Asheville Motor Speedway "Hallow Ground-On The RIVER"...R.I.P

[STEVE FRENCH]

http://www.citizen-times.com/article...ORTS/309240048

I was witness to this event and was stand'n just to the left of the Memorial/(headstone) in the pic in the link above......couldn't help but shed a tear as local racers,family members,fans, owners, and promoters spoke about their former friend and family.....Asheville Motor Speedway.

Richard Petty and many other big time early Nascar drivers got their start here and other local tracks....

They had one of the former race cars on display and I got to talk to Jack Ingram (car owner) and asked if they couldn't still run mufflers or quieter class cars like quarter midgets or legend cars?
"Nope..It was not a noise issue...local politics don't want us....."
Then he was called over for more group photos but I could tell he wanted to talk/vent more as I walked away....
The next day I went to look around some more and there was another former racer there checking out the memorial and told me it hurt so much that he could not attend the event the day before.....He also told me it was not noise because they ran mufflers for several years. He also told me he worked for the city and remembered how much business this track brought in to the community .
He then looked at the track, Shook his head and said; "Man, I gott'a go"..... "Come on up ta Hickory Speedway next year ta see my team run there sometime....."

http://www.citizen-times.com/article...cing-tradition

The facility is still nearly turn key ready for racing even 11 years after the roar of the last car went silent.
The paved track is now a bicycle path/course and the in-field/pits are a multi-use play ground. The concession stands are still there and stand carefully boarded up in quiet silence next to the memorial marker unveiled today.......
You could easily race here next weekend!....That's how complete this still painted and maintained facility is!

Asheville is try'n to promote the local arts district and build tourism around the Biltmore estate.
Personally after two months of work'n right in the middle of it all , all I see as an outsider, is a depressed run down town struggling to survive on it's history and it's not work'n......
Yet you drive 1-2 hours North to Bristol, Tenn. where the town embraces Bristol Motor speedway, and the area is booming!!!!!

Asheville Motor Speedway is next to a small river on the South end of town in Asheville, North Carolina and has a feel very similar to Lock Haven, Pa.

Be very thankful boat racers.............. for every race site we have!

[STEVE FRENCH]

Added some pics from today after work....10/05/2010

[STEVE FRENCH]

Some more

[beshears]

Thanks or your posting on Asheville Motor Speedway. I actually grew up in North Carolina watching races at Hickory Motor Speedway and Wilkesboro Motor Speedway. My Dad was from North Wilkesboro, we are related to the Johnson family there. It's so sad to see those old Speedways fade away. Thanks again Steve Beshears

[STEVE FRENCH]

Thanks or your posting on Asheville Motor Speedway. I actually grew up in North Carolina watching races at Hickory Motor Speedway and Wilkesboro Motor Speedway. My Dad was from North Wilkesboro, we are related to the Johnson family there. It's so sad to see those old Speedways fade away. Thanks again Steve Beshears

Steve Beshears,
As in ......"Junior Johnson"..(????)...Saw were he still welcomes fans for breckfast?

[beshears]

Yeap you got it buddy, Benny Parson as well. Benny is gone but his wife still maintains the winery in Wilkes county. I can tell you a ton of stories about growing up in that area. Moonshine running and racing go together there.

[STEVE FRENCH]

Yeap you got it buddy, Benny Parson as well. Benny is gone but his wife still maintains the winery in Wilkes county. I can tell you a ton of stories about growing up in that area. Moonshine running and racing go together there.

Very cool!!
Perhaps an omelet at JJ's or a wine tour at Parson's vineyard could be arranged...?

Thanks for your reply........Race history is very interest'n and worth documenting?

Hope you get a chance to see the memorial at Asheville Speedway soon. It has been predicted by locals that vandals will have their way with it soon.

One of the former photographers from the track has a photo book collection avail....will check and post contact info.....soon

In race'n Brotherhood........100N/Steve

[Wayne mtl qc]

Center of the track????????

Steve looking at the pics it looks like a hockey rink on the inside of the track , what is it ? or am I just being Canadian

[Bill Huson]

Hockey or skating rink . . .

Steve looking at the pics it looks like a hockey rink on the inside of the track , what is it ? or am I just being Canadian

There was an ice skating rink in Asheville circa mid `60s. Perfect for skate-dates since I could skate (yes - hockey) and most of my dates were newbies that required a lot of hands on support.

[STEVE FRENCH]

Good Eye!

"The facility is still nearly turn key ready for racing even 11 years after the roar of the last car went silent.
The paved track is now a bicycle path/course and the in-field/pits are a multi-use play ground. The concession stands are still there and stand carefully boarded up in quiet silence next to the memorial marker unveiled today.......
You could easily race here next weekend!....That's how complete this still painted and maintained facility is!"


The way I.....understand,...The local Biltmore estate built a new motel in the early 90's and did not want the race track near them...... anymore?
So, they made contact with the owner of the track and a purchase price was consumated at the same time he was set'n up the next season's class rules............Many racers were build'n new cars to his specs..........

...........In the end, the track was consumed by Biltmore Estate and donated as a park to ......the City of Asheville.

Quote below from; http://www.citizen-times.com/article...cing-tradition


The last checkered flag dropped in September of that year.
“It was a dirty deal, and everybody knows it was dirty, the way it was handled,” said Ingram. “Asheville Speedway created a huge racing industry in WNC, and it fell by the wayside because of this.”
A study of the '99 racing season at AMS revealed an economic impact of more than $2.2 million for a six-month season. The city closed down the county's largest, most successful and longest-running sports entertainment venue in the area.
That was more than a decade ago, and even some of the most diehard of fans don't believe racing will ever return to Buncombe County.
“I certainly hope it will, but realistically I don't think it will ever happen unless the powers that be want it, and they don't seem to want it,” said Ingram.
“They are the ones that killed it, and they are going to keep it dead.”
“It was a wonderful piece of community that was lost. People went to the track every week and sat in the same place like a church pew,” said Dan Pierce, a history professor at UNC Asheville and author of ‘Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay and Big Bill France.'
“It was so steeped in peoples' lives and culture, but once something like that goes away, it's really hard to get back. I think a lot of people would really want racing in Buncombe County, but not in their neighborhood.”

End quote.


"Be very thankful boat racers.............. for every race site we have!"

100N/Steve French