Long straights, famed curves all part of old track's lore

It generally takes a fine touch to drive on any NASCAR track.

This was especially true at Occoneechee Speedway, a nine-tenths-mile dirt oval near Hillsborough, N.C., that was part of the sanctioning body’s major tour from 1949 through 1968.

   “You’d go so fast on the long straightaways that you’d have to pitch your car  practically sideways in the turns to scrub off speed so you could make it through the corners,” legendary driver Junior Johnson recalled this week.

“I’d say Buck Baker, Curtis Turner, Ned Jarrett,  Lee and  Richard Petty and myself were the best at doing this.”

The six, not coincidentally, all are members of numerous motorsports halls of fame, as are other winners at the layout, which also was sometimes known as Orange Speedway.

The old Occoneechee track comes to mind because some stock car racing fans have organized and are in the process of restoring it.  Not for racing, but as a link to the sport’s past.

The organization working at Occoneechee is named the Historic Speedway Group.  So far its work has led to restoration of the original ticket office and fencing.  Grading of the track has begun.

“I sure wish them luck and I’ll help when I can,” said Johnson.  “There was some terrific racing there.  It will be great if present-day fans, who know only the superspeedways with the big, high grandstands, can see a place like that.

  “When I was racing in the late 1950s and early '60s it was among my favorite tracks.  I really enjoyed it because of the speed and because you had to know how to handle down-shifting.

   “This was right up my alley.  I had a lot of experience in this from my days (and nights) of hauling moonshine whiskey.”

Bob Flock won NASCAR’s first race at Occoneechee on Aug. 7, 1949.  It was only the third race of the organization’s first season.

Through the following years the victors at the speedway in races promoted by NASCAR founder Big Bill France and his associate Enoch Staley of North Wilkesboro Speedway included these pioneer drivers:

   Fireball Roberts, Fonty Flock, Herb Thomas, Tim Flock, Jim Paschal, Joe Eubanks, Cotton Owens, Joe Weatherly, Rex White, David Pearson, Ned Jarrett, Turner, Johnson, Baker, both Pettys  and Dick Hutcherson.

   All are in the National Motorsports Press Association’s hall of fame except Eubanks and Hutcherson – and “Hutch” should be.

   Johnson chuckled.

   “I remember seeing several guys go out of that track, which I never have learned to pronounce right.

   “The trouble those drivers had is sort of amusing now, ‘cause I don’t remember any of them being badly hurt.

   “One of ‘em who took himself a ‘ride’ was Bobby Isaac.  He went out of the park when Ned won there (in September of 1964).  Best I recall Bobby’s car wound up tangled in the tops of some trees off the third turn.

   “Going out of the track in the second turn was a scarier deal.  There was a good-sized stream not far from the turn.  We always had in mind there was a possibility of going into the water.”

   Almost certainly the most memorable triumph in Occoneechee’s history was Johnson’s victory on March 10, 1963.

   Driving a white No. 3 Chevrolet he made famous that year, Johnson held off a late challenge by Paschal, who was in a Petty Enterprises Plymouth.

   Waiting to accompany  Junior to Victory Lane was Jayne Mansfield, a blonde, bosomy Hollywood actress. France, Staley and Hank Schoolfield, who helped out with promotions,  had brought her to Hillsborough as the race’s grand marshal.  The three figured Mansfield  would generate plenty of publicity and help draw a big crowd.

   Her presence worked.  An estimated 15,000 showed up.  Many of them came just to see the Marilyn Monroe look-a-like, not the 168-lap, 148.5-mile race.

   “A lot of the fans got pretty well intoxicated during the race, and they were determined to get close to Jayne Mansfield,” continued Johnson.  “It turned into one of the wildest post-race things I saw in all my years in racing.

   “Some guys were tearing at her clothes.  I had to hold her little boy so she could protect herself.  Finally enough lawmen got there to restore order.”

   Johnson won seven races in that white Chevy in ’63.  The  car now is parked in a prominent position in the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh.

   Ms. Mansfield, the mother of present-day television’s superstar Mariska Hargitay, lost her life on June 29, 1967, in a car wreck in Mississippi.

   “She (Mansfield) was very nice, like most of the movie and TV stars that Charlotte Motor Speedway, Darlington and Daytona were bringing in for races in the 1960s and ‘70s,” said Johnson.  “It was fun meeting her, and I was shocked and saddened when she died.”

   Jayne Mansfield’s visit is part of Occoneechee Speedway’s rich lore.

  Maybe a photo of her smooching a beaming Johnson will be among the pictures from the track’s glory years that eventually will be put on display as part of the restoration, taking  visitors back to a colorful NASCAR era.