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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

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 10 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: Bill France Sr., Enoch Staley Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Ann FranceSearch the index · NC State Historic Preservation Office: National Register nomination, Occoneechee Speedway (OR1542, 2002)
  2. A quarter-mile track inside Orange Speedway is set to open A new quarter-mile track built inside the Orange Speedway mile was to open on Sunday, July 17, with a seven-event NASCAR sportsman and amateur racing program under the direction of Bill France and Enoch Staley. People: Bill France Sr. Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Bill FranceSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): New quarter mile track opens Sunday for NASCAR races here, July 14, 1955, p. 8
  3. Sunday stock car racing returns to Orange Speedway, and Buck Baker wins the 100-mile race With the 1957 act banning Sunday races in Orange County struck down by the state Supreme Court, Orange Speedway reopened Sunday racing on March 23 with a 100-mile NASCAR Grand National race, won by Buck Baker of Spartanburg in a 1957 Chevrolet. Promoter Bill France then said the owners of the nearby Jalopy track had agreed to race only one Sunday a month and rename it the South Hillsboro Race Track. People: Enoch Staley Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Buck Baker, Bill FranceThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), April 3, 1958, p. 1
  4. Hillsboro's school committee endorses making Orange Speedway the high school's athletic field The Hillsboro district school committee unanimously approved using the Orange Speedway grounds as Hillsboro High School's stadium and urged a 20-year lease, after Bill France offered on April 27 to lease the plant to the schools for $100 a year and pay $250 for each of his four race Sundays. The high school's own field had been cut up by its new gymnasium, and the lease itself needed the county Board of Education. People: Enoch Staley, L. E. Beard, Bonner D. Sawyer Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Bill FranceThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), May 22, 1958, p. 1
  5. 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: Bill France Sr., Enoch Staley Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Bill France · Also mentions: Hillsboro High SchoolSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): Lease for speedway for high school use, September 18, 1958, p. 1
  6. 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. Place: Orange Speedway and the Colonial Inn, Hillsborough · Also named: James Whitmore, Buck BakerSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): Film company sets community agog when it becomes locale for movie, January 29, 1959, p. 1
  7. Concrete stands go up at Orange Speedway for Hillsboro High football Concrete stands were being poured in place of wooden benches at Orange Speedway, which owners Bill France and Enoch Staley had leased to the high school for ten years, and the infield, graded and sown that spring, had a stand of grass for the Hillsboro High football field. Plans were going ahead to light the field before the season opened in September. People: Enoch Staley Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Bill FranceThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), July 30, 1959, p. 1
  8. A 100-mile Grand National race at Orange Speedway draws over 9,000 A standing-room crowd of more than 9,000 watched the March 18 NASCAR Grand National 100-mile race at Orange Speedway in Hillsboro, advertised with Joe Weatherly, Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett and other stars of the Daytona 500. The turnout led the track to add a modified-sportsman race there on April 1. People: Enoch Staley Place: Orange Speedway, Hillsborough · Also named: Ned Jarrett, Junior Johnson, Richard Petty, Joe WeatherlyThe News of Orange County (Hillsborough), March 29, 1962, p. 23
  9. A federal grant clears the way for Hillsboro's sewage treatment plant Town officials learned that a $51,690 federal grant had been approved to go with the $190,000 bond issue voters passed in April for a sewage treatment plant and sewer lines reaching every part of town. The plant was to stand east of town on land provided by Orange Speedway owners Bill France and Enoch Staley, ending the dumping of raw sewage into the Eno River. People: Enoch Staley Place: Hillsboro · Also named: Bill France · Also mentions: Eno River, Orange SpeedwaySearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough), December 13, 1962, p. 4
  10. 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: Bill France Sr., Enoch Staley Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), Hillsborough · Also named: Ann France, Bill FranceSearch 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, Orange County GIS, OpenStreetMap and a few other published sources named on each site’s page; town and community pins show approximate locations.

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People named in the same events

People named in the same dated entries as Enoch Staley, 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 Enoch Staley. 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.

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