Carolina Beach Speedway

[DoubleZero]

With a little imagination, the faint outline of the old Carolina Beach Speedway can be seen in this 1993 aerial. The track was located on US 421 south of Wilmington, near Snow's cut bridge; The Cape Golf Club graces the site today. CBS was a low-banked 1/2 mile dirt speedway with a grand old live-oak gracing the infield pit area. The speedway opened in 1964 with hobby-stock claim events and demolition derbys. CBS was wildly popular and played host to thousands of fan on those Sunday afternoons 40 years ago, but the opening of nereby Leland Raceway in 1967 was the curtain-call for the Carolina Beach Speedway.

[djSNUFFY]

I found what looks like a 1/2m ghost in the southern edge of that terraserver image. You can see it good on google or yahoo maps. :horsey:

[Swamper]

Hey Double Zero , See what you can find on a few drivers /Owners for me . 1st. John Dave Morris (60's & 70's) & Jerry (Rabbit) Paxton . Same era. Both raced at Starlite Motor Speedway Monroe N.C. And Lancaster Motor Speedway S.C. These are my 1st cousins. Rabbit's son, Chad (#16 SLM) now races at Lancaster. I've looked at all the basic site archives can't find much history. Good Luck in 2009 Boogity Boogity Boogity Go Team OO

[DoubleZero]

djSNUFFY, not sure that yahoo map image is correct for Carolina Beach, the old track was closer to 421 than this particular image, but it is in the right location.

[djSNUFFY]

Well closer to 421 is further from the golf course. I guess I need to make a trip to Wilmington to look for old topo maps.

[Scrambler304]

You talking about having a track close to home. That location djSNUFFY showed is about a mile from the house. I'll have to check it out. lol

[team0]

You talking about having a track close to home. That location djSNUFFY showed is about a mile from the house. I'll have to check it out. lol
Scrambler is this close to pilots ridge???

[DoubleZero]

TZ, pilot's ridge is that airport community, right? CBS was further south, it was very near the Intracoastal waterway (Snow's cut) bridge to Carolina Beach. And it was right beside US 421, there was a parking area, and a large wood/tin building that racers would use for an impromptu garage on the site and out in that parking lot. I'm sure no evidence remains today, as the site was swallowed by the development of the Cape Golf Club..... blah blah blah.

The good news: the "Wilmington Star News" covered the action at CBS pretty closely and microfilms of past editions are readily available, and the owners of the speedway kept a rather detailed scrapbook, which they recently loaned (me) and it's now preserved on CD.

[djSNUFFY]

Thats a Roger on Pilots Ridge

[DoubleZero]

The Carolina Beach Speedway is very well defined in this 1970 topograpic map, even the old building in the parking lot is evident.

[djSNUFFY]

The Carolina Beach Speedway is very well defined in this 1970 topograpic map, even the old building in the parking lot is evident.

Where did you find that topo??

[djSNUFFY]

I found one and did an overlay then ploted the track. This is as close as I can get it. Can't get a tile to overlay larger that the one you had. I scaled over from Burnett Rd to pin the southern edge and held 421 for alignment. :DJ:

[DoubleZero]

Terraserver

[Scrambler304]

Went looking around a little this past weekend for Carolina Beach Speedway. I couldn't find anything or anyone who could tell me were it had been exactly. Most everyone did say it was were the Cape is now and that there was nothing left to see. In talking with people who had been their, it must have been a real wild track. I mean it sounds like they ran in the sand and when a car caught a rut, it was gone. Still doing some more checking. I'll let you know.

[dylan]

sounds good simon

[team0]

Went looking around a little this past weekend for Carolina Beach Speedway. I couldn't find anything or anyone who could tell me were it had been exactly. Most everyone did say it was were the Cape is now and that there was nothing left to see. In talking with people who had been their, it must have been a real wild track. I mean it sounds like they ran in the sand and when a car caught a rut, it was gone. Still doing some more checking. I'll let you know.Scrambler they even had a big tree in the infeild near the 3-4 turns!

[DoubleZero]

Yep, the old track is on the present site of the Cape Golf Course. Unless you actually witnessed the Carolina Beach Speedway, you don't really have a mental concept of a "bad" track. LOL!! The track surface was reddish-brown sand......foot-deep ruts, junked cars for a 'retaining wall' and the big live-oak in the infield.........here's a couple shots showing the old oak.......and the "wall"

[Scrambler304]

Look at the stands in that last photo. Looks like the place was packed.

[DoubleZero]

Carolina Beach was PACKED, thousands flocked on Sunday afternon to watch the action.

[CWilliams32]

Bobby, is there anyway i can get a copy some of those pics to put on my wall in the shop?? I'm willing to pay for copies obviously. My dad raced there back in the day, and we have some old pics from some tracks and would like to have some of those from Carolina Beach Speedway to add to the collection. Let me know if you can help me. Thanks.

Corky Williams

[mod90fan]

thats what racing is all about, nothing fancy, just flat out racing an the fans will follow.!!

if i owned a few acres...... i belive a sunday after church strictly stock race on a make shift track would draw in the crowd an racers........ old school style.

[DoubleZero]

Mod90, hold that thought, I'm with ya!

[RATmotorsports]

Great picures, thanks for sharing them. I am from the Greenville SC area and love Carolina Beach. I never knew there was a track there.

[BillyW]

I just noticed the 2 3/4 hp painted on the fender of the 21...lol... to funny....

Billy

[DoubleZero]

1966 aerial photos of Carolina Beach Speedway showing its location and poximity to Carolina Beach Inlet

[djSNUFFY]

GREAT FIND!!!!!:BustinAss::BustinAss::DJ::BustinAss::Bus tinAss: