Robinwood Speedway - Gastonia NC

My thanks to Humpy Wheeler for sharing his history and memories of Robinwood Speedway.

Possibly the most competitive quarter mile dirt track in the nation was the Robinwood Speedway in Gastonia NC. Built after WWII as a midget track it essentially was a 1200 ft velodrome with turns banked nearly 24 degrees and beautiful red clay. Midgets, of course, didn't work and then "hot rod jalopies" with open wheels were tried and that failed. I leased the track from Marvin Panch in 1961 who was trying to make  late model convertibles work but they didn't.

We introduced something called Jr. Grand Nationals -- 1949-53 cars with ohv and flathead six cylinder engines -- and it was a quick success with as many as 50-60 cars a night. The best cars were 50 Fords, '50 Chevys and the '53 Hudson Hornet. There was a 261 ci limit on the engines. It had 2,500 seats and they were packed every Saturday night. It was well cared for and there was no dust. It actually became so successful that it eventually was shut down and the racing was moved to the old flat quarter mile Gastonia Fairgrounds and the still active Carolina Speedway...but the atmosphere of the fast, high banked racing was gone.

Some of the drivers included Harold Dunaway, Doug and Bob Cooper, Ervin Carpenter, Bryant Wallace, Larry Wallace, Bill Monteith, Jim Dimeo, Bobby Ginn, Preston Humphries and Jungle Boy Lane. It was one of the first tracks I operated and it was a lot of fun.  

H.A."Humpy" Wheeler, President, Speedway Motorsports, General manager of Lowes Motor Speedway

If you have memories, photos, or anything from Robinwood Speedway, please think of sharing them so others can remember.

If you have dirt track memories to share, contact me @ bob@webprosolutions.com

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