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Local figure

Richard Petty

Richard Petty won the September 1960 race at Orange Speedway near Hillsborough, leading all 110 laps, won the Hillsborough 150 during his ten-race winning streak of 1967, and won the dirt track's last race in September 1968.

Source: NC DNCR, Moonshine and Motorsports Trail: Occoneechee Speedway

Orange County Indexed has not yet linked an indexed work directly to Richard Petty. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Richard Petty’s life and work.

Richard Petty, photograph, 1973
Richard Petty, photograph, 1973

Life and Orange County connections

Storylines this person is part of, in date order. Each has its own page.

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 5 dated events in the chronology →

  1. 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. People: Lee Petty, Richard Petty Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), HillsboroughSearch the index · NC DNCR, Moonshine and Motorsports Trail: Occoneechee Speedway
  2. 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. People: Lee Petty Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Ned JarrettSearch the index · NC DNCR, Moonshine and Motorsports Trail: Occoneechee Speedway
  3. 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. Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), HillsboroughSearch the index · NC DNCR, Moonshine and Motorsports Trail: Occoneechee Speedway
  4. Final race at Orange Speedway Richard Petty won by seven laps in the last NASCAR Grand National race at Orange Speedway near Hillsborough, as the Occoneechee track had been called since 1954. The track closed after the race. People: Richard Petty, Curtis Turner Place: Hillsborough · Also mentions: Orange SpeedwayNC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (listed 2002)
  5. Richard Petty receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom President George H. W. Bush presented Petty the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his stock car racing career, citing his rise from humble beginnings in Level Cross, North Carolina. People: George Bush Place: Level CrossSearch the index · GovInfo, Public Papers of the Presidents: Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medals of Freedom, December 11, 1992

Places in this person’s story

Buildings, schools, churches and other sites named in the dated events on this page, the most often named first. The map shows them all.

Map tiles © OpenStreetMap contributors. Site locations from the N.C. State Historic Preservation Office survey, Open Orange, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

All places and the county map →

People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Richard Petty, those sharing the most entries first. Each line links one of the shared entries in the chronology, where its source is cited. A shared entry shows these people in the same event, not how well they knew each other.

Background on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough

Background reading on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss Richard Petty. Follow a link to find a copy or view the material.

Occoneechee-Orange Speedway

Sanseverino, Edward P. · 1995

Edward P. Sanseverino's 1995 account of the Occoneechee-Orange Speedway, the stock car track outside Hillsborough that ran in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Topics include automobile racing and racetracks in North Carolina and Hillsborough in the twentieth century.

Jock Lauterer photographic collection, circa 1964-1968.

Lauterer, Jock · 1964

Photographs made by Jock Lauterer in and around Chapel Hill from about 1964 to 1968, some 3,522 items in the North Carolina Collection at UNC. Subjects include the Speaker Ban Law, Ku Klux Klan activity in North Carolina, Tar Heel basketball and football, the Jubilee festival, the Old Well, and visitors including Lyndon Johnson, Hubert Humphrey, Bob Hope and Jayne Mansfield.

UNC

Occoneechee Speedway/Orange Speedway (Chapel Hill Historical Society vertical file)

Clippings and promotional materials on the Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough, the dirt racetrack later renamed Orange Speedway. An undated folder from box 31 of the Chapel Hill Historical Society's Vertical File Collection, Carrboro and Orange County series.

Research sources

Sources and research tools for this person. For ready-made searches of other catalogs, see Search further. Research guide: Trace a family through historical records.

Background

National Register files

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Richard Petty Library card Search NC LIVE for this subject and Orange County. You can change the search terms. Sign in through your North Carolina library to access the materials.
  • Ancestry Library Edition In the libraryOrange County Public Library Census, birth, death and marriage records, and more, free on the public computers at OCPL libraries

Local help

Search further

Search other catalogs and collections for this name. Results may include other people with the same name and have not been reviewed by the Friends.

Books about Richard Petty

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

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Picture: Richard Petty, photograph, 1973. No known copyright restrictions. State Archives of North Carolina, General Negative Collection; via Wikimedia Commons

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