Columbus County Drag Strip (Chadbourn)
Nothing leftNothing left No longer racing, and nothing of the track remains.
Also known as Columbus County Speedway
- Built around Super Stock racing
- Ronald Lyles in a Sox & Martin Duster met Roy Hill in a Petty Enterprises Plymouth in 1973
- Raced
- 1963-ca. 1974?
- State
- North Carolina
- What's left
- The site was never redeveloped, but every trace of the strip has been removed.
- Raced on
- Built as a drag strip
- First race
- possibly June 30, 1963
- Last race
- 1974 (last documented)
- Location
- State Highway 130 between US 74 and US 76, just east of Juniper Creek, 1.5 miles east of Chadbourn
- People
- L.C. Garrell, builder (1963)
- Elevation
- 84 ft (26 m)
- Coordinates
- 34.33556, -78.77426
L.C. Garrell built this strip on State Highway 130 between US 74 and US 76, just east of Juniper Creek and 1.5 miles east of Chadbourn. News stories usually placed it near Whiteville, but Chadbourn was closer. It was ready in June 1963, and the first race may have been June 30. Super Stock was its focus. On February 6, 1966, it staged a match race among Dock Wilson’s Corvair wagon, Milton Bullard’s Plymouth Hemi and Jimmy Boyd’s Plymouth Hemi-Hercules. Carlton Foley of Lumberton won on Sunday, November 27, 1966 in his ‘67 Chevelle, and Richard Wright of Norfolk, Virginia, set a strip record of 9.17 at 164 MPH in his fuel-injected ‘65 Chevy II on August 6, 1967. By 1968 ads and articles called it Columbus County Speedway, and Bill Wright won in his Ford Torino GT fastback on July 28 that year. A pro stock match race on Sunday, August 19, 1973 pitted Ronald “Rapid” Lyles in a Sox & Martin Duster against Roy Hill in a Petty Enterprises Plymouth. The last race found was in 1974, though racing may have continued.
