Big time NASCAR racing could have begun in ColumbiaBy Jim SeayIn 2006 the decision to build the NASCAR Hall of Fame at Charlotte wasnt a surprise. Considering the fact that the majority of the race teams and their shops are located adjacent to Lowes (formerly Charlotte) Motor Speedway that was logical. Under the vision and promotional skills of track president Humpy Wheeler the track is the Taj Mahal of the sport, its greatest showplace.Prior to the decision, the subject de jour on radio talk shows, and in print, was the locating the HOF in Charlotte. There were complaints that what is perceived to be a private deal will take tax money from the citizens of the area. Just think, had things been different 60 or so years ago, the Columbia area would be caught in the same acrimonious circumstances.My late father, a home builder, community developer and lifelong motorsports fan, long ago related an interesting story that would have placed the first NASCAR super speedway just west of Columbia Airport and near the town of South Congaree. Other citizens of that era recalled the same scenario.According to those who were close to what was happening, to obtain the necessary property on which to construct the facility there were several parcels of land that had to be purchased. However, those who owned the acreage learned of the project and saw the potential for success for the group wanting the ground. So, in an attempt to pad their wallets, they jacked up the prices several times the original asking price. The proposed Columbia location was abandoned.Subsequently, a smaller one-half mile dirt track was built and opened in 1948 on Charleston Highway in suburban Cayce. It was a .510-mile red clay track with a one-quarter-mile layout inside that. Two years later, a peanut farm west of Darlington had been purchased. Darlington, the first big stock car track, had been built and the first Southern 500 on Labor Day, 1950.Less than 30 years later the Columbia Speedway, site of many historic racing events, was closed and then destroyed in a fire.A number of us covered the Columbia races in various capacities. Starting in 1962 I sent out press releases and joined the late Bert Friday as the public address announcer . Guys like veteran NASCAR official Jim Hunter cut his teeth on the sport with his newspaper reporting on the events during Thursday night races there. Pete Keller was the Chief Steward and flagman.We watched David Pearson, Ned Jarrett, Bobby Isaac, Dink Widenhouse and Ralph Earnhardt battle in old modifieds, then saw later stars such as Dale Earnhardt, Haskell Willingham, Cale Yarborough, Tiny Lund, Buddy Baker and Lee Roy Yarbrough begin to make their marks following in the tracks of early racers Buck Baker, Junior Johnson, Fireball Roberts, Buddy Shuman and others who were there to take checkered flags.Contests at Columbia, including the 100-mile Grand National (now Sprint) events, drew national attention with often front-page coverage in the National Speed Sport News, Southern Motorsports Journal and Southern Motor Racing weeklies and articles I wrote for Stock Car Racing. ABCs Wide Word of Sports sent a TV crew into cover a typical race night.Many of the sports top stars would often race at the old dirt track on a Thursday and then be the top runners on the growing number of tracks which sprang up at Daytona, Charlotte, Atlanta and Rockingham. Those layouts were all one-mile or more. But, half-mile tracks at the flat-surfaced Martinsville (VA) and ultra-high banked Bristol (VA/TN) continue to thrive as they enter their seventh decades.There is no high quality racetrack within 100 miles of the capital city. Folks have to travel to Greenville-Pickens or Myrtle Beach to see weekly high-speed stock car racing usually starting in April. Both are paved and the better for it. Covering the Columbia Speedway with asphalt, bad promotion and the lack of safety features were factors in its demise.Racers Reunion, through its web site racersreunion.com will continue to present eyewitness accounts through entertaining audio/video interviews, unique racing footage and members blogs to focus on the great drivers of the past and introduce you to stars of the future. One of the primary purposes of racersreunion.com is to help create a fund to aid some of the now retired drivers who didnt make the financial moves that would have provided them a lot more security today.