Elusive Ghost Track Found - Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Sorry Bobby, I'm just not getting what you're hinting at! What am I looking for?
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Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Elusive Ghost Track Found - Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
I got Greenland the first time I entered those.
Okay, now I'm seeing some NASA infra-red satellite images of Little River/ SC coastline. Cool!
So Bobby, is Earth Explorer something you were already using? I couldn't remember which ones you had already showed me.
Elusive Ghost Track Found - Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
It's the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Explorer - http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
You must register to download. You type in a city or address, select "aerial photo single frames", and it will bring up aerial survey photos dating back to 1948. Some photos you can download a medium or high resolution(82MB), others only medium (15MB). But they are very large tif files. The high resolutions are so big I couldn't view them on my computer, so I tried uploading them to my Flickr pro account and low & behold it took it, although it took 15 minutes to upload. Then I deleted the huge file from my computer. From Flickr I was able to take screen shots of specific areas like the race tracks.
I can't even remember how I came across it, but it is awesome!
Elusive Ghost Track Found - Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
Thanks, Bobby. Are there any other unfound tracks left? I'll be bummed if there aren't. This is just too much fun.
Elusive Ghost Track Found - Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
I wonder if that was a coincidence or on purpose? It seems it would save a lot of work to just use the banking of the track for the ramp.
Elusive Ghost Track Found - Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
That's a good question, Dennis. I know there were at least 2 other tracks very close to Lakeview on the other side of the river. One was Salisbury Fairgrounds. I found another large track once that was near Salisbury and I think someone here identified it but I can't remember where or what the name was. I will look through more aerials to see if I can find those again and post them.
As far as how long Lakeview was active, I just don't know. I was under the impression it was over by the early '50s.
Here are some later aerials of the track. The first one is from May 9, 1951 and it's hard to say but it looks like it is in disrepair. It looks like the beginning of the back stretch is washed out.
The second aerial is from April 11, 1960 and shows trees growing in the track that look quite a few years old. It's up for speculation as to when the track was last used until someone finds some documentation like dated newspaper articles. I would love to know.
Elusive Ghost Track Found - Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948
Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks
As most NASCAR history buffs know, Lakeview Speedway just west of Lexington NC was one of the tracks on the inaugural 1948 season, and only lasted a couple more years. We've been searching for this track for a few years now, and to the best of my knowledge nobody here a RacersReunion (or anywhere else on the internet) has found the definite location.
I finally found it. 
updated by @robert-mitchell: 12/05/16 04:08:38PM
2015 NASCAR HOF class
Stock Car Racing History
I applaud the Wendell Scott induction. It's not the Hall of Statistics. He embodied a spirit of racing no other NASCAR racer can ever claim. His career is an inspiration, and he is one of the most famous stock car drivers ever. He is a Legend. Congratulations to the Scott Family.
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Stock Car Racing History
Thanks for sharing that, Dave. We haven't seen a lot of the old Birmingham Fairgrounds Speedway history here. A lot of big names in that race.