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NPS Form 10.900 -a
<br />OMB Approval No. 1024 -001 a
<br />(8 -86)
<br />United States Department of the Interior
<br />National Park Service
<br />National Register of Historic Places
<br />Continuation Sheet
<br />Section number 8 Page 9
<br />Occoneechee Speedway
<br />Orange County, N.C.
<br />design standards. Drivers from coast to coast were following an array of rules on tracks of
<br />varying size, quality, layout and surface.3
<br />The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the body that organized races
<br />at Occoneechee, grew from racing events held in the 1920s and 1930s on the long flat beaches of
<br />Daytona Beach, Florida. Tourists came to the beach to watch the races, but when, in the mid -
<br />1930s, cars began to reach speeds that made the beach an unsuitable surface, local officials were
<br />faced with the prospect of losing the racing tourist. To keep race fans coming to town, the
<br />chamber of commerce decided to organize a race. In 1936, a 3.2 -mile course was laid out
<br />incorporating the beach and the highway beside it. The event was a disaster. Cars got stuck in the
<br />sand and rolled over in ruts and the incoming tide cut the 250 -mile race short. Spectators easily
<br />watched the race without paying for tickets. It took four days for officials to declare a much -
<br />disputed winner. Another race failed the next year. In 1938, the chamber of commerce tried
<br />again, this time inviting local service station owner and sometime racer Bill France Sr. to be the
<br />promoter. France attracted a large crowd, sold tickets at fifty -cents apiece and kept close tabs on
<br />the laps completed by each driver to reduce controversy over the winner.4
<br />Meanwhile, both formal and informal races continued in the South, as did the real -life races
<br />between revenuers and trippers. Race organizers, drivers and mechanics were generally an
<br />uneducated lot and the organizers in particular, could be unscrupulous, ignoring safety concerns
<br />and track maintenance while failing to pay prizes.s Of drivers and mechanics, historian Pete
<br />Daniel writes that despite their lack of education and manners, they "were proud, many were
<br />extremely resourceful and some were brilliant. They intimidated competitors, abused their
<br />automobiles (and those of rental companies), drank both on and off the track, flirted with
<br />women, fornicated-and fought over any slight. ,6
<br />Bill France Sr., the Daytona Beach mechanic who had efficiently organized that town's 1938
<br />race, wanted to bring order to the broader, chaotic, racing world. William Henry Getty (Bill)
<br />France was one of the most influential figures associated with organized stock car racing in the
<br />United States. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1909, France became interested in racing in the mid -
<br />and late -1920s when he attended board track races in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C. and New
<br />3 Mike Calinoff, "NASCAR: The Beginning," Decades of Racing, May 5, 2001 < http: / /decadesofracina,net >.
<br />4Matt McLaughlin, "In the Beginning...," Fifty Years of NASCAR Racing, SpeedFX.com, December 18, 2000,
<br />< www.speedfx.com /history /121 1 beginning shtma.
<br />5 Daniel, 96 -97.
<br />6 Ibid., 97.
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