THE CHARLOTTE SPEEDWAY-North Carolina's first "Official" race trackThe directions on the fliers posted around the city of Charlotte were plain and simple. "DRIVE NINE MILES SOUTH ON NORTH CAROLINA HIGHWAY NUMBER 26 AND YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF AT THE GATES OF THE MAMMOTH PLANT". Every speed fanatic within 100 miles of Charlotte knew that there was a new speedway being built just south of the city in Pineville but had no idea what awaited him or her until they showed up. Long before the now existing Lowes Motor Speedway was even a dream, when drivers helmets were made out of cloth and future Nascar founder Bill France Sr. was a fifteen year old teenager living in Washington, DC, the city of Pineville, North Carolina was home to one of the finest and fastest race tracks in the country. This new Super speedway was the first race track built in North Carolina specifically for automobile racing. There were three 1/2 mile dirt ovals that held automobile races before the new Charlotte Speedway was completed, the Kinston Fairgrounds in 1921 and the Shelby and Wilson Fairgrounds in 1924. But these ovals that were used for automobile racing were old 18th century horse tracks. So Pineville, North Carolina was about to become the star attraction for automobile racing in the state.THE STARTThe board track era started in California in 1910. A bicycle-racing zealot named Fred Moscovics also liked automobile racing. But automobile racing on dirt tracks was extremely dusty and dangerous. So Fred came up with an idea. With the speed that bicycle's ran on the little wooden bowls where it was clean and safe, why not build a larger version of a bicycle track and race cars on it? It seemed far-fetched to most people but a builder named Jack Prince took the idea to heart and set out to build the first wooden speedway in the world.The Los Angeles Motordrome in Playa Del Ray, California, a one mile oval that was a perfect circle and banked at 22 degrees all the way around, opened on April 8, 1910. Known as the pie pan and the Pine Pinwheel, it was an immediate success and the speeds the cars ran were astronomical compared to the speeds run on the flat dirt tracks. There were cars turning laps in excess of 105 MPH on opening day. (The pole speed for the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 was 94.54 MPH).The Charlotte Speedway got its start from Jack Prince. In April of 1924, Jack visited Charlotte and was in awe at the highway system there. He said that Charlotte had the most exceptional highway system in the entire country and that a speedway would be the best thing that could happen to the area. The roads around the entire area could easily handle thousands of cars that would flock to a speedway where famous drivers from around the country would entertain countless fan. But when he approached the Chamber and city officials, they were about as excited with his idea as watching paint dry. But he spoke, telling the Chamber and the local businesses how much Los Angeles, CA and Altoona, PA were doing as a result of a board track. He kept talking while a few businessmen listened. When he mentioned that it would cost the City of Charlotte $300,000 to build the track but that shouldn't be of any concern, he didn't get very many warm looks. But as he addressed the people, he finally struck a chord with a couple of businessmen at the gathering.Doctor J. P. Matheson finally spoke up. He said he was very much in favor of a speedway for Charlotte. "Why should Charlotte just sit back and watch others grab the gold? he asked. As soon as he finished that question, he TOLD the Chamber of Commerce to take some kind of action to start the ball rolling. Before the meeting was over, a committee was appointed to look into the situation. The Charlotte Speedway, INC., was formed with C. Lane Etheredge, B. D. Heath, Dr. Matheson, J. E. Taylor, J. M. Harrelson and Osmond Barringer elected to oversee everything. The next day, Fred Johnson, the general manager of the Prince Company, arrived in town. Since he was so sure that Charlotte would want the speedway, he contacted lumber companies in a four state area on lumber prices. He made sure he let them know that it would take 4,000,000 feet of wood to complete the monumental task, not counting tons of nails, spikes and bracing.On June 14th, the Altoona, PA board track was hosting a 250-mile race and Heath, Barringer and Etheredge went north to watch the event. After witnessing the most amazing display of speed every seen by any of the men present, they were unprepared to see what took place after Jimmy Murphy took the checkered flag. Not because his car was able to withstand 250 grueling miles on a mile and a quarter board track, or the fact that sixteen other cars were in the race and there wasn't a single mishap, but because his average speed for the entire grind was 114 MPH! (The Indianapolis 500 was won this year with a new record average speed of 82.47 MPH).No sooner was the race finished, the three men concluded that there would be a racetrack in Charlotte, North Carolina. Someway, somehow, there would be a 1.25-mile board track, patterned after Altoona, built within six months time. They got