LOST PICTURES OF THE OLD PERSON COUNTY SPEEDWAY in ROXBORO,NC

Person County Speedway was a 1/4 to a 3/8 mile dirt track located just north of Roxboro,NC off of the Woodsdale Road. It was operated around the late fifties to the early sixties.

It was owned and operated by R.M. O'Bryant,probably one of the nicest gentleman in Roxboro, who also owned the local Drive-In Movie.

Some of the drivers that competed was Buck & Larry Thomas, Mac Mangum, Clayton Schull,Alton Thomas, G.B.Holt, Frank & Bernice Massey, and Gene Crawfordjust to name a few. I'm from Roxboro born & raised but now live Nashville,TN. This site has really brought back a lot gooooooooood memories of my childhood . Just Thought it would be nice to see if anyone had any old pictures clippings, etc from those days. If you do please post them on the best site to ever keep our fond memories alive.

Please feel free to email @ andytillman97@yahoo.com and keep those old racing memories turning left.

updated by @andy-tillman: 12/05/16 04:02:07PM

Andy, my name is Horace Long and I still live in Roxboro. I probably knew of your dad for the first I had to do with racing was with an old 51 hudson hornet at RM's old track and at the old Roseville speedway west of here just off of NC49. Sorry I dont have any pictures of the track, for camers in those days were only for the welthy.We were just pore old racers ha ha. Depends on how long you were in Roxboro,you probably new of us. Dad ran the Pure Oil station at the corner of 49 and 501 where you tured to go to the old track. Just thought I would just reply to your question. I am a racer holic. I turned all my racing over to my son CARL LONG.who is still trying to make a go of it in NASCAR's top divisions. wil sign off for now Horace

Yes Horace, I remember the station as for I lived in Ca-Vel. I also remember your station on 49 where ypu kept your little VW in the yellow metal building next to it. My dad was Bill Tillman who along with Jack Chandler owned a black 37 ford coupe #97 that Alton Thomas drove for a couple of years. Dad drove for Crown Aluminum for more than 25 years even though the name of the company changed several times. During the last 15 years drove G.C.Fleig's trucks.A few years before I left Roxboro I went to visit RM before his passing and spent several hours looking at old pictures of PCS.Those pictures would be worth a lot to people like us. It's tough keeping up with things at home being so far from home, I quess that I'm lucky that I can get person news from the courier on line even if it just partial stories. What is going on at OCS? I was home for a couple of months backs in the late spring and went to a race and was shocked at the car count and as much to the attendance. But in another sense SOBO wasn't any better except for the car count was a little better. But SOBO could always count on a quite a few cars from Richmond to always show up. If time permits at some point in the future I would appreciate info pertaining to any of the old drivers still around. Well I'm going to get off here because once I get started I forget about time. Horace I appreciate your reply and looking forward to hearing from you again and maybe when I come into town to visit Uncle Tojo Clayton and cousin Steve Clayton maybe we can get together over coffee or something and remenise about the real good days of racing.Andy Tillman97

Sounds good to me. Lots of old memorys still arround but that is about all. As far as OCS goes, in my opiion it has a problem in the management dept.I was a full supporter for several years then it just seemed to (as they say) went to H?!! in a hand bag. I don't even go there even as a spectator. Enjoy talking with you, when you get back in town give me a call . cheers

Wow, listening to or rather reading what Andy and Horace wrote in their correspondence sure makes you remember all the good ole times when things were fun,you were young and the cars were unique oh and yes the tracks all had their own personality. You two gents continue with your wonderful talks as you are doing because thats what Racers Reunion is all about---- -----------------------------------Memories

What year was this track built?

My Dad was one of the owner's of Roseville Speedway which open in July 1959 and was open about a year and half.I live today where the track was,

i used to go through roxboro in the early eighties my truck broke down and clayton shull repaired it it was almost supper time when he finished with it they had a kitchen in the garage and the family had cooked a meal and insisted i stay and eat with them i did and it was very good food they were very nice people to a stranger they had never seen never new clayton shull was a racer i will never forget the generousity that family displayed to me thanks to the shull family

I love the fact this 2 year old thread can get new legs under it. The internet is an amazing thing.

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Founder/Creator - RacersReunion®

Hello Matt, I remember Roseville Speedway well, Had a lot of good times there and that was when racing was racing neighbor against neighbor and friend against friend and for the most part everyone got along great and enjoyed the time together. Drivers we grew up admiring like Buck and Larry Thomas, Mac Mangum, Clayton Shull, G.B. Holt, Alton Thomas, Frank and Bernice Massey and other will always be remembered in our hearts.

We used to really enjoy watching Mac Mangum race at Wilson County Speedway in the early 70s in his #1 Chevelle. That car always had tons of horsepower. Mac was the favorite driver of our driver, Danny Lee's little girl. When Earl Arnold would show up at Wilson, both he and Mac would be running cars with #1 on them. Here's a later photo of Mac at Wilson, taken in 1976 and posted by our member Tim Hamm of Wilson on his page:

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"Any Day is Good for Stock Car Racing"

Great to see pictures of my dad!! He loved racing and is still one of his favorite topics! I will be sure and let him read these posts. My childhood was spent at Wilson county Speedway and Person County Speedway. Great memories!!