Broadslab Speedway

[DoubleZero]

It's 'new' to me, but there was a track from back in the day.................Broadslab Speedway. According to the experts, Broadslab was on the grounds of the present-day Dunn-Benson drag strip. Broadslab featured the modified division on Sunday afternoons back in the mid '60's.

Jim (cape, old 92)'s Earl Moss video was taken at Broadslab!

[old92]

It's 'new' to me, but there was a track from back in the day.................Broadslab Speedway. According to the experts, Broadslab was on the grounds of the present-day Dunn-Benson drag strip. Broadslab featured the modified division on Sunday afternoons back in the mid '60's.

Jim (cape, old 92)'s Earl Moss video was taken at Broadsalb!

I have never heard of that one. I will ask around and see what I can find out. I know a man who raced back in the 50's & 60's. Back in the 60's I went to Asbury, Rainbow, 311, and Bowman Gray.

[capefear01]

Bobby
How did you find out it was broadslab?

[L8models]

I'm familiar with this track, although I never knew it was called the "Broadslab Speedway". Last summer their were rumors of the drag strip owner and others opening this track back up. I guess people seen the heavy machinery out there clearing land and logging the woods around the track and jumped the gun so to speak. They were actually making more room for parking and extending the shut down area at the end of the drag strip. I rode out there last summer and seen the old dirt track, what a sight to see. It was a tad smaller than Wayne County and had about the same amount of banking as Hammerdown Speedway. But it's gone now, it was leveled and being parked on as we speak.

[DoubleZero]

Jim, watch the Earl Moss video. The first car that is focused upon is the Z-1 of New Bern, NC's Charles Laughighouse and usually driven by Ralph Rose of Norfolk, Va. Mr. Laughinghouse and his racing partner, Joe Alcoke were at Occoneechee and on stage. Mr. Charles was the one that kept saying he was "deaf, dumb and blind........".

The film then switches to Earl Moss and his #300 coupe, as Earl seems to be moving through the field (that happened a lot!). Also, shown is the mystery #8, a '57 Chevy that is featured on Jack Walker's site (carolina race place) that was sometimes driven at Rambi by Florida driver, Larry Flynn. Jack thinks the #8 was a "Hickory" (NC) car and was driven by several different drivers.

I'm pretty sure the red #81 Ford coupe, with flaming engine, near the end of the film, is Florence, SC's Junior Johnson. This was a Rambi car, too. Very close to the flaming engine scene is a shot of (Raleigh, NC) Dick Menenhall's "black jack special" #21A '37 Ford coach pitted near the track's concession stand. Dick was a Rambi competitor, too, and Jack has a couple of shots of his car on his site. There is a (Coca-Cola sponsored) sign on the concession stand that names the track, but the camera went so quickly that all I could make out was (something) "SLAP" or "CLAP" Speedway. Jack could not identify it either, but based on the cars that we could identify, we deduced that the speedway was some where in the eastern/coastal area of North Carolina.

On Saturday, at Occoneechee, with the information that we had, Mrs. Margaret Moss-Cooper and Hank Thomas were both able to pin-point the mystery track as Benson, NC's "Broadslab Speedway". Hank said that it was on the same site as the present-day Dunn-Benson Dragstrip. All the evidence supports this conclusion, as the Raleigh area cars weren't that far from home, Earl was from Creedmoor, and Junior Johnson could have easliy traveled I95/301 from Florence, SC to Benson.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it! LOL! BROADSLAB SPEEDWAY, REVEALED!

[capefear01]

Well that's one mystery solved, I'll relay this to mod90fan, he's been curious about what you thought of the clip. I am going to replay that dvd with the information you provided, it makes watching the clip all the more interesting. Thanks 00!
I was browsing Carolina Race Place last night and came across a Carl Burris photo standing with his 1937-38 (?) Chevy Sedan. I have 2 photos of Carl Burris from Leaksville, NC but both photos are of 39 Ford Coupes. I've had a fascination with Burris ever since I picked up the first photo of him with his wife and sons next to his car. Now that I've found he drove a Chevy Sedan at the 1959 Daytona Sportsman race I'm leaning towards painting the xxx in the Burris paint scheme. I googled Carl Burris last night and found his grandson lives in Florida racing this mini-nascar type kart. I emailed him with my intentions hoping that he can help locate some more photos of the Sedan. Mod90fan paints cars on the side and does a pretty good job so this winter I'm gonna have it painted. Ah, you could say ol' Jacko gave me a little nudge Saturday to get rid of the xXx and maybe that's what I needed but when I saw the Burris car he drove at Daytona well, it felt right. Here's a little project I did of Burris' Ford Coupe.

