February kicks off the NASCAR Cup Series and marks the 76th anniversary of the founding of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. Did you know that located where North Buncombe High School has its football field was once the first NASCAR-sanctioned racetrack in WNC, the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway?
In 1949 Gene Sluder, a former local bootlegger turned earth mover, built an airfield on his farm in the Flat Top community near Weaverville. He was about to go into operation when he was visited by “Big Bill” France, co-founder and president of the fledgling NASCAR, which had become the official organization for stock car racing on February 21, 1948.
According to Bob Terrell in a 1974 Asheville Citizen article, France looked over the airstrip and said, “It’s a good field Gene, but it would make a better parking lot. Why don’t you build a racetrack beside it?” The seed was planted, and Sluder got to work on a ½ mile oval dirt track with graded 25-degree banks for each of the four turns. The steep incline allowed for high speeds, and it was dubbed “the fastest half-mile anywhere” at that time in racing.
Many of the first tracks in the South were owned and promoted by former bootleggers also recruited by France. Though Sluder had a background in moonshining, he never did race like several of his counterparts, except after he retired as a track promoter and for fun took to racing around his property as fast as possible on his high-powered riding lawn mower.
The Asheville-Weaverville Speedway debuted on August 20, 1950, and throughout its duration hosted 34 NASCAR races in the Grand National and Winston Cup eras between 1951 and 1969, two NASCAR Grand National Events (now the Winston Cup Series), as well as many other significant races–including two of the most shocking races in NASCAR history, which we’ll highlight below.
The Great Pile-Up of 1956
On September 30, 1956, noteworthy and memorable 200-lap race took place at the A-W Speedway of NASCAR’s Convertible Division, which ran from 1956-1959. With over 5,000 spectators watching, 24 cars prepared to race, but due to mechanical issues, three were disqualified.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Glen Wood placed third at the race and later recalled:
“The track kept getting dustier and dustier as time went on. We kept running through the dust on the backstretch coming off turn two, then we’d pop out on the other side and you could see again. But you couldn’t see a thing as you went into it.”
With about 20 laps to left in the race, Jimmy Massey and Lewis “Possum” Jones crashed into each other, their cars landing on their sides directly in the groove of the drivers. Other cars quickly started crashing into the two, while others swerved into the infield wire to avoid the wreck. Wood said,
“All of a sudden…there were cars wrecked in that dust. I didn’t know it. There wasn’t a caution or anything, or if there was, I didn’t see it. Evidently, no one else did either. I went into that dust into a pile of cars wide open. It threw me down across the steering wheel and split my nose and mouth open. I started to get up and get out of the car and I about passed out, so I just sat back down. I remember seeing Joe Weatherly getting out of his car, and he jumped up on the fence and just hung onto it. They kept piling in there. They just kept on hitting.”
While many drivers blamed the dust (possibly contributing to the decision to pave the track with asphalt the following year) others complained that the glaring late-afternoon sun blinded them, causing them not to see the wreckage looming directly in front of them. Several drivers tried to jump from their cars in an attempt to get to safety.
Curtis Turner, sometimes referred to as the “Babe Ruth of Stock Car Racing,” grabbed the lead on the first lap and was the only driver to narrowly miss the pileup. Turner grew up in Floyd, Virginia, where his dad had an active moonshine still and Turner started delivering his father’s products by car supposedly as young as ten years old allowing him to have mastered the ways of outmaneuvering and racing anti-bootlegging officials on the back country roads of Virginia. Since he was the only vehicle still running, after 182 of the 200 laps the race was halted for lack of competition. Turner gained the distinction of being the only driver in NASCAR history to win a race that was cut short due to lack of competition.
The Fast and the Furious 1961 Riot
A few years later, against a backdrop of unionization quarrels, another race caused a historic ruckus. On Sunday, August 13, 1961, hundreds of fans stormed the track after the WNC 500 race ended only halfway through because part of the A-W Speedway’s asphalt track started to come apart. Pandemonium ensued as angry spectators demanded their money back by holding hostage some 4,000 fans for almost four hours after the race was called.
The 4th annual WNC 500 was a 500 lap / 250-mile race that was the highlight race for Asheville. Its prize was a total $16,550 purse, divided 30 ways with first place receiving $2,650 (equivalent to $27,186 in 2023 money), 2nd place $1,725, and third $1,225.
Rex White, the defending champion, had won three of the last four Grand Nationals on the A-W track, so he was considered the favorite to win, with his 1961 Chevrolet equipped with a hot “409” engine. White had also set the world half-mile record the previous March at the A-W Speedway by turning the oval at a speed of 81.13mph.
