Vibraswirl
Peace Haven Speedway Map And History
Please view my collection of albums I've arranged by year about Peace Haven Speedway, in chronological order the way it should be seen. You'll see lots of rare photos, artifacts, and newspaper articles that I'm periodically adding to as I find new things. Click the link below to see the albums - www.flickr.com/photos/48793782@N08/collections/7215772074...
________________________________________________
This is a 1958 street map of Winston-Salem, NC showing the location of Peace Haven Speedway.
The speedway was off Peace Haven Road accessed by Lynhaven Drive. It started out in 1941 as a Tourist Trophy "TT" motorcycle track built by racing enthusiasts in the local Twin City Ramblers Motorcycle Club.
Wade Beauchamp, President of the Twin City Ramblers, with other club members started clearing the land and breaking ground in the Spring of 1941*. The track had twists & turns, and a creek crossing for the big Harley-Davidson and Indian race bikes. Early on, it was known in newspaper articles as Old Peace Haven Lake Race Track or Peace Haven Park Race Track. The actual park was just north of the track and had a man-made lake for swimming. Some of the old park is still there today with it's stone walls, staircase, and spiral terrazzo patio behind Peace Haven Pool on Hearthside Drive.
The last race before WWII was in full swing for the U.S. was on May 17th 1942, followed by a three and a half year shutdown of all racing everywhere for the war effort. After the end of WWII the track was reconfigured into a half-mile oval around the old TT track so it could host both motorcycles and automobiles. The TT track inside the oval was done away with. The first post War race was for motorcycles on Easter Monday April 22, 1946. In August of '46, Southern States Racing Association Midget Car racing was added to the bill at the new oval. Stars like Herman Owens, Fred Reid, Buddy Shuman, Jackie Holland, Johnny Grubb, Dutch Culp, and Henry Weavil drove the fast Offenhauser and Ford V8 powered hand-built open wheel machines. Many of these drivers started their careers before the war as moonshine runners, motorcycle racers, and midget car racers, then on to stock car racing as it's popularity gained.
The racetrack continued in 1947 with AMA circle track Motorcycles, SSRA Midget Cars, and outlaw (non-sanctioned) Stock Car races, and became known as Peace Haven Speedway.
After a meeting in December of '47 at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach that included promoters, track owners, and drivers, Bill France and partners formed NASCAR. At least one representative of Peace Haven Speedway attended the meeting. That led to the track and grounds being updated again in early '48 at the cost of $35,000 with a widened and banked full half-mile track, grandstands for 5000, a 7 foot tall board fence, an infield announcer's observation tower with flagstand, plus concessions stands to accommodate large events for both NASCAR Stock Cars, and AMA Motorcycle racing.
The newly renovated track, described as the State's fastest, reopened under the name "Winston-Salem Speedway" at 2:00 pm on Monday July 5, 1948 for it's first professional Stock Car race. Even though the race wasn't NASCAR sanctioned, almost all the top drivers were in attendance. The legendary Curtis Turner beat the '47 NCSCC champ Fonty Flock for the win, averaging over 70 mph in the main event.
Turner later told reporter Jim Foster - "This Winston track is the best in the Country".
NASCAR's inaugural 1948 Championship season included Peace Haven Speedway on Sunday October 31st as the 51st of 52 races. Fonty Flock set a new NASCAR half-mile qualifying record at 25.15 seconds, and then beat out Red Byron and Bill Blair for the win. Red Byron went on to claim the very first NASCAR Championship in the final race on Nov. 14th in Columbus, GA.
1948 was the last year for Midget Car racing at the track.
The track got even busier in '49 with many Motorcycle, NASCAR Modified, Sportsman, and Amateur races, with wins by stars like Curtis Turner, Johnny Butterfield, Billy Myers, and Shorty York. There was even a "Double Feature" Modified event - two separate points races on the same day won by greats Cotton Owens (his 1st NASCAR win) and Fonty Flock. During the Fall months there were weekly Sportsmen's and Amateur races. This was also the year Peace Haven became known for it's Easter Monday stock car race tradition. The first actual Easter Monday event was a motorcycle race in 1946, then in 1947 a midget car race was held on the holiday. But the tradition of the event became famous with the stock cars starting in 1949 when Forsyth County celebrated it's 100th anniversary. That race attracted one of the speedway's biggest crowds, and hosted a cash prize "bearded man" contest with participants dressing in 1840's attire. There was also a birthday celebration for race car driver Bob Flock, the oldest of the famous Flock brothers from Atlanta.
