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Local figure

Fireball Roberts

Fireball Roberts scored his first victory at Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough on August 13, 1950, at age 21, and was one of the prominent racers who regularly competed there.

Source: NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002)

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

Fireball Roberts, newspaper photograph, 1964
Fireball Roberts, newspaper photograph, 1964

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

  1. 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. People: Louise Smith, Curtis Turner Place: Occoneechee Speedway, HillsboroughSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002)
  2. 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. People: Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts Place: Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough · Also named: Bill RexfordSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002)
  3. Buck Baker wins the spring 100-lap race at Orange Speedway Buck Baker, driving a 1956 Chrysler, won the 100-lap Grand National race at Orange Speedway on Mother's Day, ahead of Speedy Thompson, Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts and 27 other starters. People: Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Buck BakerUltimate Racing History: NASCAR Grand National race, Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsboro, NC, May 13, 1956 · Also: The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 21, 1957, p. 6
  4. 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. Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Buck BakerSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): item on the Hillsborough speedway, March 21, 1957, p. 6

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 Fireball Roberts, 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 Fireball Roberts. 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

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Fireball Roberts 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 Fireball Roberts

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

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Picture: Fireball Roberts, newspaper photograph, 1964. Public domain. Newspaper photograph, The State (Columbia, S.C.); via Wikimedia Commons

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