More than two-thirds of NASCAR’s best drivers participated in the race, including Richard Petty, Banjo Matthews, Emmanuel Zervakis, and Jim Paschal. Wendel Scott of Danville, VA, driving a Chevrolet, was the only Black Grand National driver on the NASCAR circuit and was the first Black driver to race on the A-W Speedway at the WNC 500 that year.
Gene Sluder put considerable improvements into his property as he prepared for up to 40 cars and 20,000 fans to attend the event. Sluder also expected that if the weather held out, new national records would be set for both the fastest single-lap and 500-lap race at the event, following a trend of faster times that season due to new legalized engine parts and improved tire technology.
Behind the scenes, a lot of NASCAR drama was playing out that same week. “The golden boy of stock car racing,” Glenn “Fireball” Roberts, and fellow racers Curtis Turner and Tim Flock had organized with the Federation of Professional Athletes (FPA), a Teamsters Union affiliate that NASCAR President “Big Bill” France was trying to destroy.
While the FPA was advocating that a union would allow better track conditions, higher purses, “a pension plan, death benefits, health and welfare benefits, a scholarship fund for children of deceased members, strong and meaningful complaint procedures, and assurance of adequate safety conditions,” they were making no demands other than to try and sign drivers to the union with a $10 card fee. The WNC 500 race was considered a “test case” for the new union.
The trio, though violating no NASCAR rules, were still risking their racing careers by attempting to unionize. After they had signed drivers up for the FPA the week previous to the WNC 500, Bill France declared that Roberts, Turner, and Flock were barred from NASCAR racing, starting at the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway race.
In a telephone interview with Asheville Citizen Sports Editor Bob Terrell on August 11th Roberts was quoted as saying:
“If some of the other drivers would stop and think that because I’ve done something France doesn’t like, he can ruin my career overnight, they would realize that he could do the same for them. Everyone seems to have a misconception of what we’re trying to do. Here is the whole idea: The drivers have absolutely no representation in NASCAR. We decided to form the FPA and through numbers maybe have a little bargaining power with NASCAR and promoters. We have no aim to put France or any promoter out of business.
We are affiliated with the Teamsters Union only in the sense that if we need backing in a time of duress, they will come to our aid. There are so many things wrong with the way racing is operating now and I don’t think any driver will deny this. Some of them, however, are afraid of the Teamsters. Actually, the Teamsters have no voice in our operations unless we call them in.
Ours is a democratic outfit. The officers are elected from the membership. Whether the union would be good or bad for racing would be squarely on our shoulders. The Teamsters don’t want to put anyone out of business. What could they accomplish by that?
NASCAR is supposed to be the drivers’ agent. That’s supposed to be the function of NASCAR. It is really a union within itself, so to speak. The promoters, not NASCAR, are the drivers’ employers. So if France really had our welfare at heart, he ought to back us up.
The drivers have tried in the past to organize for better representation, but each time we’ve tried, the fellows who back us up gradually melt away under pressure from France. This has been going on since 1950. We simply feel that with the backing of the Teamsters, we can have the bargaining power we need.”
While Roberts was working to secure drivers to sign up for the FPA, France was going around to the same races having drivers sign pledges to NASCAR. Days before the WNC 500 race, France traveled to Winston-Salem to meet with drivers. “I won’t be dictated to by this union,” he said. “If I had the union stuffed down my throat, I would plow up my Daytona Beach track and also the other tracks I am part owner of and plant corn.” He continued by threatening, “And if that isn’t tough enough, I’ll use my pistol to enforce it. I have a pistol, and I know how to use it. I’ve used it before.”
France went on to say that anyone who was known to have signed with the FPA would be barred from racing on all NASCAR tracks. While Roberts and the FPA would not disclose drivers who signed up for the union, several who raced at the WNC 500 had signed an FPA union card. However, drivers Rex White, Junior Johnson, Emanual Zervakis, and others who raced were part of the NASCAR pledges.
According to Bob Colvin, President of the Darlington International Raceway, the idea of a union for NASCAR was illegal due to drivers being independent contractors, as stated by the entry blanks they signed for each race. At that time there was no form for the union for individual contractors.
Colvin, while supporting an organization that represented drivers, mechanics, car owners, and promoters that could arbitrate with NASCAR, vehemently opposed any kind of connection with the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa. Colvin and France also went to Washington, DC, where they were able to get a ruling from the assistant attorney general stating that, “any pickets, etc., for independent contractors are illegal and anyone participating in such or trying to stop the race (would) be liable for prosecution.”
The following day, on August 12th during “Fireball” Robert’s drive to Asheville from Charlotte, he gave deep thought to the matter, and upon arrival called France in New York and officially resigned from the FPA. He reasoned that by aligning with the Teamsters they could potentially do more harm than good to the sport. In turn, France welcomed Roberts back into NASCAR and allowed him to race the WNC 500 the next day.