NASCAR stock cars came to Bowman Gray Stadium for the first time later in 1949.
There was lots of action in 1950 and '51 at the speedway with wins by stars such as Buddy Shuman, Handlebars Walden, Buck Baker, Billy & Bobby Myers, and Bill Snowden in the stock cars, and Johnny Butterfield sweeping all the big motorcycle events. Bill Holland, the 1949 Indy 500 Champion, came to Peace Haven with his "Indianapolis Auto Daredevils" Thrill Show in the Fall of 1950.
Bill France and Alvin Hawkins, along with track owners Wade Beauchamp, A.D. Burke, Gene Sparks, R.G. Reynolds, Carl Beauchamp, O.F. Trivette, Clyde Beauchamp, Herbert Reynolds, and their "Winston-Salem Speedway, Inc." promoted and ran the stock car races, with attendance sometimes reaching over 7000 spectators at events throughout the years. In 1951 the name of the track was changed back to Peace Haven Speedway of the early motorcycle and midget car days.
By 1952, most of the stock car racing in Winston-Salem was taking place at Bowman Gray Stadium where racing was weekly from April to August and included a track championship. But Peace Haven would continue to host it's hugely popular Easter Monday event every year to kick off the racing season in the area, along with a big Fall race in September to wrap up the season.
The next few years saw some incredible stock car racing with wins by Curtis Turner, Bobby Myers, Shorty York, Ted Swaim, and Billy Myers, whose 7 Feature wins spanning from '49 to '56 made Billy the the most successful stock car driver of Peace Haven Speedway. Bobby Myers had 4 feature wins and Curtis Turner had 3.
The track continued having AMA motorcycle races each year, even hosting the State Championship in '50, '51, '52, and '53. The great Harley-Davidson racer and multi-time State Champ Johnny Butterfield from Roanoke VA announced his retirement at Peace Haven after the Spring race in 1955. He was the winningest professional motorcyclist in the history of the track with 8 Feature wins. Buck Brigance, multi-time Southeastern Champ from Charlotte NC was another big winner and crowd favorite at Peace Haven, winning 6 Features from TT and Circle Track events.
Other motorcycle stars such as Al Crisler, Doug Creech, Alex Swing, Ed Guill, Ray Putman, Joe Weatherly, Dick Beatty, Billy Huber, Tommy McDermott, and Everett Brashear also raced at the track. AMA official Odell Cable, who later opened the Cable Harley-Davidson dealership in Winston-Salem, was the main referee and flagman for Peace Haven motorcycle events. After Buck Brigance won the opening Spring race of 1956, the great Triumph racer Richard Clark from Greenville SC won the Summer and Fall races - the last 2 professional motorcycle events ever held at Peace Haven.
The last NASCAR events at the track were held in May of 1956 with Bobby Myers beating out Ted Swaim in the Sportsman feature, and Norman Vaden winning the Amateur feature. The Easter Monday race tradition was then passed on to Bowman Gray Stadium.
Along with the 3 big AMA motorcycle events in '56 there was weekly Amateur & Expert Micro-Midget Car racing (predecessor to race karts & quarter midgets) on a smaller 1/8 mile track laid out down the inside of the front stretch and up the infield between the flagstand and first turn. The opening race even had the band "June Miller and the Serenaders" between events playing new popular Rock & Roll.
In late '56 the Forsyth Micro-Midget Club hosted the NMMA State Championship finals at Peace Haven. Glenn Morton won the main event in the Expert class, and Carl Ellis won the season points trophy. These were the last 'sanctioned' events of any kind the track ever held.
With neighborhoods expanding ever closer to the track, complaints had been building that the racing events were a nuisance because of the noise, traffic, and dust. Some also wanted racing banned on Sunday for religious reasons. In January of 1957 a hearing was held to have the Forsyth Board of Commissioners acquire control of racing in the county with power to end racing on Sunday and set heavy restrictions. To avoid having this action taken and jeopardizing all racing in the county an agreement was made in February of '57 to end racing at Peace Haven Speedway.
Later that year the grandstands were sold off as lumber and nature started to take back the land. The property was bought and developed into a neighborhood named "Peace Haven Estates" in the early 60's by developer W. Bryan White. Most of the old overgrown speedway was still visible all the way up until 1971 when a road and houses were finally built on top of it's remains as the neighborhood was completed.
