Widenhouse, Dink, 1932-

Wright, Christina

Charlotte, North Carolina

J. Murrey Atkins Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Charlotte

2007-01-25

1 audio file (2:42:01) : digital, MP3 + 1 transcript (78 pages : PDF)

sound recording-nonmusical

spoken word

eng

Dink Widenhouse was a 75-year-old man at the time of interview, which took place at UNC Charlotte J. Murrey Atkins Library in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was born in Concord, North Carolina in 1932. He graduated from high school and was employed as a race car driver.

Stock car driver and Concord, North Carolina native David "Dink" Widenhouse discusses his racing career from the late 1940s-1960s and his experiences with members of the racing community. Mr. Widenhouse describes how he began racing at the age of fifteen and won his first NASCAR race at the age of eighteen, even though the rules required that drivers be at least twenty-one. He describes how he primarily drove in modified stock car races on dirt tracks in the Charlotte region, including the now-defunct track at the Southern States Fairgrounds and Charlotte Speedway off Wilkinson Boulevard. Other topics include details about racing and the mechanics of race cars, race car accidents, and the connection between the bootleg liquor industry and stock car racing.

MP3 access copy created on ingest from WAV preservation master. Interview originally recorded on two minidiscs and digitized using a Digidesign 003 rack.

Stock car drivers

Widenhouse, Dink, 1932-
France, Bill, 1909-1992
Smith, Bruton, 1927-2022
Cox, Marion, 1920-1996
Flock, Tim, 1924-1998
Yarborough, Cale
Earnhardt, Ralph, 1928-1973
Scott, Wendell, 1921-1990
Jarrett, Ned, 1932-

NASCAR (Association)
Southern States Fairgrounds
Charlotte Speedway
Hickory Motor Speedway

Automobile racing
Motorsports
Stock car racing
Stock car racing--Accidents
Racetracks (Automobile racing)
Automobiles, Racing--Design and construction
Distilling, Illicit

North Carolina--Charlotte
North Carolina--Concord
North Carolina--Mooresville
Florida--Daytona Beach

1940-2010

Motorsports

Living Charlotte : the Postwar Development of a New South city

The materials included on this web site are freely available for private study, scholarship or non-commercial research under the fair use provisions of the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, United States Code). Any use beyond the provisions of fair use, including but not limited to commercial or scholarly publication, broadcast, redistribution or mounting on another web site always require prior written permission and may also be subject to additional restrictions and fees. UNC Charlotte does not hold literary rights to all materials in its collections and the researcher is responsible for securing those rights when needed. Copyright information for specific collections is available upon request.

Digitization made possible by funding from the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by the State Library of North Carolina, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources.

audio/mpeg

OH-WI0459

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/uncc:358