Bob Terrell interviewed Roberts upon the announcement of his FPA resignation:
“On my way up from Charlotte today, I was thinking that, to my knowledge, not any of us drivers have ever approached France in a group to ask for any concession. In light of this movement, France already has considered a couple of concessions which is more than we’ve gotten in the last 10 years. I think that all drivers feel a need for some representation with NASCAR and the promoters, but maybe I acted hastily.”
The concession Roberts referred to was France appointing a commission of drivers and car owners to work out the establishment of a committee of grievances and suggestions that could act as a representative of drivers and owners with NASCAR and the promoters. Pat Purcell, the executive manager of NASCAR, went on to clarify that NASCAR was not about being anti-union, “Anyone who thinks we are fighting unions is under a great misapprehension. This is an obvious effort to take over sports where there is no relation whatsoever between management and labor on a salary basis. We feel that trade unions have done a tremendous job for the country.”
Roberts, who had either held or still held the qualifying record on every major speedway in the nation, was eager to continue racing on good terms with NASCAR. Curtis Turner however was still attached to the FPA despite Roberts’ resignation and threatened an injunction against NASCAR if he wasn’t allowed to race the WNC 500.
Many fans came to the WNC 500 with anxious anticipation of seeing Turner and France flex their respective muscles, and all of this contributed to the atmosphere going into the qualifying race that Saturday. Despite his threats, Turner did not attend the Saturday evening qualifying race. Not until after the WNC 500 was it made known that he instead tried to enter a modified race in Roanoke, Virginia that Friday where he and Flock were denied entry, and their NASCAR licenses were seized. France declared that they were both banned for life from NASCAR. (Despite later lawsuit attempts, the ban was upheld by the courts. Eventually, France reinstated Turner in 1965 and Flock in 1966 after the unfortunate death of star driver “Fireball” Roberts in May 1964 during a crash in the World 600 race in Charlotte, which left NASCAR needing more drivers.)
After the qualifying race, Jim Paschal won the pole position by turning the high-banked half-mile oval at a speed of 80.72mph, followed by Junior Johnson at 79.98mph, both of them driving 1961 Pontiacs. Unfortunately for “Fireball” Roberts, after all of the fuss leading into the race, his car malfunctioned during the qualifying race, so the following day his position was in the rear.
Sunday, before the race started, France had all 38 drivers sign a card pledging full support of NASCAR and confirming that they would not be members of the FPA. After Turner did not show up, France left the event and did not witness the complete spectacle that was about to happen. As Dan Pierce points out in his book Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France, it is ironic that the WNC 500 race at the Asheville-Weaverville Speedway demonstrated so many of the problems that NASCAR drivers faced; what ensued may have been preventable if something like the FPA had existed to petition for better track conditions.
That Sunday, in 80°F heat, there were estimated to be over 10,000 spectators gathered to watch the race and witness any possible clashes between NASCAR and the Federation of Professional Athletes. When the flag dropped at 1 PM, Junior Johnson with his iconic red #27 Pontiac took the lead during the first lap and was able to maintain that advantage throughout the contest.
It was around the 65th lap when a hole appeared right in the groove. The hole grew as the race progressed and 38 speeding cars continued lapping it. Soon another hole formed next to it, then another, until as Bob Terrell described it, the holes became “gaping monsters and there was no groove in between.”
As the race progressed to lap 190, G.C. Spencer brought his 1960 Chevy in for a refueling. Gasoline spilled onto the hot breaks, immediately exploding into flame with huge billows of smoke. As soon as that fire was extinguished, Bob Presnell’s 1960 Chevy also caught fire while refueling, keeping the Weaverville Fire Department beyond busy. In the process, three men were burned badly enough that they had to be transported to Memorial Mission Hospital.
On the 208th lap, Bunk Moore’s 1960 Ford, driven by relief driver Dick Behling, hit one of the holes and bounced into a retainer wall. The crash smashed its windshield and sent the car down the straightaway until it collided so hard against a concrete wall into the pit area that it smashed into a pickup truck on the other side. A spectator had been watching the race by standing in the bed of the truck and had to be sent to the hospital.
The race was red-flagged and paused as an ambulance removed the injured and a maintenance crew cleared the asphalt chunks of debris from the track. It was then that Executive Manager of NASCAR Pat Purcell informed the drivers that he would allow 50 more laps so long as the track could withstand it so that the competition could reach the halfway point and count as an official race, and to allow everyone a chance to improve their position. However, no announcement was made to the crowd that the race was going to conclude early.
As soon as the race restarted, Bob Presnell quickly took the fourth turn, hit one of the holes, lost control of his car, and almost rammed head-on into the concrete pit wall. Immediately after that Richard Petty spun out of a hole and skidded to a backward stop while his father Lee Petty watched from the scorers’ stand.