Today, Flyntvalley Court occupies the approximate site of Peace Haven Speedway, now known as a 'Ghost Track'. You can still see what's left of the tall earth banks where spectators would stand that wrapped around turns 1 & 4, and where the backstretch was next to the creek going though the backyards of the houses now there. Some residences have had trouble over the years getting grass to grow in areas where the track, infield, and entrance used to lay.
Looking at Google Satellite you can still make out the shape of the track in a line of older trees that circle the backyards of Flyntvalley Court and the last few houses of Burkeridge Court but it's fading year by year.
Just about all of the early legends of NASCAR, and many early motorcycle legends of the AMA raced at the track at one time or another during it's one and a half decades of existence. Out of those early legends 15 are in the NASCAR Hall Of Fame, 3 are in the American Motorcycle Association Hall Of Fame, and 14 are in the National Motorsports Hall Of Fame as of 2022 with many more surely to be inducted.
Many exciting times and wonderful memories of the greatest days of racing were had at the old race track off Peace Haven Road.
Rest in peace, Peace Haven Speedway...and may your stories live on forever.
Please view my collection of albums I've arranged by year about Peace Haven Speedway, in chronological order the way it should be seen. You'll see lots of rare photos, artifacts, and newspaper articles that I'm periodically adding to as I find new things. Click the link below to see the albums - www.flickr.com/photos/48793782@N08/collections/7215772074...
_________
*During research of the track it was originally thought it was built in 1938/39 but an aerial photo from November 1940 shows no race track at that point. That would conclude that the track was built in the Spring of 1941, and races held in Summer and Fall of '41 as per dated photos, and Spring of 1942 as written about in a newspaper article from May of that year.
How the track would lay over the neighborhood today -
www.flickr.com/photos/48793782@N08/4587894885/in/set-7215...
Rare home movie footage of Peace Haven Speedway from 1953 & 1954 -
Part 1 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0bAo_dUHO4
Part 2 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQXFe5MyzS4
High quality footage from 1954 - youtu.be/3fmP7LAlXng
More footage of Peace Haven Speedway from July 5, 1948 (0:00 to 0:50 sec.) & April 18, 1949 (2:56 to 4:15) mixed in with other early stock car tracks like North Wilkesboro and Greensboro Fairgrounds -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=09LYo8VoTZQ
Do you have any stories or artifacts from Peace Haven Speedway? If so, please share them here or contact me through Flickr.
Peace Haven Speedway Map And History
Please view my collection of albums I've arranged by year about Peace Haven Speedway, in chronological order the way it should be seen. You'll see lots of rare photos, artifacts, and newspaper articles that I'm periodically adding to as I find new things. Click the link below to see the albums - www.flickr.com/photos/48793782@N08/collections/7215772074...
________________________________________________
This is a 1958 street map of Winston-Salem, NC showing the location of Peace Haven Speedway.
The speedway was off Peace Haven Road accessed by Lynhaven Drive. It started out in 1941 as a Tourist Trophy "TT" motorcycle track built by racing enthusiasts in the local Twin City Ramblers Motorcycle Club.
Wade Beauchamp, President of the Twin City Ramblers, with other club members started clearing the land and breaking ground in the Spring of 1941*. The track had twists & turns, and a creek crossing for the big Harley-Davidson and Indian race bikes. Early on, it was known in newspaper articles as Old Peace Haven Lake Race Track or Peace Haven Park Race Track. The actual park was just north of the track and had a man-made lake for swimming. Some of the old park is still there today with it's stone walls, staircase, and spiral terrazzo patio behind Peace Haven Pool on Hearthside Drive.
The last race before WWII was in full swing for the U.S. was on May 17th 1942, followed by a three and a half year shutdown of all racing everywhere for the war effort. After the end of WWII the track was reconfigured into a half-mile oval around the old TT track so it could host both motorcycles and automobiles. The TT track inside the oval was done away with. The first post War race was for motorcycles on Easter Monday April 22, 1946. In August of '46, Southern States Racing Association Midget Car racing was added to the bill at the new oval. Stars like Herman Owens, Fred Reid, Buddy Shuman, Jackie Holland, Johnny Grubb, Dutch Culp, and Henry Weavil drove the fast Offenhauser and Ford V8 powered hand-built open wheel machines. Many of these drivers started their careers before the war as moonshine runners, motorcycle racers, and midget car racers, then on to stock car racing as it's popularity gained.
The racetrack continued in 1947 with AMA circle track Motorcycles, SSRA Midget Cars, and outlaw (non-sanctioned) Stock Car races, and became known as Peace Haven Speedway.
