Greenville-Pickens Speedway
ClosedClosed No longer racing, but some of the track is still there.
- Hosted the International Timing Association short track championships on July 16, 1959
- Raced
- 1959
- State
- South Carolina
- What's left
- A good length of the old track surface is still there, in poor to good condition.
- On the site today
- The oval still operates (2015)
- Raced on
- At an oval speedway
- First race
- April 2, 1959
- Last race
- October 30, 1959
- Track
- 1/8 mile
- Surface
- Clay
- Location
- On the half-mile clay oval
- People
- International Timing Association, race operator (1959)
- Elevation
- 817 ft (249 m)
- Coordinates
- 34.83332, -82.50010
The International Timing Association set up Thursday night eighth-mile drag racing on this half-mile clay oval. The first drags ran on Thursday night, April 2, 1959, when 1,200 people watched more than 75 cars. Jim Taylor of Greer took top eliminator in his A/MSP Corvette, powered by a DeSoto engine with six carburetors, at 64.28 MPH. Newspapers called that speed blazing, and it held as the strip record for several weeks. On May 28, 1959, Jim and Gerri Reynolds of Hendersonville, North Carolina, took home four trophies with their A/SP ‘58 Corvette, and Jim Reynolds set a track record of 67.16 MPH on June 11. The track hosted the International Timing Association short track championships on July 16, 1959. The last drag race was on Friday, October 30, 1959. The oval was still running in 2015.
Background
Bob Willimon built the track in 1946 for both horse and auto racing, and brothers Pete and Tom Blackwell owned it from 1955 to 2003, paving it and running NASCAR events. It was the site of the first Cup Series race shown live from start to finish. The half-mile is inactive now, and owner Kevin Whitaker plans to turn the land around it into an industrial park.
