MCCORMICK  FIELD   -   ASHEVILLE  NC

McCormick Field Raceway was constructed around 1957 and was a quarter-mile oval track built around a baseball diamond after Asheville, North Carolina had lost its minor league team.  The track hosted weekly stock car races.  The grand opening featured 125 laps of Sportsman racing, and also featured amateur racing.  25 Sportsman cars were on hand for the race and a large number of amateurs also entered.  The grandstands were completely reworked and repainted.  Steel post was installed, and strong wire netting was installed to protect the crowd for possible injury. Portable walls were constructed and placed in front of the dugouts to prevent cars from going into them.  The flagman's stand and start / finish line was at home plate. The track provided exciting racing, especially around home plate where the cars had to negotiate an unusually sharp turn.  Fans were often attracted to the races at the baseball park by the possibility of one or more cars ending 

up in the first base dugout, a not unusual occurrence.  NASCAR Cup racing came to the baseball field for one race.  It would be in July of 1958.  Back then they often had heat races before the feature.  Lee Petty was running near the front during a heat race at the track when a bump from Cotton Owens sent him into the first-base dugout.  The team repaired Petty's car in time for the main event.  In the 150 lap race, Jim Paschal would beat Cotton Owens by one car length, while Rex White was third.  NASCAR's Convertible series also made two visits to this track before the Cup cars make their way there.  In 1956, Curtis Turner would beat Joe Weatherly.  In 1957, Turner would win again, also beating Weatherly again.  Since the baseball park was near a residential area, eventually home owners complained.  A bunch formed the "Citizen's Anti-Racing Group", and complained based on the facts that, "The peace and quiet of our neighborhood has been shattered and disrupted by the roar of the motors, squealing of tires, back-firing, the noise from collisions, loud-speakers, etc.," they wrote.  "Rest, relaxation and sleep are impossible".  Happily for the neighbors, the track was relatively short-lived, with baseball returning for the 1959 season.

 

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