After a meeting in December of '47 at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach that included promoters, track owners, and drivers, Bill France and partners formed NASCAR. At least one representative of Peace Haven Speedway attended the meeting. That led to the track and grounds being updated again in early '48 at the cost of $35,000 with a widened and banked full half-mile track, grandstands for 5000, a 7 foot tall board fence, an infield announcer's observation tower with flagstand, plus concessions stands to accommodate large events for both NASCAR Stock Cars, and AMA Motorcycle racing.
The newly renovated track, described as the State's fastest, reopened under the name "Winston-Salem Speedway" at 2:00 pm on Monday July 5, 1948 for it's first professional Stock Car race. Even though the race wasn't NASCAR sanctioned, almost all the top drivers were in attendance. The legendary Curtis Turner beat the '47 NCSCC champ Fonty Flock for the win, averaging over 70 mph in the main event.
Turner later told reporter Jim Foster - "This Winston track is the best in the Country".
NASCAR's inaugural 1948 Championship season included Peace Haven Speedway on Sunday October 31st as the 51st of 52 races. Fonty Flock set a new NASCAR half-mile qualifying record at 25.15 seconds, and then beat out Red Byron and Bill Blair for the win. Red Byron went on to claim the very first NASCAR Championship in the final race on Nov. 14th in Columbus, GA.
1948 was the last year for Midget Car racing at the track.
The track got even busier in '49 with many Motorcycle, NASCAR Modified, Sportsman, and Amateur races, with wins by stars like Curtis Turner, Johnny Butterfield, Billy Myers, and Shorty York. There was even a "Double Feature" Modified event - two separate points races on the same day won by greats Cotton Owens (his 1st NASCAR win) and Fonty Flock. During the Fall months there were weekly Sportsmen's and Amateur races. This was also the year Peace Haven became known for it's Easter Monday stock car race tradition. The first actual Easter Monday event was a motorcycle race in 1946, then in 1947 a midget car race was held on the holiday. But the tradition of the event became famous with the stock cars starting in 1949 when Forsyth County celebrated it's 100th anniversary. That race attracted one of the speedway's biggest crowds, and hosted a cash prize "bearded man" contest with participants dressing in 1840's attire. There was also a birthday celebration for race car driver Bob Flock, the oldest of the famous Flock brothers from Atlanta.
NASCAR stock cars came to Bowman Gray Stadium for the first time later in 1949.
There was lots of action in 1950 and '51 at the speedway with wins by stars such as Buddy Shuman, Handlebars Walden, Buck Baker, Billy & Bobby Myers, and Bill Snowden in the stock cars, and Johnny Butterfield sweeping all the big motorcycle events. Bill Holland, the 1949 Indy 500 Champion, came to Peace Haven with his "Indianapolis Auto Daredevils" Thrill Show in the Fall of 1950.
Bill France and Alvin Hawkins, along with track owners Wade Beauchamp, A.D. Burke, Gene Sparks, R.G. Reynolds, Carl Beauchamp, O.F. Trivette, Clyde Beauchamp, Herbert Reynolds, and their "Winston-Salem Speedway, Inc." promoted and ran the stock car races, with attendance sometimes reaching over 7000 spectators at events throughout the years. In 1951 the name of the track was changed back to Peace Haven Speedway of the early motorcycle and midget car days.
By 1952, most of the stock car racing in Winston-Salem was taking place at Bowman Gray Stadium where racing was weekly from April to August and included a track championship. But Peace Haven would continue to host it's hugely popular Easter Monday event every year to kick off the racing season in the area, along with a big Fall race in September to wrap up the season.
The next few years saw some incredible stock car racing with wins by Curtis Turner, Bobby Myers, Shorty York, Ted Swaim, and Billy Myers, whose 7 Feature wins spanning from '49 to '56 made Billy the the most successful stock car driver of Peace Haven Speedway. Bobby Myers had 4 feature wins and Curtis Turner had 3.
The track continued having AMA motorcycle races each year, even hosting the State Championship in '50, '51, '52, and '53. The great Harley-Davidson racer and multi-time State Champ Johnny Butterfield from Roanoke VA announced his retirement at Peace Haven after the Spring race in 1955. He was the winningest professional motorcyclist in the history of the track with 8 Feature wins. Buck Brigance, multi-time Southeastern Champ from Charlotte NC was another big winner and crowd favorite at Peace Haven, winning 6 Features from TT and Circle Track events.
