Fading Thunder...Abandoned Racetracks in Virginia and the Carolinas

I have this book, It's Great!

 

i just found a cool website called carolina raceplace.com. its got a lot of really great photos from the old tracks of the south.

 

one example.

 

Terrific website.

Here's another one:

http://www.webprosolutions.com/ghosts/tracks.php

 

I learned a lot about N. Wilkesboro in my human geography class, because he was obsessed with racing. He wrote this deal, which we had to read and were tested on ahah

 

i've got this for sale, if anyone is interested. last raced in the late 70's. shortened 55 chevy chassis.pm me for more info.

 

I love that chapter title, "NASCAR Outgrows Its Roots." That's what this thread is really about. Thanks for posting.

 

Motorcycle racing circa 1974 inside Dorton Arena at the NC State Fairgrounds in Raleigh. Holy smokes, how did this go unnoticed? I was in Raleigh, but going to school at UNC at the time. Wow.





Dorton Arena was also ground zero for soul music concerts: James Brown, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Moms Mabley all played there.

And Lester Flatt of bluegrass music fame signed my ticket outside the bus one afternoon.

Here's a nice little article about this interesting venue. Very historic place:

http://raleighphilosociety.blogspot.com/2010/06/raleigh-curios-city-dorton-arena.html

The arena is still there, but no more races inside. Gone, gone, gone.

 

Wow, .I am blown away at the amount of info posted hear. So many memory's for me, so many names that had softly faded from my memory. So many others that touched my life long since faded away..As I sit hear and dig into my memory I remember some peoples names that got missed.... Joe Carver promoter, JR.Medcalf racer, Randy Acres builder, Colman Mann racer, H.D. tooley Racer, Frank Hughes Tuner engine builder for Gene Lovelace, Emanuel Zervackus.. altho earler mentioned was a mentor to me in my oval racing days, David Paulette engine builder, Benard Paul racer, Dick Perdue racer, Randy Hutchens racer builder, Jim Crow Jr track champion at Langley in its last year as a dirt track.....As for me I won the first race I entered. I won $300.00 at South Boston for that race. I never won agin for 3 years... Anyway thanks for the memorys of days gone by and sadly almost forgotten. Thanks Pete.... Thanks ever so much.... John Mullen # 87 (55 chevy) Limited sportsman class... Top 5 Mid Atlantic region 1969

 

anyone know any of these people today. I know some have passed on. I don't know about some of the others

 

John, I have been trying to find out something: where did Emmanual Zervackus have his shop here in Richmond? Was it on Hull Street, or somewhere just off Hull Street? Is the building still there? Love to have a picture of that, Mallory Speed Shop, and Hohnes and Eanes.

Lest we forget....

 

Emmanual's shop was behind southside glass shop on hull street. I would be glad to take you there if you like. I havent been there in a long time. I think it was called Stock Car Products in its latter years. they moved to chester up on rt 10. I was told by Dave Haviler they do not exist any more. could show you both locations .just let me know when .... John

 

We need to post up pics of all these old shops while they are still around?mThey are being demolished one by one. We'll schedule a hot rod tour of all the old shops in town. that would ne a fun day when the weather warms up.

 

CORECTION******* EMMANUAL'S SHOP WAS ON US 1 PETTERSBURG TURNPIKE ABOUT 6 BLOCKS SOUTH OF HULL STREET ON THE RIGHT BEHIND SOUTHSIDE GLASS SHOP. .... sorry..John

 

U.S. 1 is the correct location. I used to work down the street at the ER Carpenter plant. Manuel's business was Southside Glass Shop. Geoff Bodine lived there in his motorhome when he drove the "White Tornado" for Emanuel.

John, I particularrly remember HD Tooley at Southside in the Hobby Division and want to say he also was from Lanexa. Od course, you also mentioned one of my favorites, Coleman Mann from Powhatan. Al Grinnan gave his orange #00 Chevelle some wonderful rides. That's the car Al had the gorilla picture painted on the front fender with the name "Sonny" pointing to it for Sonny Hutchins!

 

Dave Fulton??? now that name sounds familiar, were you track stewart at South Side back then.. Did you race ???.Give me some of your background history from the late 60s .... great days back then, man I miss them...John

 

John, I grew up in Richmond... 1966 grad of Thomas Jefferson HS. Never raced... however, did co-own a Limited Sportsman Car in early 70s that raced dirt at Wilson County, Wake County & Chantilly. In 1980 I became Manager of Wrangler NASCAR Special Events and signed Dale Earnhardt to his first personal services contract. I ran the Wrangler racing program through the 1983 season out of Greensboro, NC then moved to Dallas, TX to head up 7-Eleven racing. Later started a Cup team with Derrike Cope out of Campobello, SC and operated a Racing PR/Marketing agency in Charlotte with such clients as Robert Yates.

From 1990-1999 I was Media Relations Director at Richmond International Raceway for Paul Sawyer and wrote all track news releases.

 

News releases BINGO,,, Dave thats why your name sounded so familier. Man what an impresive career history.

