Zion XRoads Speedway, Hilltop Speedway & Central Va. Raceway Were All the Same Track on U.S. 250
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Here is Cavalier on Dec. 14, 1959
Forum Activity for @dirtshooter
Stock Island Speedway Florida
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
There is a good aerial on HistoricAerials.com from 1970
updated by @dirtshooter: 01/18/20 05:20:38AM
Concord Speedway
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
I found an interesting aerial of Concord from 1950.
New mystery track... Maybe?
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Edit: Just rechecked my info Dunn track size is unknown. Ran in 1934. Track is still visible. This might be it.
New mystery track... Maybe?
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Today I was searching for the Dunn one mile track on an old USGS aerial dated NOV 11. 1950 and ran across a dirt 1/2 mile.
It lays halfway between Erwin and Dunn, NC.
South of E. Denim Drive, North of Anitoch Church Rd. / Averasboro Rd.
West of Lucas Rd. / Coy Lucas Rd.
There looks to be a radio tower on the old front straight.
Any thoughts?
Valdosta Mystery
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Thanks Dennis, did not think to look in street view for a sign.
Valdosta Mystery
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
While searching for Thunderbowl Speedway, I came across a mystery track. It lies 1/2 mile ENE of the remnants of Thunderbowl. Does anyone know the name of this quarter mile track? The map coords are 30.920277, -83.380556 if you want to look at it of Google Earth.
The forgotten Norfolk Speedway
Stock Car Racing History
A few questions about Four County Fairgrounds & Peanut City Speedway. The info that I can find has Four County as a 1/2 mile that ran up through the mid-50s. Peanut City was a 1/3 mile that ran one year 1960. I found the attributed location (#1) between E Washington St., S 12th St & the railroad tracks. However this measures only 35 feet wide, also no room for spectating, parking, or outside pits. However,there was a 50' wide 1/2 mile oval just south of the above mentioned site(#2). It had plenty of room for everything. I also found listings for livestock auctions at the fairground during the 50s "in the stockyard. Site #2 was lost to a subdivision by 1967-68. The aerial below is dated 1-30-53. Does anyone have any firsthand knowledge of these two tracks?
Legion Stadium, Wilmington, NC
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
I ran up on this track last week. I found the following article on myreporter.com The aerial that got me interested is below from 1969.
Legion Stadium has been the hub of Wilmington’s sports scene since its construction in the mid 1930s. Automobile racing was part of that scene from the facility’s beginning.
Newspaper clippings from October 1937 and 1938 advertise “AAA-Sanctioned races” at the “American Legion track of the Coastal Fair grounds,” the name Legion Stadium went by before completion of the athletic fields a few years later.
Automobile exhibitions were frequent as well. Several ads from the 1940s promise “action, thrills, speed, crashes!” with the Jimmy Lynch Death Dodgers. The Hell Drivers, with what was described as a “daredevil leap,” were also a popular attraction in the ’40s.
Motorcycle exhibitions were held at Legion during the ’40s, and a 1948 newspaper article describes a request to the New Hanover County commissioners to open the stadium to motorcycle races that summer.
Records from the 1950s and ’60s are sketchy, as no public clip files exist from those decades. Local racing legend Hoss Ellington, a member of the Greater Wilmington Sports Hall of Fame who moved to the Port City in 1961, said he recalls car races at Legion in the ’60s, but he did his racing around a dirt track that was located near Snow’s Cut just north of Carolina Beach.
Another local sports historian, Tommy Walton, remembers motorcycle races at Legion in the ’50s and ’60s, but didn’t recall any auto races.
A most unlikely source revealed not everyone in Wilmington was thrilled with auto racing at the stadium. Billboard, the national amusement industry publication based in Chicago, has a small article in its June 26, 1954 issue about the Wilmington city council allowing Sunday afternoon racing despite the protests of residents who lived near the track.
The race track at Legion disappeared in the early 1970s as the once-thriving horse racing facilities there were dismantled and the focus of the complex turned to football and baseball.
Date posted: February 12, 2010
