This is the 1st in a 26-part series of weekly stories about the history of Langley Speedway as it goes through its 75th season by Al Pearce & Marty O’Brien. Unfortunately, Al passed away unexpectedly just before this series could be shared. In honor of his memory, we will be releasing his final stories over the next few weeks that we received to publish before his passing.
By Al Pearce
Langley Speedway roars into its 75th anniversary season this year with a well-earned and well-established reputation as one of NASCAR’s best-run weekly tracks. From its modest opening in 1950 as a dirt track with few amenities to today’s paved showplace, Langley has consistently stayed ahead of the competitive and administrative curve.
In the late 1940’s the property on North Armistead Avenue in Hampton was home to Dude Ranch, an 8/10th-mile oval for lower-level thoroughbred horse racing. The owners occasionally hosted stock car races, which generally attracted more fans than the horses. The owners eventually shortened the track to 4/10ths-mile and turned their attention to cars. Dude Ranch stayed a small, rough-hewn bullring until 1963, when ex-racer and local businessman Henry Klich paid $1,000 for the lease and promptly renamed it Langley Field Speedway.
Realizing that NASCAR would soon abandon its dirt tracks, Klich paid a local contractor $25,000 to pave Langley in 1968. Its four dirt-track races in the 1960’s went to Ned Jarrett in 1964 and 1965 and Richard Petty in 1966 and 1967. David Pearson won twice in 1968 and once in 1969, all of them on asphalt. Bobby Isaac won in 1970 and Bobby Allison later that year, in Langley’s last Cup event.
Klich retired late in 1969, but retained the lease and kept a close eye on things from his nearby home. Local car-builder Donnie Harris doesn’t think Klich (who died in January of 2001 at age 70) gets enough credit for starting Langley on its way to respectability.
“He turned Langley from a Saturday night redneck get-together to real good racing,” he said of Klich, who briefly raced in lower-level cars at Langley in the 1980’s. “He did everything he could to make the speedway better, to make it successful. He brought in the best drivers he could find and made the public aware of what good racing really was.”
During the early 1970’s, Langley survived a series of well-meaning but generally overmatched leadership teams. Veteran drag racing promoter Hank Hankins had a brief run, followed by the fivesome of Bob Wall, Carl Breen, Gene Hutchinson, Lee Cogdill and B.W. Mitchum. For the better part of a year former TV sportscaster Charlie Bailey was its promoter/general manager.
It’s undeniable that Langley’ savior was Joe Carver. (The track probably would have survived without him, but in what form?) Tall, white-headed, confident and charismatic, the Charlie Rich-lookalike moved to Hampton from Nashville in the fall of 1973. He was on hand for a late-season show, then was named Bailey’s replacement a few days later. He immediately set about rebuilding Langley’s sagging image and stirring up what had become a complacent and inconsistent fan base.
He ruled for 10 years, moving Langley forward and creating something of a “Golden Age” for local racing. Ever-feisty, Carver never shied from conflict with fans, competitors, or the media. In truth, he probably created more “feuds” and painted more “payback” scenarios than actually existed. Because of it, fans saw some of the country’s best short-track racers and enjoyed some truly creative Saturday night promotions.
Carver opened the track’s vault in the 1970’s and lured many of the region’s best short-track racers, including Sonny Hutchins, Ray Hendrick, Tommy Ellis, Harry Gant, Butch Lindley, Bill Dennis, Jack Ingram, Sam Ard, Jimmy Hensley, and Geoffrey Bodine. Later, in the early 1980’s, a new wave of stars came to Langley for Xfinity Series races. Among them: Dale Jarrett, Tommy Houston, Brett Bodine, Mark Martin, Jimmy Spencer and series champions Ingram, Ard, Larry Pearson, and Rob Moroso.
During this period the current-day Late Model class was born and nurtured. From it came many of Langley’s most successful drivers: Danny and Greg Edwards, Elton and Roger Sawyer, Phil Warren, Billy Smith, Charlie Doyle, Bubba Adams, Diane Teel, Wayne Hanbury, Chip Hudson, Eddie Johnson, Buddy Malish, Mike Buffkin, Howard Crews, Joe Gaita, and Shawn Balluzzo. It’s been said that everybody who’s ever been anybody in NASCAR weekly-track racing has been to Langley a time or two.
In addition to nine Cup races between 1964 and 1970 and 14 Xfinity Races between 1982 and 1988, Langley has hosted ASA, Hooters Pro Cup, Goody’s Dash, Southern Modified, and Grand American races. Among the ASA racers who came to Langley were a young, unknown Californian named Jimmie Johnson and a fourth-generation kid from North Carolina named Adam Petty.
In the mid-1970’s a tall, thin, raw-boned kid from Kannapolis, N.C. came in for a Sunday afternoon Late Model Sportsman race. Later, Dale Earnhardt won a few Cup races and seven championships Then there were the years when a high school kid from near Richmond named Denny Hamlin raced here each weekend in a purple No. 11 Ford Mini-Stock. Former Cup star Geoffry Bodine won his first “covered-wheel” race here after years of open-wheel Modified excellence in the Northeast.
The men who took over when Carver returned to Nashville after the 1983 season never quite measured up. Even so, George St. Amand and Joe Baldacci improved the track, offered good shows, and presented a comfortable environment. But it wasn’t until Wayne Wyatt and partner Jim Wood came along in 1995 that Langley began growing again at a steady rate.
They oversaw the time of Langley’s greatest physical improvement. Between 1995 and 1997 they replaced the unsightly steel guardrail with a concrete wall. They repaved the track and replaced the aging bleachers with iron-and-steel grandstands. They added more than a dozen skyboxes and VIP suites, and a modern race control and media booth.
Wyatt brought in Dwight Schaubach as his financial partner in 1999, and they worked together through 2004. Sandy Lemonds and her racer/husband, Dale, bought the lease late in 2004. When Dale was killed at Langley in August of that year, Sandy and her brother, King Hodges, operated the track in 2005 and part-way into the 2006 season. When King died in April of that year, Sandy turned over the daily operations to long-time friend Lou Gotti.
With the economy taking a toll on local short-track racing, the cash-strapped Gotti sold the track to former racer/area businessman Bill Mullis. Mullis had raced in support divisions at Langley, Southampton, and Southside speedways. He rehired former promoter Chuck Hall and they continued to operate the speedway in a safe and solid manner.
Langley graduates continue to do well. Hamlin is an established Cup Series star. Former champion Elton Sawyer is a vice-president at NASCAR’s highest level. Among former Langley crew chiefs, Jamie Jones, Eddie Pardue, Cliff Daniels, and Bootie Barker have enjoy success up the line. “Butterbean” Queen is rising star in the ARCA Series and Connor Hall is enjoying great success on the CARS Tour.
With fan support growing to record numbers in recent years, Mullis and Hall have steered Langley Speedway to ever greater heights. They and their staff have pledged to continue Langley’s excellence as a weekly track deep into the future.
