Boo. 👻 Is it too early for scary stories? How about one on Greenville’s ghost track?
A few weeks ago, Greenville-native Matthew Henson posted a video to YouTube titled The Search for NASCAR’s Ghost Track: Air Base Speedway. In the video, Henson explains that he came across results from a race in 1951 that took place at the Air Base Speedway in Greenville.
Despite being a self-proclaimed “NASCAR nerd,” he’d never heard of the track + was unable to find a lot of information about it, much less substantial documentation that it existed. *Cue spooky music.* The search for the ghost track ensued.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qKBxePrLhg
What we know
Here’s the case he presents in the video:
🏎️ NASCAR has been around for 70 years. In that time, 170+ tracks in the Cup Series will have hosted ~2,606 races. Of those 170 tracks, most have a well documented history (photos, videos, news coverage, etc.). Air Base Speedway is an exception.
🏆 According to Racing-Reference.info, Air Base Speedway only held one NASCAR Grand National race in 1951. Bob Flock (of racing’s famous Flock brothers) won.
💡 A thread about the ghost track in RacersReunion included a newspaper clipping mentioning a race that was scheduled to run at night on the Air Base Speedway. This suggests that the track had lights (which would have made it pretty expensive + significant for the time).
🧹 Henson originally suspected the .5 mile track was paved, but determined through ads + newspaper clippings that it was dirt (see 4:45). While less significant than if the track had been paved, it was chemically treated so there would be less dust.
The search is on
So… where is it? Given the name “Air Base Speedway,” you might guess the track was near Donaldson Air Force Base (which closed down in the 1960s and became the Donaldson Center Airport). Henson debunks this theory.
Could it have been mistaken for the Greenville Pickens Speedway? A newspaper clipping (see 3:17) foils this thought as well – Donaldson Air Force Base was a separate entity.
How about Greenville Textile Speedway? Now we’re getting somewhere. Air Base Speedway was known as Greenville Textile Speedway before 1951.
Finally, the NASCAR sleuth finds a post in RacersReunion which provides an address for the track (just south of 1507 Antioch Church Rd.) – and using EarthExplorer images from 1951, he’s able to find photographic evidence of Air Base Speedway.
Want to know more?
Mission accomplished – kind of. While we now know that the track existed + we’re able to definitively say where in the Upstate it was, Henson wanted to know more. This track had lights, grand stands, was treated to reduce dust, hosted to a “big-league” NASCAR race + once drew a crowd of ~6,000 – why did it fail? Are there no pictures of the races that took place there?
Henson’s YouTube channel, S1apSh0es, posted a bounty for more photo evidence of the Air Base Speedway – specifically, a picture of the outside of the speedway from ground level + an action shot of some racing on the track.
Within hours the bounty was claimed + over the course of several days, Henson received an overwhelming number of messages with tips, information, stories, and photos. He posted a second video showing some of the top photo submissions along with answers to why the track failed – so far it’s reached 420,000+ views. You can watch the video here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orO9It9JsOs&t=131s
While nothing remains of the track today, if you really want to scope out the former site you can. Or, you can watch Henson’s third (and final) video installment where he walks the grounds where the track would have been.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5ucrWQsrL4
So… not a scary story, but another cool piece of history from the Upstate. Do you have stories about or evidence of the Air Base Speedway ghost track? Reply + let us know.
Quiz
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