Chronology

Hillsboro Speedway, Inc. buys the Occoneechee Farm racetrack tract

W. S. Murchison and J. R. Rogers sold two hundred acres of the old Occoneechee Farm, including its horse track, to Hillsboro Speedway, Inc., the company Bill France and four partners had chartered to build a stock car track. France had spotted the track while flying over Orange County.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway · Occoneechee Farm

Fonty Flock wins both races of the Occoneechee double-header

Fonty Flock, who had won the speedway's opening race in June, won both feature events of the double-header at Occoneechee Speedway, the track's second and third races.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Fireball Roberts wins his first NASCAR Grand National race at Occoneechee

Twenty-one-year-old Fireball Roberts of Daytona Beach won the 100-lap Grand National race at Occoneechee Speedway, his first victory in NASCAR's top series, in only his third start. Curtis Turner led the first 45 laps before a flat tire and finished second; Louise Smith drove a new Nash Ambassador in the field.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

People: Louise Smith · Curtis Turner

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Lee Petty wins the 1950 season finale as Bill Rexford clinches the title

Lee Petty of Greensboro won the 200-mile race that closed NASCAR's 1950 Grand National season at Occoneechee Speedway, his first win at the track. Bill Rexford dropped out with engine trouble but took the championship when Fireball Roberts also failed to finish.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

People: Fireball Roberts

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Fonty Flock wins the spring race at Occoneechee

Fonty Flock won the spring NASCAR Grand National race at Occoneechee Speedway, with Frank Mundy second and Bill Blair third.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Tim Flock wins the 100-mile Grand National at Occoneechee

Tim Flock, driving a 1951 Hudson Hornet, took the lead on the 45th lap and won the 100-mile NASCAR Grand National race at Occoneechee Speedway before 5,000 spectators, with his brother Fonty second.

People: Fonty Flock

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Orange Speedway, Inc. takes over the Hillsborough track

Bill France Sr. became president of the new Orange Speedway, Inc., with Ann France as secretary-treasurer and Enoch Staley as vice-president; the other three original partners were no longer with the track. It was known as Orange Speedway from 1954.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

People: Enoch Staley

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Fonty Flock wins at Occoneechee weeks after his Darlington victory

Fonty Flock, winner of the Southern 500 at Darlington, won the October Grand National race at Occoneechee Speedway weeks after his 500-mile Darlington victory.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

A quarter-mile track opens inside Orange Speedway

A new quarter-mile track built inside the Orange Speedway mile opened with a seven-event NASCAR sportsman and amateur racing program under the direction of Bill France and Enoch Staley.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

People: Bill France Sr.

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Curtis Turner wins both NASCAR convertible races at Orange Speedway

Curtis Turner of Roanoke won both NASCAR convertible circuit races held at Orange Speedway in 1956 and set the convertible qualifying record there.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Hillsboro Presbyterian pastor preaches against local stock car racing

The Rev. C. H. Reckard, pastor of the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, delivered a sermon criticizing local stock car racing and its effect on young people, one of the clergy protests against Sunday races at Orange Speedway.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Hillsborough Presbyterian Church · Occoneechee Speedway

Buck Baker wins the spring 100-miler at Orange Speedway

Buck Baker, driving a 1956 Chrysler, beat Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts and 29 other drivers in the 100-mile Grand National race at Orange Speedway on Mother's Day.

People: Lee Petty · Fireball Roberts

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Fireball Roberts wins the fall race at Orange Speedway

Fireball Roberts, driving a 1956 Ford, won the 110-lap fall race at Orange Speedway, setting the track record for that distance, with Buck Baker second.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

The General Assembly bans Sunday racing in Orange County

After protests by the Rev. C. H. Reckard and other Orange County clergy, the legislature passed a law on May 8, 1957 banning racing on Sundays, though Sunday races were being advertised again at Orange Speedway by 1961.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Bill France leases Orange Speedway to the Orange County Board of Education

Bill France signed a ten-year lease letting Hillsboro High School use the Orange Speedway grounds as its athletic field, for $100 a year, while races continued.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

People: Enoch Staley

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway · Hillsborough High School

A Hollywood crew films a racing drama at Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn

A film company shot scenes for a television drama starring James Whitmore at Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn in Hillsborough. Speedway co-owner Enoch Staley brought in several well-known drivers, among them Buck Baker, for close-up scenes.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway · Colonial Inn

Lee Petty wins at Orange Speedway from the front row beside his son Richard

Lee Petty, 46, led all 110 laps to win the May race at Orange Speedway. His son Richard Petty had the pole, the first time the father and son started together on the front row.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

People: Richard Petty

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Richard Petty wins his first race at Orange Speedway

Richard Petty, 23, took the pole and led all 110 laps of the September 100-mile race at Orange Speedway, finishing a lap ahead of Ned Jarrett. His father Lee had won the track's May race.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

People: Lee Petty

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Joe Weatherly wins the first 150-miler at Orange Speedway

Joe Weatherly won the 150-mile race that closed the 1961 Grand National season at Orange Speedway, the first race of that length at the track, setting a lap record of 95.15 miles per hour and a race average of 86.11.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Jayne Mansfield rides in the pace car at Orange Speedway

Film star Jayne Mansfield, in North Carolina for a nightclub date in Greensboro, rode in the pace car to start the 150-mile race at Orange Speedway. Orange County sheriff's deputies Will Gilmore and Avery Maddry acted as her bodyguards, and she watched from the judges' stand, signing autographs.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Junior Johnson wins the spring 150-miler at Orange Speedway

Junior Johnson won the spring 150-mile Grand National race at Orange Speedway in March 1963.

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Joe Weatherly wins his last race at Orange Speedway

Joe Weatherly won the fall 150-mile race at Orange Speedway, the last victory of his career; he was killed in a crash at Riverside, California, in January 1964.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Orange Speedway names its spring race the Joe Weatherly Memorial

Orange Speedway scheduled its spring 1964 150-mile Grand National race as the inaugural Joe Weatherly Memorial, honoring the late national champion who held both track speed records and had won his last race there.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Richard Petty wins the Hillsborough 150 during his ten-race streak

Richard Petty's win in the Hillsborough 150 at Orange Speedway was the eighth of ten straight victories in 1967, the season he won a record 27 races.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

Jenrette founds the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust with Ayr Mount

Richard Jenrette founded the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust with his gift of Ayr Mount, which became the first of his houses opened to the public. The trust, later renamed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation, came to own land around Ayr Mount including Poet's Walk and the Occoneechee Speedway site.

Subject: Ayr Mount · Occoneechee Speedway

Jenrette's preservation trust buys the Occoneechee Speedway site

Preservation North Carolina, which had bought the old speedway from France Staley, LLC in June 1997, sold it to the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust under protective deed restrictions.

Part of Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · 34 events

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway

State reviewers approve the Occoneechee Speedway nomination despite Hillsborough's objection

Hillsborough's historic preservation commission approved the nomination, but the mayor objected after a vote of the town commissioners, because the old track lay in the path of a possible north-south bypass. Commissioner Ken Chavious asked the committee on February 14, 2002 to weigh the town's traffic needs. Members replied that only eligibility was before them and approved the nomination unanimously, with one member leaving the room because he consulted on the bypass.

Subject: Occoneechee Speedway