Road Threatens Early NASCAR Track
By Margaret Foster | Online Only | Jan. 5, 2009
NASCAR started small in 1948. Competitors raced on just three dirt tracks, all of them located in the Southeast. Today, the only surviving track, the Occoneechee-Orange Speedway in Hillsborough, N.C., is threatened by a potential road.
"We are hopeful [that the road won't be built]," says Frank Craig, president of the Historic Speedway Group, which formed to preserve and maintain the one-mile, oval track. In four years the group, which Craig describes as "a bunch of old gear heads," has rebuilt the speedway's concession stand and ticket booth, cleared brush from the concrete grandstands, and hosted an annual "Celebration of the Automobile and Racer Reunion" at the track.
NASCAR abandoned the Occoneechee-Orange Speedway in 1968. It was last used for high school football games in the 1980s and is now a popular park. It's not just racing history that draws people to the old speedway, Craig says. "There's so much wildlife out there. It's like a Central Park for our town."
The state department of transportation is considering four options to alleviate traffic around Hillsborough: A bypass that would require the demolition of 20 houses; a bypass on an undeveloped ridge; a combination of new signs and intersections; or a bypass that would bisect the speedway. In addition to destroying the integrity of the track, such a bypass would stand within 100 feet of Ayr Mount, an 1815 plantation house that is now a museum.
Saving a Raceway
Preservation North Carolina bought the 44-acre track property from a NASCAR founder's estate in 1997 and gave the title to Classical American Homes Preservation Trust, which owns 200-year-old Ayr Mount.
Local government officials support the low-impact plan. Both the Hillsborough Town Board and the Orange County Board of Commissioners have voted to oppose all three bypass plans. Even some state officials doubt the road will be built near the NASCAR track, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.
"Generally there are laws against going through protected property if you've got feasible and prudent alternatives," says Vince Rhea, project manager in the department of transportation's Project Development and Environmental Analysis office. "That's what it looks like here. It would be difficult for [a road through the speedway] to be picked."
Craig's group has spoken against the bypass at public meetings, including one last month, and people are listening, says Elizabeth Read, executive director of the Alliance for Historic Hillsborough.
"The speedway [cause] tends to attract more locals who lived here and remember their experiences," Read says. "When you get fans of this track and NASCAR fans reminding people at public meetings that this plan would destroy part of their history, I think it's a powerful message."
The public may comment on the draft of the environmental impact statement until this Friday, and the state's "merger team" is scheduled to make a final decision in March, Rhea says.
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