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History

"Drivers from across Virginia and the US have been turning left at Big Daddy’s South Boston Speedway for more than 45 years. As the track approaches the half-century mark, the history of the Halifax County speedway has proven just as legendary as the legions of drivers who have raced there. South Boston Speedway opened in August 1957 as a quarter-mile dirt track by its original co-owners Buck Wilkins and the late Dave Blount. When the track held its first race on August 10, 1957, there were bleacher seats for 1,000 fans, a far cry from today’s estimated capacity at well over 8,000. The track was lighted by banks of lights perched atop 16 poles that were erected at various points around the track. A Halifax County resident, Jimmy Holland of Republican Grove, won the track's first Sportsman Division race in a car owned by Buddy Ferrell, Harvey Alderson and Paul Tingen. South Boston became NASCAR sanctioned in 1960, with the track holding its first NASCAR sanctioned race, a 50-lap modified show in 1960. Johnny Roberts of Baltimore, MD, won that race, collecting $500 for his effort. The 1960 season also brought the track's first ever NASCAR Grand National (now NASCAR Winston Cup Series) race. Junior Johnson won that race held after surviving a hard-fought side-by-side battle with Ned Jarrett that lasted for 108 laps before Jarrett's engine blew. After the 1972 season, South Boston dropped out of the NASCAR fold, and in 1973 began to run NASCAR-type Late Model Sportsman races utilizing NASCAR rules. While the track ran as an independent through the 1976 season, many of the nation's top NASCAR drivers continued to come to South Boston to compete in special events. "

Information

"Founded more than 50 years ago, NASCAR has become one of the hottest spectator sports in the world. In the years following World War II, stock car racing began to grow. Bill France Sr. promoted racing events on the famous beach course at Daytona Beach, FL. France saw the sport needed organizing and so started the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing in 1947. Under the direction of Bill France Sr. and later his son, Bill France Jr., NASCAR has become the fastest growing spectator sport in the 1990s. The first NASCAR-sanctioned race was held on the beach/road course at Daytona in February 1948. The following year NASCAR began the ""Strictly Stock"" division, which has become the racing division of NASCAR, known today as the Winston Cup Series. The first ""Strictly Stock"" event featured a $5,000 purse and was held on a two-mile circular course in southern Florida followed by a 150-mile race at the three-quarter-mile Charlotte Speedway. Eight ""Strictly Stock"" events in all were held in 1949. In 1950, the first NASCAR event on the newly constructed Darlington International Speedway in South Carolina was held. This banked, paved track had 75 cars take the green flag for the 500-mile race. In 1954, France announced plans to construct a 2.5-mile high-banked speedway in Daytona Beach, headquarters of NASCAR. Construction started November 1957, and the track was completed in 1959. Throughout the 60s and 1970s, interest in NASCAR continued to grow. Richard Petty, son of the first Daytona 500 winner, won the first of his seven Winston Cup championships in 1964. "