About Me
Do my very best to document and record Hickory Motor Speedway's Late Model Stock Division Winners. That's my top priority of this website. Along the way, may as well show the winners of other tracks during the racing season too. Just navigate your way around. Hopefully it will be easy peasy. Tabs at the top of page should be simple.
Phil Hildebran, Taylorsville, North Carolina
[email protected]
This site is much easier to view in laptop or desktop mode.
Phil Hildebran, Taylorsville, North Carolina
[email protected]
This site is much easier to view in laptop or desktop mode.
Hickory Speedway feature division from 1951 to 1982 the Late Model Sportsman class. In 1982 Nascar deemed the Late Model Sportsman class a touring division and tracks decided that the class below would the be the feature division. Titled Late Model Stocks, the division has become the standard bearer of weekly short tracks across America.
Hickory along with South Boston Speedway continued the sportsman class in 1982, but with the newly formed touring class "Budweiser Late Model Sportsman" a huge success the two speedways gave in and the following year (1983) their feature division became the Late Model Stocks.
That is when I (just for fun) happened to write down the race winners every week in 1983. After all, it's something different when another division (after all those years of another) is now the feature that everyone will now follow from here on out. I am going to keep that stat because I felt pretty sure no one else will.
I didn't miss a race from 1983 through 1997. Those are 100 proof my friends, I did it religiously and proud I kept it true for those 15 seasons. Alas, I got away from attending the races and I began losing track of the winners and the goings on at the track.
And even though I wasn't coming to the speedway as before, I cannot tell you the disappointment and sadness I felt when the track or I should say the track promoter gave up the speedway's Nascar sanction in 2000. The track lost its distinction as the second oldest weekly track in the nation when that happened. Of course the oldest is nearby Bowman Gray Stadium and now the second oldest is Greenville-Pickens Speedway. The track renewed its Nascar sanction once again in 2002 and to this day is a Nascar weekly sanctioned speedway.
{{UPDATE: March 2023. Greenville-Pickens is no longer operating as the track shuttered in 2023. Thus, no longer the second oldest weekly track. Furthermore, it seems most sanctioned tracks no longer race weekly choosing to run on a bi-weekly schedule. Bowman Gray still continues to run weekly and is the oldest track. Not that I have checked into it but Hickory could be back in 2nd as they too continue to race on a weekly schedule.}}
In 2011, I got fired up and ready to come back and follow the weekly races like I had before. In doing so, I was sorry I had missed the all-time race winners I had kept up with for so long. So, I got to work and through the help of newspapers, old publications I have of Southern MotoRacing, and the Patrick Beaver Memorial Library in Hickory, North Carolina. I have brought back to life the all time stats that make up this website that I love and hope that Hickory Motor Speedway fans will enjoy as much as I do.
Thanks to those mentioned above and also to the following, I thank you from the bottom of my racing heart:
Shane Huffman
Scott Kilby
Debbie Hannah Bowen
Jason Sherrill
Landon Huffman
Josh Berry
Phil Combs
Mark Setzer
and to Charlie Combs, Grafton Burgess and Marshall McCree whom made it all possible in 1951.
Thanks..._Phil Hildebran
in the words of Dale Earnhardt......"Drop the Rag!"
Hickory along with South Boston Speedway continued the sportsman class in 1982, but with the newly formed touring class "Budweiser Late Model Sportsman" a huge success the two speedways gave in and the following year (1983) their feature division became the Late Model Stocks.
That is when I (just for fun) happened to write down the race winners every week in 1983. After all, it's something different when another division (after all those years of another) is now the feature that everyone will now follow from here on out. I am going to keep that stat because I felt pretty sure no one else will.
I didn't miss a race from 1983 through 1997. Those are 100 proof my friends, I did it religiously and proud I kept it true for those 15 seasons. Alas, I got away from attending the races and I began losing track of the winners and the goings on at the track.
And even though I wasn't coming to the speedway as before, I cannot tell you the disappointment and sadness I felt when the track or I should say the track promoter gave up the speedway's Nascar sanction in 2000. The track lost its distinction as the second oldest weekly track in the nation when that happened. Of course the oldest is nearby Bowman Gray Stadium and now the second oldest is Greenville-Pickens Speedway. The track renewed its Nascar sanction once again in 2002 and to this day is a Nascar weekly sanctioned speedway.
{{UPDATE: March 2023. Greenville-Pickens is no longer operating as the track shuttered in 2023. Thus, no longer the second oldest weekly track. Furthermore, it seems most sanctioned tracks no longer race weekly choosing to run on a bi-weekly schedule. Bowman Gray still continues to run weekly and is the oldest track. Not that I have checked into it but Hickory could be back in 2nd as they too continue to race on a weekly schedule.}}
In 2011, I got fired up and ready to come back and follow the weekly races like I had before. In doing so, I was sorry I had missed the all-time race winners I had kept up with for so long. So, I got to work and through the help of newspapers, old publications I have of Southern MotoRacing, and the Patrick Beaver Memorial Library in Hickory, North Carolina. I have brought back to life the all time stats that make up this website that I love and hope that Hickory Motor Speedway fans will enjoy as much as I do.
Thanks to those mentioned above and also to the following, I thank you from the bottom of my racing heart:
Shane Huffman
Scott Kilby
Debbie Hannah Bowen
Jason Sherrill
Landon Huffman
Josh Berry
Phil Combs
Mark Setzer
and to Charlie Combs, Grafton Burgess and Marshall McCree whom made it all possible in 1951.
Thanks..._Phil Hildebran
in the words of Dale Earnhardt......"Drop the Rag!"