MEMPHIS - ARKANSAS SPEEDWAY - LEHI AR
Memphis-Arkansas Speedway was the pride of three local owner-promoters: Clarence Camp, Nathaniel Epstein, and Harold Woolridge. The ambitious track layout, a full 1.5 miles in length, consisted of two 2500-ft. straights connected at each end by two sweeping turns of roughly 550 ft. radius. The track’s unusually high banking in the corners was formed by excavating the dirt behind the turns to form tall embankments, which created two small lakes, one outside each end of the oval. A large grandstand on the front stretch reportedly seated 15,000 spectators. The debut event in ’54 was a 250-mile Cup race won by the Oldsmobile of Buck Baker, who put five laps on Dick Rathmann’s Hudson in second. The field consisted of 52
cars, and Baker took home a princely $10,959 for his efforts. A pair of Cup events were held in 1955, with Fonty Flock and Speedy Thompson each scoring a victory. In 1956, when the Cup stars rolled into town, it would see Ralph Moody work his way up from his 23rd starting position and take the lead away from Jim Paschal with just 15 laps remaining. Moody would go on to win and Paschal second. 1956's race was a tragic event. Cling McHugh was trying to qualify for the race. He was killed on the 3rd turn after his car hurtled the embankment and landed upside down in a small lake next to the track. Thomas "Cotton" Priddy, was the second death. His crash came on the first turn when the car became airborne. Priddy's seat belt broke and he was thrown out.
With the dust of the dirt track he was run over by several driver and died 14 minutes after being admitted to the hospital. Priddy and his wife were traveling with the McHughs and staying at the same hotel. Priddy, noted that McHugh had room #13 before his death and said, "I'm sure glad I didn't have that room number." The speedway hosted NASCAR Modified and Convertible Division races as well. The convertibles would see Curtis Turner come and dominate the race; winning by three laps over Joe Weatherly. The final Cup event on the big dirt oval on July 14, 1957 was won by Marvin Panch, driving a new Pontiac owned by Herb Thomas. Panch was waiting in the wings and would step in and take the win, leading the final nine laps after Jack Smith saw his powerplant go up in smoke. A crowd of 9,500 spectators came out to witness the event, but by the half-way point of the race, more than half of the crowd left the premises as the blinding dust raised by the cars made viewing impossible and breathing most uncomfortable. Two caution flags flew for a total of 56 MINUTES for no other reason than to wet the track in an effort to keep the dust down. In its four short years of operation, the big, fast Arkansas speedway developed a reputation for being both scary and treacherous. In
one bizarre crash, future Daytona 500 winner Tiny Lund was thrown from his ’55 Chevy (ironically sponsored by a seat-belt supplier) out onto the track, but he escaped with a badly broken arm. Promoters Camp, Woolridge, and Epstein had hoped all along to pave the track surface, but unfortunately, they never managed to secure the $100,000 required to perform the improvement. The track was closed before the start of the 1958 season and the land was sold to a local farmer for agricultural use, its role to this day. The outline of the oval is still clearly visible in satellite images, along with the two large ponds on the ends. The former race track is located near the present Interstate 40 about two miles west of little LeHi, Arkansas, and 20 miles west of downtown Memphis, Tennessee.
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