[capefear01]

Here's the project...

[Kenny]

Hi there cape,you to 00! Cape,where did you get the lil dicast 40 coupe? And did you paint the flag and #12 on the car yourself? That's neat!!!

[mod90fan]

glad you liked the video...well dvd of the old home movie. Any info on the second clip, the bonus footage? and what year did you say the broadslab speedway movie was taken?

[capefear01]

Hi there cape,you to 00! Cape,where did you get the lil dicast 40 coupe? And did you paint the flag and #12 on the car yourself? That's neat!!!

LOL! Your funny Kenny. Sure, I got a tiny paint brush and spent my entire summer painting the NC flag. LOL!
It's an ERTL modified 1/24 diecast. I disassemble, sanded, painted, decaled and clear-coted. I bought the car AND the decals on ebay. You can buy anything on E B A Y.

Here's a few more if you think that one's neat. I use to do this with spare time but SPARE time is hard to come by nowadays.

[DoubleZero]

glad you liked the video...well dvd of the old home movie. Any info on the second clip, the bonus footage? and what year did you say the broadslab speedway movie was taken?


mod90fan, There's a 1963 chevy (street) Impala shown in the Broadslab clip, so that establishes a reference...........Earl Moss, Ralph Rose, Junior Johnson, and Dick Mendenhall were all racing these particular cars from 1963-'65 (possibly). In 1964, the "eastern" late model (1955-57 chevys and fords) division really began gaining momentum, and by that time, the old pre-war coupes were becoming increasingly rare. NASCAR had been advocating the LATE model sportsman concept since 1962, but with limited success. I wouldn't date the Broadslab race much later than the mid-60's.

I haven't studied the clip II as much yet, but so far, I haven't seen many tell-tale signs of where it might be. Do you have any more videos?

[DoubleZero]

Hi there cape,you to 00! Cape,where did you get the lil dicast 40 coupe? And did you paint the flag and #12 on the car yourself? That's neat!!!


Hey Kenny, didn't see you the rest of the day at Occoneechee. What did you think of the show?

[mod90fan]

i guess i got about maybe 5-6 hours of old 8mm home movie race footage,all private home movie not commercial. Not all is of the dirt tracks, it goes back to the beach at Tona, to various dirt tracks from the 50-70's..mostly 60's with the coupes. Alotta 1965/66 nascar at darlington an charlotte maybe 1.75 hours worth.......i sent about 6 minutes of footage to the orange speedway group from the 1963 race. I got some of the big sportsman wreck in 1959 at daytona. Pretty much anything, Foyt on dirt in the big cageless sprints...... etc etc. History.

[DoubleZero]

Mod90, as it turns out, Jack Walker had a news clipping from Broadslab and it appears that your Broadslab video and Jack's clipping are one and the same. The race was a NASCAR sanctioned modified event. It was the first and may have been the last sanctioned event at the track. It was won by Virginian Eddie Crouse. Earl Moss finished 9th, and the flaming #81 coupe was driven by Russell Blackmon (Blackmon frequently drove for Junior Johnson and was from Florence, SC also). Broadslab's owner was Dallas Parker who also was a race car owner.

[DoubleZero]

Could this be the footprint of Broadslab Speedway? It's near the end of the D-B Dragstrip.

[DoubleZero]

1998 Terraserver photo clearly shows Broadslab's footprint, adjacent to the drag strip

[drdirt41]

It definitely is the old track Dallas Parker carved out just to the right of his dragstrip. I worked for the Coke co. in Dunn after school back in 77-78 and did some signs for the strip and couldnt help noticing the old track as I hung the signs on the dragstrip fences. It had long since been closed in 78 but was still in fair shape and was cool to explore.
I dont think the track had a very long history.