Occoneechee Speedway

In the chronology

1. 1947–1968 Occoneechee Speedway, Hillsborough Bill France and four partners chartered a company in September 1947 to build a one-mile dirt oval by the old Occoneechee Farm, and it opened in June 1948. The track held a race in NASCAR's first Strictly Stock season in 1949, was renamed Orange Speedway in 1954, and closed after Richard Petty won its last race on September 15, 1968.
2. January 27, 1948 Hillsboro Speedway, Inc. buys the Occoneechee Farm racetrack tract W. S. Murchison and J. R. Rogers sold two hundred acres of the old Occoneechee Farm, including its horse track, to Hillsboro Speedway, Inc., the company Bill France and four partners had chartered to build a stock car track. France had spotted the track while flying over Orange County.
3. June 27, 1948 Occoneechee Speedway opens Occoneechee Speedway, a one-mile dirt oval that Bill France and four North Carolina partners built on the old Occoneechee Farm horse track outside Hillsborough, opened with a 100-mile NASCAR stock car race won by Fonty Flock. People: Bill France Sr.
4. September 19, 1948 Fonty Flock wins both races of the Occoneechee double-header Fonty Flock, who had won the speedway's opening race in June, won both feature events of the double-header at Occoneechee Speedway, the track's second and third races.
5. August 7, 1949 NASCAR comes to Occoneechee Speedway Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough hosted the third race of NASCAR's first Strictly Stock season, a 200-lap event won by Bob Flock. It is the only dirt track from that inaugural season that still survives. People: Bill France Sr.
6. August 13, 1950 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
7. October 29, 1950 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: Fireball Roberts
8. April 1951 Fonty Flock wins the spring race at Occoneechee Fonty Flock won the spring NASCAR Grand National race at Occoneechee Speedway, with Frank Mundy second and Bill Blair third.
9. June 8, 1952 Tim Flock wins the 100-mile Grand National at Occoneechee Tim Flock, driving a 1951 Hudson Hornet, took the lead on the 45th lap and won the 100-mile NASCAR Grand National race at Occoneechee Speedway before 5,000 spectators, with his brother Fonty second. People: Fonty Flock
10. July 25, 1952 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 Staley
11. October 1952 Fonty Flock wins at Occoneechee weeks after his Darlington victory Fonty Flock, winner of the Southern 500 at Darlington, won the October Grand National race at Occoneechee Speedway weeks after his 500-mile Darlington victory.
12. July 17, 1955 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.
13. 1956 Curtis Turner wins both NASCAR convertible races at Orange Speedway Curtis Turner of Roanoke won both NASCAR convertible circuit races held at Orange Speedway in 1956 and set the convertible qualifying record there.
14. April 1956 Hillsboro Presbyterian pastor preaches against local stock car racing The Rev. C. H. Reckard, pastor of the Hillsboro Presbyterian Church, delivered a sermon criticizing local stock car racing and its effect on young people, one of the clergy protests against Sunday races at Orange Speedway.
15. May 13, 1956 Buck Baker wins the spring 100-miler at Orange Speedway Buck Baker, driving a 1956 Chrysler, beat Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts and 29 other drivers in the 100-mile Grand National race at Orange Speedway on Mother's Day. People: Lee Petty, Fireball Roberts
16. October 1956 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.
17. May 8, 1957 The General Assembly bans Sunday racing in Orange County After protests by the Rev. C. H. Reckard and other Orange County clergy, the legislature passed a law on May 8, 1957 banning racing on Sundays, though Sunday races were being advertised again at Orange Speedway by 1961.
18. September 16, 1958 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 Staley
19. January 1959 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.
20. May 1960 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: Richard Petty
21. September 1960 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
22. October 29, 1961 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.
23. March 1963 Junior Johnson wins the spring 150-miler at Orange Speedway Junior Johnson won the spring 150-mile Grand National race at Orange Speedway in March 1963.
24. March 10, 1963 Jayne Mansfield rides in the pace car at Orange Speedway Film star Jayne Mansfield, in North Carolina for a nightclub date in Greensboro, rode in the pace car to start the 150-mile race at Orange Speedway. Orange County sheriff's deputies Will Gilmore and Avery Maddry acted as her bodyguards, and she watched from the judges' stand, signing autographs.
25. October 27, 1963 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.
26. March 1964 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.
27. 1967 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.
28. September 15, 1968 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
29. May 19, 1984 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 Staley
30. 1993 Jenrette founds the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust with Ayr Mount Richard Jenrette founded the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust with his gift of Ayr Mount, which became the first of his houses opened to the public. The trust, later renamed the Richard Hampton Jenrette Foundation, came to own land around Ayr Mount including Poet's Walk and the Occoneechee Speedway site.
31. November 25, 1997 Jenrette's preservation trust buys the Occoneechee Speedway site Preservation North Carolina, which had bought the old speedway from France Staley, LLC in June 1997, sold it to the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust under protective deed restrictions.
32. February 8, 2001 The St. Mary's Road area and the Occoneechee Speedway join the Study List The National Register Advisory Committee placed the farm landscape along St. Mary's Road studied in the 1999 survey, and the Occoneechee Speedway near Hillsborough, on North Carolina's Study List, its list of properties likely to qualify for the National Register. The meeting's minutes are lost; the placements rest on the annotated agenda.
33. February 14, 2002 State reviewers approve the Occoneechee Speedway nomination despite Hillsborough's objection Hillsborough's historic preservation commission approved the nomination, but the mayor objected after a vote of the town commissioners, because the old track lay in the path of a possible north-south bypass. Commissioner Ken Chavious asked the committee on February 14, 2002 to weigh the town's traffic needs. Members replied that only eligibility was before them and approved the nomination unanimously, with one member leaving the room because he consulted on the bypass.
34. May 2, 2002 Occoneechee Speedway is listed in the National Register The 44-acre Occoneechee Speedway site near Hillsborough, acquired by preservationists from the France and Staley families in 1997, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places on May 2, 2002. It is the only surviving dirt track from NASCAR's inaugural 1949 season.
35. 2003 Historic Occoneechee Speedway trail opens to the public A public walking trail opened in 2003 on the Occoneechee Speedway site near Hillsborough, crossing the surviving clay oval of the old NASCAR track. The landowner, the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust (later the Jenrette Foundation), built it with the volunteer Historic Speedway Group.
36. January 2025 Occoneechee Speedway joins Eno River State Park North Carolina finalized the addition of more than 200 acres near Hillsborough, including the Historic Occoneechee Speedway trail and the James M. Johnston Nature Preserve, to Eno River State Park. The Eno River Association had arranged the sale from the Jenrette Foundation, formerly the Classical American Homes Preservation Trust.

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