back to Charlotte and laid their plans and hopes out to the city. It won approval and Jack Prince couldn't have been any happier. He started the planning and design for the track and on September 15th, construction started on the first speedway to be built in North Carolina for automobile racing and the first board track in the south. With a crew of 300 carpenters, laborers and mechanics utilizing four million feet of lumber and over eight tons of spikes, the brand new speedway was under construction. What would seem like a task that should have taken months to do, the workers, laboring continuously around the clock, completed the colossal job in only forty days. What the committee hoped to achieve in six months was done in less than three.The track was somewhat of a unique shape though. At 1.25 miles around with 40` banking in the turns, the track took three million feet of lumber to construct. With the front and backstretch each 600 feet long, this gave only a quarter of a mile of straight a way. The turns made up the remaining mile where each end of the track had a 2,640-foot long sweep. Grandstand A was located on the front stretch and grandstand B was located on the backstretch. The two grandstands were made up with the other one million feet of lumber. There were four tunnels under the track for gaining entrance to the infield. Two of them were combination car/pedestrian tunnels and the other two were for pedestrian use only. Two heavy catch fences, one at the skirting and apron and the second in front of the stands which sat fifty feet from the track, were the most modern safety features of any track at the time.THE BEGINNINGOn Monday, October 13, 1924, Fred Wagner, the nationally known flagman who was the starter for at least one race at one time or another for all of the thirty-one board tracks built across the country and also the Indy 500, arrived from Los Angeles to examine the new speedway. After inspecting the speedway with track President C. Lane Elderedge and secretary B. D. Heath, he said that Charlotte was the best built speedway in America and looks to be the safest one also. He stated that the lumber was the best he'd ever seen a track built out of, the grandstands were the best accommodations for a sporting event, the construction was solid and the safety measures were the best he has ever seen. One safety feature Wagner praised was something builder Fred Johnson added to the Charlotte track that none of the other fifteen board tracks at the time had up until now. For the newest in safety innovations, there was a steel band that encircled the entire top guardrail, making it virtually impossible for a car to leave the track completely.The cars were expected to start arriving the next day on Tuesday, October 14th. Wagner said the first try-outs would be either Wednesday or Thursday. There were fourteen drivers entered for the inaugural 250-mile race that was going to take place on October 25th. On Tuesday, the cars started showing up. Eleven of the cars arrived at the Southern railway automobile platform on Second Avenue by way of a fruit express train from the west coast. B. R. Dutton, the riding mechanic for Earl Cooper, was the only person authorized to do any unloading. Since no drivers want anyone touching their cars, only four of the cars were taken off the train. This was because Dutton was only allowed to unload these cars. The cars that he took off was the gray Studebaker that Cooper had just won the Fresno, California race with, and the three Miller Specials that were to be driven by Bob McDonogh, Tommy Milton and Bennett Hill. The seven remaining cars on the train belonged to Ernie Ansterberg, Pete DePaolo, Fred Comer, Phil Shafer, Harry Hartz, Wade Morton and Jerry Wonderlich. The drivers would take these off when they arrived in Charlotte. Pete DePaolo, also coming in from California, stopped in Indianapolis on his way to the track to speak with Fred Duesenberg, the owner and founder of the car company that bears his name and which is the make of car that Milton drives.A DISMAL STARTFinally, the day that everyone was waiting for arrived. On Friday, October 16, 1924, starter Wagner opened up the track for testing. One rule that was set by Fred Wagner for qualifying was that all cars would have to post a minimum speed of at least 110 MPH to make the race. The first anxious driver to turn a wheel on the new track was nationally known Ernie Ansterberg, the world record holder of 125 MPH on a 1.25-mile board track and the 1915 and 1916 Michigan dirt track champion from Concord, Michigan. The 31-year-old driver took four laps around the speedway and stopped in the pits to check on his motor. Wagner asked how the track was and Ernie replied "fine". He then got back in his car and went back onto the track. On his seventh lap, he was clocked at 108 MPH but dropped to 106 entering the first turn starting on his eight lap. Coming out of the second turn, his car shot towards the inside apron. Then, as the car careened to the right, it traveled 200 feet up the track, spinning continuously until it slammed into the upper steel guardrail. Ansterberg was thrown from his car, landing completely out of the track. The car traveled