Forum Activity for @robert-mitchell

August 30, 1963 - Ray Hendrick Takes Virginia 400 NASCAR National Championship Modified-Sportsman Go at Richmond's Southside Speedway Over Future Winston Cup & Indy 500 Rookies of Year in Same Race!

Stock Car Racing History

Great post, Dave. Lots of awesome photos there.

As a side note - That photo of Carl Burris is a rare view of the old Danville Fairgrounds Speedway. There are only about 3 other photos of Danville here on RR, and those are the only ones I've ever seen. It would be nice to find more from that track.

Woody, I'll get a copy ofNASCAR The Complete History because of your recommendation. I already have The NASCARChronicleand I love that book.

If you haven't got it yet, get yourself a copy of Neal Thompson's book "Driving With The Devil". That is without a doubt the best book on stock car racing history I've ever read. Soin-depth and well researched and written.

Curtis Turner. I would love to go back in time and see Curtis battle it out with Billy and Bobby Myers at Bowman Gray Stadium.

Others I would love to see -

Roy Hall

Lloyd Seay

Buddy Shuman

Glen Dunnaway

Fonty Flock

Red Byron

Southwest Virginia Speedway - Ghost Track Aerial

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

There was/is a racing newsletter out of Paterson NJ call "National Speed Sport Auto Racing News" that I'll bet covered or at least had adverts of most if not all of the stock car races in the late '30s thru the '40s before NASCAR was formed. They show up on eBay all the time. I may have to start a collection of those. The pre-NASCAR stock car years fascinate me but to my knowledge there has been no effort to catalog all the races of all the different sanctioning bodies. Now there's a job!

Southwest Virginia Speedway - Ghost Track Aerial

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

Wow Dave, excellent research! That is absolute proof Southwest Virginia Speedway was neither the first purpose built auto/stock car track, or the first to race stock cars after the war. And that's an interesting note that the old 1-mile fairgrounds track got a last stock car race in before Strawberry Hill opened.

Since that Labor Day race was somewhat late in the year, it makes me wonder if there was an even earlier stock car race at the old fairgrounds or somewhere in the State before that. We need to find that out.

Great job, Dave. I'm adding a note to my original post above to disclaim Mr. Katen's research.

Southwest Virginia Speedway - Ghost Track Aerial

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

You must be thinking of Virginia International Raceway (VIR) - http://virnow.com/

Southwest Virginia Speedway - Ghost Track Aerial

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

Southwest Virginia Speedway built in 1947 by Gayle Warren on the edge of Adwolf in Smyth County VA is believed to be the first post-war purpose built auto racing track in the State. Some of the early legends such as Bill Blair, Jimmy Lewallen, and Curtis Turner raced at the track.

Here is a great write-up about the track - http://www.vaautoracing.org/oval2.htm

Note: The notion that Southwest Virginia Speedway was the first post-war purpose built auto/stock car track has been thoroughly disproven in the comments below.

Bobby Williamson tracked down the location of the track years ago and posted it over on LocalRaceChat.com, which enabled me to find a somewhat decent aerial photo of the ghost track from November 1950 -

Location Today just below the intersection of Cherokee Lane and Riverside Road in Adwolf -

Edit: Found a clearer aerial shot From November 14, 1950

updated by @robert-mitchell: 12/05/16 04:08:38PM

Peace Haven Speedway Truly Is A Ghost...

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

There are actually a few reasons why Peace Haven is haunted...

The first reason is, as we all know, it's bad luck to build on the sight of a former race track. Building on sacred ground will surely invite paranormal activity. It is said by the homeowners that on dark and stormy full moon Sunday evenings that fall on Halloween, a ghostly sound of 20 flathead '30s coupes can be heard roaring towards them from a distance, only to vanish as they open the front door. Why on Halloween? That brings us to our second reason...

The first NASCAR race at the track was held on that day in 1948...

The third reason... The story of little Wilbur Figg.

The story goes that little Wilbur wanted badly to go see the races on that day in '48, but his extremely superstitious parents thought it was bad luck to go see car race on Sunday, let alone Halloween, so they said no. He begged and begged but they forbid him from going which devastated little Wilbur. So that afternoon after getting home from church little Wilbur sneaked out his bedroom window, jumped on his bike and road to the track. He tried to get in but they wouldn't let him without a ticket. So he did what all the other boys were doing and found a nice strong tree to climb behind the fence on the backstretch.

It just so happened that the previous night saw heavy rain and the large creek behind the track was still very swollen with runoff water. Wilbur, high atop the tree, was cheering on the race and having the time of his life when a car smashes through the fence and slams into the very tree he clung to. Poor Wilbur hung on for dear life but to no avail. That tree whipped and slung him clear into that raging creek. Poor Wilbur was never to be found.

The story goes, that on those stormy Halloween Sundays that you hear those roaring coupes coming for you, you can also see the ghostly white image of Wilbur Figg in the tree tops cheering them on.

True story.

Have you seen this picture before? Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

Yeah, I knew it wasn't actually in Lexington. I guess that was the way to name tracks back then, they used the name of the closest big town so people not from around there would know generally where it was. Who would know where Linwood was who didn't live in the area, ya'know?

Have you seen this picture before? Lexington's Lakeview Speedway 1948

Historic Speedways and Ghost Tracks

Oh no. I'm sorry to hear that.