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Local figure

Joe Weatherly

Joe Weatherly, the national champion who died in a racing crash in January 1964, set both track speed records at Orange Speedway in Hillsborough and won the last race of his career there in October 1963. The track named its spring 1964 race the Joe Weatherly Memorial.

Source: News of Orange County (DigitalNC): Top NASCAR drivers to be here, March 12, 1964, p. 17

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

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 3 dated events in the chronology →

  1. 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. Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): Over 25 cars expected to take green flag in 100-mile race at Orange Speedway Sunday, March 8, 1962, p. 17
  2. 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. Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): Top NASCAR drivers to be here, March 12, 1964, p. 17
  3. 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. Place: Orange Speedway (Occoneechee Speedway), HillsboroughSearch the index · The News of Orange County (Hillsborough): Top NASCAR drivers to be here, March 12, 1964, p. 17

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 →

Background on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough

Background reading on Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough. These works cover the broader subject and may not discuss Joe Weatherly. 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

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Background

Records of the time

Collections and databases

  • NC LIVE: prepared search for Joe Weatherly 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

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Books about Joe Weatherly

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Photographs, papers, and newspapers

Historical records and collections

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