Other motorcycle stars such as Al Crisler, Doug Creech, Alex Swing, Ed Guill, Ray Putman, Joe Weatherly, Dick Beatty, Billy Huber, Tommy McDermott, and Everett Brashear also raced at the track. AMA official Odell Cable, who later opened the Cable Harley-Davidson dealership in Winston-Salem, was the main referee and flagman for Peace Haven motorcycle events. After Buck Brigance won the opening Spring race of 1956, the great Triumph racer Richard Clark from Greenville SC won the Summer and Fall races - the last 2 professional motorcycle events ever held at Peace Haven.
The last NASCAR events at the track were held in May of 1956 with Bobby Myers beating out Ted Swaim in the Sportsman feature, and Norman Vaden winning the Amateur feature. The Easter Monday race tradition was then passed on to Bowman Gray Stadium.
Along with the 3 big AMA motorcycle events in '56 there was weekly Amateur & Expert Micro-Midget Car racing (predecessor to race karts & quarter midgets) on a smaller 1/8 mile track laid out down the inside of the front stretch and up the infield between the flagstand and first turn. The opening race even had the band "June Miller and the Serenaders" between events playing new popular Rock & Roll.
In late '56 the Forsyth Micro-Midget Club hosted the NMMA State Championship finals at Peace Haven. Glenn Morton won the main event in the Expert class, and Carl Ellis won the season points trophy. These were the last 'sanctioned' events of any kind the track ever held.
With neighborhoods expanding ever closer to the track, complaints had been building that the racing events were a nuisance because of the noise, traffic, and dust. Some also wanted racing banned on Sunday for religious reasons. In January of 1957 a hearing was held to have the Forsyth Board of Commissioners acquire control of racing in the county with power to end racing on Sunday and set heavy restrictions. To avoid having this action taken and jeopardizing all racing in the county an agreement was made in February of '57 to end racing at Peace Haven Speedway.
Later that year the grandstands were sold off as lumber and nature started to take back the land. The property was bought and developed into a neighborhood named "Peace Haven Estates" in the early 60's by developer W. Bryan White. Most of the old overgrown speedway was still visible all the way up until 1971 when a road and houses were finally built on top of it's remains as the neighborhood was completed.
Today, Flyntvalley Court occupies the approximate site of Peace Haven Speedway, now known as a 'Ghost Track'. You can still see what's left of the tall earth banks where spectators would stand that wrapped around turns 1 & 4, and where the backstretch was next to the creek going though the backyards of the houses now there. Some residences have had trouble over the years getting grass to grow in areas where the track, infield, and entrance used to lay.
Looking at Google Satellite you can still make out the shape of the track in a line of older trees that circle the backyards of Flyntvalley Court and the last few houses of Burkeridge Court but it's fading year by year.
Just about all of the early legends of NASCAR, and many early motorcycle legends of the AMA raced at the track at one time or another during it's one and a half decades of existence. Out of those early legends 15 are in the NASCAR Hall Of Fame, 3 are in the American Motorcycle Association Hall Of Fame, and 14 are in the National Motorsports Hall Of Fame as of 2022 with many more surely to be inducted.
Many exciting times and wonderful memories of the greatest days of racing were had at the old race track off Peace Haven Road.
Rest in peace, Peace Haven Speedway...and may your stories live on forever.
Please view my collection of albums I've arranged by year about Peace Haven Speedway, in chronological order the way it should be seen. You'll see lots of rare photos, artifacts, and newspaper articles that I'm periodically adding to as I find new things. Click the link below to see the albums - www.flickr.com/photos/48793782@N08/collections/7215772074...
_________
*During research of the track it was originally thought it was built in 1938/39 but an aerial photo from November 1940 shows no race track at that point. That would conclude that the track was built in the Spring of 1941, and races held in Summer and Fall of '41 as per dated photos, and Spring of 1942 as written about in a newspaper article from May of that year.
How the track would lay over the neighborhood today -
www.flickr.com/photos/48793782@N08/4587894885/in/set-7215...
Rare home movie footage of Peace Haven Speedway from 1953 & 1954 -
Part 1 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0bAo_dUHO4
Part 2 - www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQXFe5MyzS4
High quality footage from 1954 - youtu.be/3fmP7LAlXng
More footage of Peace Haven Speedway from July 5, 1948 (0:00 to 0:50 sec.) & April 18, 1949 (2:56 to 4:15) mixed in with other early stock car tracks like North Wilkesboro and Greensboro Fairgrounds -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=09LYo8VoTZQ
Do you have any stories or artifacts from Peace Haven Speedway? If so, please share them here or contact me through Flickr.