lot, kind of a pet peeve of mine, but it's a fun and rewarding project to find their true identity.