another 200 feet before it came to a rest near the third turn. Workers near the grandstands where the crash occurred rushed the injured driver to the hospital but he died before they could get him there. The death was attributed to a broken neck, both shoulders broken and a crushed skull.Thousands of subaltern spectators rushed to the racetrack the following day, trying to get a glimpse of the destroyed car or wanting to see anything that had to do with the death of Ansterberg. They were disconcerted when they were not permitted inside the track. Immediately, the rumor's started flying that the track was keeping the public in the dark because they had something to hide about the death. But the officials didn't want the track flooded with people who were just interested in death.When the first event was run on October 25, 1924, the current world record of 116.2 MPH for a board track event was smashed when winner Tommy Milton completed the 250 mile event with an average speed of 118.17 MPH. (The Indy 500 this year was won at a new record speed of 98.23 MPH) With out a doubt, Charlotte Speedway was one of the fastest board tracks in the country. But this was only a sample of what was to come.While qualifying on May 8, 1925, Pete DePaolo turned a 132.8 MPH lap. (His pole winning speed at Indy this year was 113.083). Of the 10 drivers who qualified on this day, all of them surpassed 125 MPH in time trials. A turnout of 55,000 people saw Earl Cooper take home the $25,000 check with an average speed of 121 MPH for the 250-mile grind. Charlotte Speedway was the fastest track to ever host races and it was making headlines across the country. With such a successful first two races, the track quickly set a third event for the same year.On November 11, 1925, sixteen of the fastest drivers in the world took to the track, including Grand Prix standout and future Indy driver Pete Kreis from Knoxville, Tennessee. A throng of 35,000 fans watched Tommy Milton become the first two time winner at the speedway when he blazed under the checkered flag after 200 laps in only 2 hours 41.67 seconds for an average speed of 124.3 MPH .A NEW YEARWhen the fans showed up for the May 10, 1926 event, a completely new track appearance awaited them. Flags of all the nations circled the huge bowl, everything was freshly painted and track manager C. W. Roberts had Professor Leopold Steinert, the conductor of the municipal band, ready to entertain the spectators with a thirty-five piece band on the front stretch and one with twenty-five members on the back stretch. One upsetting factor was the management denied all complimentary tickets to anyone except a select few newspaper reporters. This was unusual for the era because all promoters knew that publicity was the key to success and the more newspapers covering the races, the more exposure. Fans were treated to another fast race as Earl DeVore went to victory lane after averaging 120 MPH for 250 miles. Tennessee's Pete Kreis finished a respectable seventh. Nowhere in the south could you find speeds anywhere near these on the old, dusty dirt tracks.But things were not as good as what it appeared to the people on the outside. What seemed like a moneymaker to fans that were always packed into the track, the bowl was not doing very well. Although a good size crowd saw Earl Cooper take the August 23, 1926 event, things were still looking pretty grim to the owners and on September 30th, it was announced that the track was going into a merger with the board tracks in Atlantic City, NJ, Salem, NH and Altoona, Pennsylvania. It was a $3,000,000.00 merge by a company called the United Motor Speedway's of America.On September 19, 1927, three races were run but the start was delayed because workers had to put the finishing touches on repairs to the track. By now, the wood-racing surface was starting to show it's age with holes and decay from exposure to the weather and the pounding of the cars on it. When the races were finally run, 1926 Indy 500 winner Frank Lockhart won the 25-mile sprint. Pete DePaolo, who took the Indy 500 trophy home with him in 1925, won the 50-mile event and the last race of the day was a 100 miler that saw Los Angeles, California's Babb Stapp collect the top prize.On September 21, 1927, the news that a lot of people expected were coming arrived. One of the three owners announced that another race at the Charlotte was seriously doubtful. He made the statement as the money from the event two days ago was being counted and checking the costs they had. He stated that there would be no more races here unless popular support justifies it and a race that indicates popular support is one that pays for all repairs to the track and a 25% profit to the promoters. Sadly, the money taken in from the September 19th event was not enough for "Popular Support" and Egbert "Babe" Stapp took the last checkered flag ever thrown at North Carolina's first race track ever built just for automobile racing. And just think. These drivers were running 120-130 MPH in a car that had no windshield or roll cage, they wore cloth helmets and the car sat on tires that were no wider that the width of the palm of your hand on spoke wheels!Jon H. Clifton