 

So Dave and John...besides Emmanual's shop and Hoehnes and Eanes, and Mallory Speed Shop, what other shops and such should we be documenting? I'm concerned that the old landmarks are passing away unnoticed. what other sites come to mind?

Junie's shop, of course. What else?

 

Joe, that's some good additions.

Carter has been around forever. He does run the parts dept. at Paradise Road on Jeff Davis Highway. He's across the street from another modified racer that's been around for a long time, Rusty Wood. Carter has some old Mallory Speed Shop memorabilia that I covet there in the back by his parts desk at Paradise Road. He's seen it all as far as racing in Richmond. Carter was selling parts to the Romans back when they were racing chariots! He said he started selling parts at Mallory way back when.

The Muffler Shop is a terrific suggestion. They are near my house. Easy. I can post that one.

Didn't know about Bradley Motor Co. and the Attache. That's not too far either. The Attache has since moved out Broad Street past Libby Ave. Yes, it was mentioned earlier in this thread, with a picture of Sonny.

Thanks, fellas.

Pete
Richmond, VA

 

Believe Sonny's brother "Piggy" used to run the Attache on Broad across from Bill's. Piggy also boxed and kept a punching bag in the Attache.

Not a racing place, but in addition to The Hut, Sonny once ran the Black Cat Club on Broad across from the old Clover Room near Malvern & Broad behind TeeJay.

 

I've lived in Richmond for more than 30 years, Dave, and never ever heard of The Black Cat Club!!!??? Come on, spill the beans, what was that???!!! I can only imagine....

 

An Google search turned up this info on Black Cat Club. A social club that didn't respond to an IRS inquiry? My kind of guys.

http://non-profit-organizations.findthebest.com/l/677010/Black-Cat-Club-Limited

 

Sonny Hitchins, the man hisself....

 

Pete, Some other people you may want to contact ... I don't remember there names at presant time(sorry I'm getting old) but they had a ran the machine shop in the back of John Dickies now AED on Willis Rd great machinest and engine builders. I know they helped me with some killer engines in the 80s...90s. They did some extensive dyno work for me with a few engines that I built for Trevor falls, A young driver at Langley Speedway. Trevor won track championship with that engine.. Mini Stock Division. Anyway they helped me produce 171 hp out of a pinto engine for that car that at the time was unheard of. They freely gave me information that helped me improve all my engine building skills. John Dickie and Johnny White are great guys who have given so much to the racing community. They each have a ton of information you could use. I won't speak for them but I know they would share what they know. By the way Great photo of Sonny. I wonder where that was takenKeep up the good work .John

 

It was a very popular nightclub on Broad Street in the time period 1966-1967 right next door to the drive-in bank at Malvern & Broad and across the street from the Clover Room and Suter's Furniture and The Mixing Bowl Bakery, on the same side of Broad and just down the street from Aunt Sarah's Pancake House.

Here are just the first few lines of a 2007 story in the Richmond paper telling of the beating and eventual death of a singer at The Black Cat Club:

A gentle and trusting soul, but the trust was betrayed



By: Bill McKelway | Richmond Times Dispatch
Published: December 16, 2007
» 0 Comments | Post a Comment
It was hardly the way anyone would expect the life of Samuel Glass to end, at least not those who knew him in his high-cotton youth.

With his curly black hair and blue eyes, and a sexy-smooth Elvis Presley-like voice, Glass left women swooning at the Black Cat Club on Broad Street 40 years ago.

"He had a beautiful voice, a voice he could have done something with," said a friend from those years.

 

hay fartman, anything new to add...

 

John, as a matter of fact, I do have more....patience, my friend, patience. Don't want to bombard you all at once. But today, let's look at some other abandoned venues. This time, the Richmond Arena.

This Friday marks the return of the Asphalt Angels Car Show, reputed to be one of the oldest indoor shows in the East, if not the oldest. Here's the link to the show:

http://www.asphaltangels.net/information/information.html

Here's a shot of an entrant from 1961:





It's now held at The Showplace, but when I first moved to Richmond, it was held at the Richmond Arena. This pic is of the Arena, circa 1954:





And another:



I ran across this article about the Arena today. Good stuff. Gone, gone, gone. Another venue of car culture bites the dust. It isn't just the racetracks that we are losing. What a shame how much is already gone and it's not coming back.

http://www.midatlanticgateway.com/resourcecenter/venues/richmond/arena/richmond_arena.htm

Pete
Richmond, VA

 

Anybody know the story of Paul Satko and the Richmond, VA-based Amphibian??? From the Hemmings blog:

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2011/08/09/paul-satko-and-his-buick-powered-ark/

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/tag/richmond-virginia/

 

Dave, HD Tooley still lives hear in lanexa. His overall health is not good but he still get around. lived in the same house for 40+ years. he was a logger back in the days when we raced at South Side and did it for quite some time. now retired me raises cows and a home garden, sits in the shade and watches the world go by. he still talks about those days to anyone who will listen