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Local figure

Enoch Staley

Enoch Staley of North Wilkesboro was one of five men who incorporated Hillsboro Speedway, Inc. in September 1947 to build Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough. He became vice-president of Orange Speedway, Inc. in 1952 and, with Bill and Ann France, remained a shareholder until the corporation was dissolved in 1984.

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 Enoch Staley. The biography and the dated events on this page provide sources about Enoch Staley’s life and work.

Life and Orange County connections

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

  1. 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. People: Enoch StaleySearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002)
  2. 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. People: Bill France Sr.Search the index · News of Orange County (DigitalNC): New quarter mile track opens Sunday for NASCAR races here, July 14, 1955, p. 8
  3. 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. People: Enoch StaleySearch the index · News of Orange County (DigitalNC): Lease for speedway for high school use, September 18, 1958, p. 1
  4. 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.Search the index · News of Orange County (DigitalNC): Film company sets community agog when it becomes locale for movie, January 29, 1959, p. 1
  5. Orange Speedway, Inc. is dissolved The three shareholders of Orange Speedway, Inc., Ann and Bill France and Enoch Staley, voluntarily dissolved the corporation sixteen years after the last race. France Staley, LLC, which held title to the track, sold it to Preservation North Carolina in 1997. People: Enoch StaleySearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002)

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 and OpenStreetMap; town and community pins mark the middle of their mapped buildings.

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Background on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough

These works give background on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough, the wider story this person is part of. Each links to the institution that holds or provides it.

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.

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