Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

Greenville-Pickens Speedway is a slightly tired but utterly charming piece of Nascar's history
Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

It’s easy to miss it as you drive along the Calhoun Memorial highway. And even after finding the right exit - having missed it the first time - it isn’t clear I’m in the right place until I catch a few glimpses of the track through the trees.

Finally, I’m facing a faded sign that proudly states ‘Greenville-Pickens Speedway… Sanctioned by Nascar’. Oversized pickup trucks hauling vast triple-axle trailers are already turning up for the open practice session that’ll soon be kicking off, and I get a little giddy. My first time watching stock cars in their natural environment will be at Nascar’s second oldest circuit, so I can’t help but grin with anticipation.

Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

My excitement is soon curtailed however - it seems members of the public and/or media don’t really come to watch the practice sessions, so to gain access, I have to line up outside a little office in the baking South Carolina heat with all the drivers who are signing on.

15 minutes later I have my wristband for entry, and expecting to be handed a bunch of rules and restrictions, I’m simply told “just don’t run in front of the cars and you’ll be fine.”

Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

The track is still closed, so I’m instructed to cross it to get to the infield. Immediately, I’m struck by how tired everything looks. Off the racing line, tufts of grass poke out of the asphalt. The sponsor signs that line the track are rusty. Just over the other side of the half-mile oval is a grandstand that’s roped off, as it’s slowly collapsing on itself.

That’s the charm with Greenville-Pickens. You can really feel the history here, and it’s a world away from the overly-corporate impression of Nascar we’re fed the other side of the pond.

Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

Walking around here reminds me of the abandoned Reims-Geux circuit in France; only here, racing still happens. Every week, in fact, with the track hosting various series including the the Whelen All-American Series and K&N Pro Series East.

And that’s the beauty of this morning: while wandering through this historic facility, I’ll have a stock car soundtrack assaulting my ears. The cars - mostly ‘late model’ stocks - are being unloaded and fired up, filling the air with noise and the rich smell of petrol.

Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

Even with just a handful of cars on track, the collective noise of all those V8s makes for a brilliantly effective and quite brutal symphony. I may be over 4000 miles away from the UK, but I feel like I’m at home here.

The pit lane is a disarmingly simple affair. There are no pit garages, simply a row of pop-up gazebos to keep the cars and drivers cool(ish), behind which are the huge trailers that transported everything here. In terms of structures, there’s a scrutineering bay, a small hut full of tyres…and that’s it. It’s a simple place, this, with little to distract you from what’s on track.

Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

That’s further reinforced when I look for a way to get back to the outside of the track - I can’t. There are no bridges or tunnels linking the infield to the outside world, meaning I have to just wait until the track is closed to make my exit.

When I’m finally able to, I walk a slow lap around the facility, imagining the earliest races that took place here. Greenville-Pickens first opened its doors in 1940 as a half-mile dirt oval, only to be closed shortly after owing to the USA’s entrance into World War II.

Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

Racing returned to Greenville-Pickens in 1946, and in 1970, the dirt track was replaced with the asphalt oval you see today. The most significant moment in the circuit’s facility came the next year, when the Greenville 200 became the first Nascar race to be televised in its entireity.

Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

I’ve made it around to the main concrete terrace and decide to step down to the catch fencing - all I’ve wanted to do since arriving is witness the full rage of a V8 stock car at close proximity. When I finally do, I inadvertently yell a series of unrepeatable words, with the noise and air displacement violently smashing into me as one car rips past the catch fencing. And that’s just one car - I rue the fact that I have to leave to catch a flight and can’t stay for the race.

Exploring Nascar's Second-Oldest Track Was An Experience I'll Never Forget

Greenville-Pickens may be past its prime right now, but the future’s bright. With Greenville itself the fastest-growing city in the state, Pickens may well be able to capitalise on the increased number of bodies it can entice through its gates. If I lived here, they wouldn’t be able to keep me away.

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Comments

Ray Sloan

Is that the same track where top gear raced the sls 458 and gt3 ?

07/28/2018 - 11:30 |
16 | 0
☆★THEBOOSTEDBRIT★☆

In reply to by Ray Sloan

07/28/2018 - 11:51 |
0 | 22
☆★THEBOOSTEDBRIT★☆

In reply to by Ray Sloan

07/28/2018 - 11:51 |
0 | 22

no that was Worth Wilkesboro. the bit about just dont get hit by a car is very much how it works at a lot of nascar race at daytona the day of the daytona 500 the only thing stopping you from leaving the tri oval is some security guards and some string and when i go to the truck series race in canada theres only a chain link fence preventing you from getting into the garage area so you can see every thing thats happening and the drivers cant hid from fans. to all the people who hate on nascar just go to a race and its a very different experience to the crappy tv coverage we get now a days

07/28/2018 - 13:09 |
24 | 0
Anonymous

Boiiiii,you mist be happy!

07/28/2018 - 11:38 |
6 | 0
Anonymous

Cool Story bro

07/28/2018 - 12:09 |
2 | 4
Anonymous

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

I was being serious, I love historical sites

07/28/2018 - 18:53 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

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07/28/2018 - 18:52 |
2 | 2
adam thompson

The feeling of just one car driving by is nice. Now imagine being in the 3rd row on turn 4 at Daytona. You can see some cars on the other side of the track beyond the lake as just colored dots. The rest of the pack is coming at you three wide, 180 mph. They create a kind of vacuum as you feel the pressure around you drop, things feel like they go quiet as 30 800 hp cars come screaming by. The thunder of those V8s is rattling your chest, the rush of wind feels like a hurricane blowing by you 20 feet in front of you. The air is warm and smells of exhaust, hot rubber, and high octane fuel. And that continues for 400 miles. It’s an experience that I suggest all race fans should do at least once, go to a NASCAR race.

07/28/2018 - 23:40 |
4 | 2

I have, it really is something. You have no idea how loud they are until you go to one of the races. Never felt a pressure drop though really, the wind and the pressure weren’t that noticeable because I was more focused on visuals and sound. I was a couple feet from a crash at the end of the race and that’s something of a rush as well, even though the impact was only about 50mph - it just feels like you’re in on the action.

07/29/2018 - 03:25 |
2 | 2
UltimaSanctus

I’ve lived in the Greenville area for 13 years, why haven’t i been here yet!?

07/29/2018 - 04:58 |
2 | 2
Soni Redx (MD Squad Leader) (Subie Squad Leader)

It would be nice if they open that up again.

07/30/2018 - 18:38 |
0 | 0
Anonymous

the only unforgettable feeling you’ll get is turning left

08/04/2018 - 16:47 |
2 | 0