Fans standing around the fourth turn area were occasionally showered with flying chunks of asphalt and windshield glass. According to one eyewitness account from Tom Higgins, who was covering the event for the Winston-Salem Journal, he saw fellow Burnsville High School acquaintance Louetta Randolph get sent to the hospital after a fist-sized chunk of asphalt flew over the fence, knocking her in the temple. A basketball-sized chunk of asphalt flew into Junior Johnson’s windshield, causing an enormous hole, yet he still maintained his lead.
After the checkered flag fell, thousands of fans watched as up to an estimated 1,500 members of the crowd held a vigorous demonstration demanding their $5 ticket (equivalent to $51.47 in 2023) be refunded. Inebriated men could be heard repeatedly hollering things like, “I’ve seen half a race, I want half my money back.” However, Gene Sluder had long since left with the ticket receipts.
Men argued, tensions rose–and then someone threw a bottle at then 24-year-old Richard Petty’s head, and fists started flying. Petty tackled the man who assaulted him, and a sheriff’s deputy blowing his whistle attempted to break up the melee, only to find himself picked up and pitched head-first into the infield pond at the western side of the field. Two other men who tried to calm the crowd were picked up and thrown from the track over the pit wall, while other angry rioters tried to flip over the press box.
Not long after the mob formed, they moved to the only road leading into the track and closed and locked the gate. Accounts vary as to whether the group of the agitators lifted a pickup truck or pushed a large logging truck into a position that blocked the gate. Regardless, the blockade prevented anyone from leaving the infield. Drivers, mechanics, and other spectators who were not part of the angry riot found themselves held hostage. Cars or trucks that dared to drive near the gate also became victims of the angry horde, as the throng of men attempted to flip them over.
Buncombe County sheriff deputies, the State Highway Patrol, and the Weaverville Police Department were collectively unsuccessful in dispersing or calming the crowd, and hesitated to use force due to how many of the fans were just curiously watching the events unfold. According to an article in the Charlotte Observer, some police officers were roughed up when they approached the agitators. Reporter Bob Terrell was about to miss his deadline for the Asheville Citizen due to being held captive with the other 4,000 fans until another spectator, Harry McCoy, offered Terrel a ride back into Asheville if he was willing to hike the three-quarters of a mile to McCoy’s truck.
Around 6:30 pm, 3 ½ hours after the race ended, several drivers, mechanics, and pit crewmen armed themselves with tire irons, tools, wooden clubs, and other street fighting weapons and approached the mob organizers demanding they be allowed to leave. Pop Eargle, a 6’6” 285-pound crew member for Bud Moore, was punched in the stomach with a two-by-four by Ray Skipper, one of the disgruntled spectators who was standing on a truck bed. Eargle grabbed the board from Skipper and swung it back, cracking him across the head, fracturing his skull, and knocking him to the ground. With brute force, the drivers and mechanics moved the truck barricading the exit and forced open the gates. Traffic began flowing, with crewmen and police directing the cars out of the infield. Three of the rioters were arrested for their part in the melee.
In 1966 Sluder turned over management to The Land of Sky Racing Corporation, a group formed specifically to operate the A-W Speedway as a leading NASCAR track. The final race to occur there was the WNC 500 on August 24, 1969 to another crowd of roughly 10,000 people.
On November 1, 1971, the once-pioneer track of NASCAR was auctioned off on the steps of the Buncombe County Courthouse to Raymond Parks of Atlanta, who was already a partial manager of the track as a member of The Land of Sky Racing Corporation.
In April 1974 the 100-acre tract of land was sold to the Buncombe County Board of Education for $115,000 ($735,000 in 2023 money), securing the site for the new North Buncombe High School just a mile and a half from the old North Buncombe High School. The property was an immediate draw to the Buncombe County Board of Education: The conversion to a high school was financially feasible since the racetrack lent itself to becoming an athletic field and the lights Sluder installed in 1959 for nighttime racing were still in good condition.
Gene Sluder passed away the following November, but his name became forever linked with what was known for several decades as the fastest half-mile track in NASCAR history.
Want to know more?
In 2003, Dr. Dan Pierce collected memories of more than 50 years of stock car racing in Buncombe County, North Carolina by recording stories at five “Mountain Thunder” discussion sessions at the West Asheville Branch Library. You can listen to the recordings online here, and visit the Special Collections reading room to browse the book that resulted from this research as well as other resources about Buncombe County’s racing history.
Post by Jenny Bowen, Library Assistant, Buncombe County Special Collections. This is an expansion of a post originally shared to Facebook on September 30, 2023.
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Great work here. Thank you.