Back in 2023, I believe I literally stepped into a Bruce Springsteen song.
Herbert Cates' No. 44, 1940 Chevrolet Coupe Super Deluxe.
I drove out to Hillsborough, North Carolina, to photograph the Historic Occoneechee Speedway Trail. What I found was much more than an old racetrack. It was a walk back into the history of American stock car racing.
The story begins with a half-mile horse racing track built by tobacco magnate Julian S. Carr on his Occoneechee Farms property. In the late 1940s, NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. spotted the old track and surrounding land while flying over the area. He recognized its potential, acquired the property with several partners, and transformed it into a one-mile dirt oval.
Occoneechee Speedway opened in June 1948 and became one of NASCAR's earliest racing venues. It hosted the third race of NASCAR's inaugural Strictly Stock season in 1949, attracting some of the biggest names in early stock car racing, including Fireball Roberts, Lee Petty, Richard Petty, Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson.
The track operated under the Occoneechee name until 1954, when it became known as Orange Speedway. After two decades of racing, it closed in September 1968, with Richard Petty winning the final race.
Today, it's a remarkable piece of American motorsports history. The overgrown clay oval, original grandstands and surrounding grounds have been preserved as a walking trail. It's also the only surviving dirt speedway from NASCAR's inaugural 1949 season.
As I walked around the track, I came across a list of past race winners. One name immediately jumped out at me: Junior Johnson.
On March 10, 1963, Johnson won a race here, driving his 1963 Chevrolet in front of thousands of spectators. And almost instinctively, I started singing a verse from Bruce Springsteen's Cadillac Ranch:
"James Dean in that Mercury '49, Junior Johnson runnin' through the woods of Caroline..."
And suddenly, the hair went up on the back of my neck.
There I was, standing on the very kind of North Carolina dirt track that Springsteen immortalized in one of my favorite songs. I couldn't help wondering whether this might actually be the place he'd had in mind when he wrote those lyrics.
Four years into my North Carolina chapter, this was one of those unexpected moments when photography, music and history all came together. Definitely one for my personal history books!
📸 July 25, 2023