HARNETT SPEEDWAY - SPRING LAKE NC
In the early '50s, when the owners of Grannis Farm north of Spring Lake decided to go into the racing business, that holler was a natural half-mile oval. At that time many races were held on tracks about a third the size of today's smallest tracks. NASCAR, then a fledgling organization, needed a race to replace an early season event in Jacksonville, Fla. A track in central North Carolina seemed perfect - even if it had to be built from scratch. Clay for the track was dug out of a hill. Rows of cinder blocks were topped with 2-by-10-inch slabs of pine for seats. A small cinder block structure was built at the start-finish line, with a concession stand added at the top of the hill that served as grandstands. By the first week of March, everything was ready. The place was abuzz with excitement. Big time stock car racing was coming to their area, and to top it off the season's first two winners were going to race. Lee Petty had won the seasons first race at West Palm Beach FL, while Bill Blair had won on the
Daytona Beach and Road course. Also Tim Flock the 1953 champ would be on hand. Most fans were pulling for "hometown boy" Herb Thomas, a hard-charging 30-year-old from Olivia. Thomas had finished second to Flock in the previous year's championship battle. Local preachers refused to take in such activity on the Sabbath. It wasn't just the temptation to skip church. It was the traffic. People who still live in the area remember the cars on the road more than the ones on the track. There were cars everywhere. Preachers in the area lamented the traffic jams that kept church going folks out of the pews. The roads that morning were clogged with cars. You couldn't get there. Some race fans simply trekked through the fields, avoiding the traffic and the admission charge. By race time, a crowd estimated by race officials at 7,000 had jammed the stands. They had to get water from Mitchell's Pond next door to damp the track. Local boy Herb Thomas won the pole and jumped into the lead. He would go on to blister the field, winning by over three laps. Dick Rathman was second and Lee Petty third. As the dust settled, NASCAR's best packed up and headed home. They never came back. A year later, Jacksonville returned to the race schedule, and Harnett Speedway was closed soon afterward. Sixty years
after preachers fumed and engines screamed and more than 7,000 racing fans hollered one of their own to victory, there isn't much left of Harnett Speedway. Time and trees have pretty much reclaimed the first track in the Cape Fear region to host a NASCAR event. Sixty years later, there's still a track. The clay is packed so densely that only the most opportunistic weeds have gained a foothold. That's where, for one weekend in 1953, the red clay of Harnett County became the center of the stock car racing world.
All Photos copyright and are property of their respective owners