AnniesSS Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 Yesterday, the North Carolina Region hosted a Cruise to Hillsborough. We all met up at the Shops at Daniel Boone Village where we learned the history of this location from the Granddaughter of the original owner. There was once an ice skating rink there, George Washington slept in one of the buildings, that was once in the northern part of NC, and is now a Mexican restaurant. I believe there was a toboggan track also. We then took a walking tour of the Occoneechee Speedway Trail which was a dirt track used from 1948-68. All that's left is the concrete stands, the announcer's booth, and the flag stand. You can still see some of the banked turns, but there are so many trees that have grown in that it's kind of obscured. The weather was beautiful and I believe we had around 26 vehicles at the event! Enjoy the photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
61polara Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 Looks like a fun tour. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
real61ss Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 (edited) I raced at Hillsborough in 1965 and 66 in the old Grand National Division of NASCAR. That was a great race track, 9/10 mile dirt track. Also, I believe it is one of only 3 race tracks on the National Historic Regester, Indy, Bonneville Salt Flats and Hillsborough. This property was intended to be the site of what is now Talladega but Bill France had problems with the locals, I think zoning issues so he moved his operation to Alabama. Edited April 17, 2016 by real61ss (see edit history) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnniesSS Posted April 17, 2016 Author Share Posted April 17, 2016 Wow! That's very cool - do you have any photos of the track back then or of your team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
real61ss Posted April 17, 2016 Share Posted April 17, 2016 I only have this one photo that was taken in either 1963 or 64. The car in this photo was a 1962 Pontiac driven by Worth McMillion, I worked on his crew and he later had two cars, I drove his second car. If you can imagine, this photo was taken from the pit area looking out towards the race track, those are the old grand stands on the right of the picture. Things have really changed in NASCAR in the past 30 or 40 years but I could not beleive the changes in that old race track, we last raced there in 1968, today there are trees as much as 24" in dia. growing in the race track. There is a river running along the back straight away, there also was no guard rail around the track, I can remember seeing guys run across the race track during the race to get a bucket of water for a race car that had run hot. Lots of memories from that place. Note, that is Hall of Famer, Cotton Owens in the lower right corner of the photo. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnniesSS Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 (edited) Thank you for the photo!! That is great! Here's one of the straightaways as of Saturday! You can see the stands up in the trees! Edited April 18, 2016 by AnniesSS (see edit history) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Street Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Annie since you are down there in NC you should go to the Hall of Fame event at the old track October 1st featuring a couple of older racers who raced there. No.......RealSS wasn't on the program in his number 84 Pontiac!!!!! Robert 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philip roitman Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Hillsborough and Curtis Turner! Reading a Turner bio now, it is the track he chose to go to sign his new NASCAR license after his Ban from NASCAR racing. The track is mentioned often a lot of History there. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnniesSS Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Robert Street - thanks! I didn't know about it - I'll look it up Philip Roitman - I love reading books that have local places mentioned whether it's where I grew up or where i currently live 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terry Bond Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Wow, that's tremendous! Tommy, hope you give a talk someday about your racing history - maybe an evening on the divisional tour? Tell me more about what became of the cars there at Daniel Boone village? Used to be quite a neat stop as the place was all antique shops, and the cars were fantastic brass era, including an 03 Caddy, and more. It was always a stop on the way to the Charlotte auto fair, but there ins't much there now. On one visit It seemd the cars were disappearing with only a couple of them left. One of the antique shop owners told us someone came in at the right time and bought the whole collection cheap. it would be great to have the details. thanks, Terry 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnniesSS Posted April 25, 2016 Author Share Posted April 25, 2016 I don't remember what the granddaughter said about all of the cars, but some are still there. She did mention that about 31 of the cars in the collection were used in the making of the film "The Color Purple". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philip roitman Posted May 1, 2016 Share Posted May 1, 2016 I am heading to Burlington Wednesday to race at Piedmont Dragway next Friday and Saturday. for a Buick National event. I see it is not far from Hillsborough. If I have some time on Thursday I will take a ride to try and check it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AnniesSS Posted May 1, 2016 Author Share Posted May 1, 2016 Have a great time!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now