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Fans turn out to celebrate speedway's new life
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Published: November 10, 2009
NORTH WILKESBORO
Junior Johnson was there, and Bobby Allison and Ned Jarrett and other former drivers, and race engines revved and firetrucks wound their sirens and people leaving the infield garage took up the offer to drive a lap around North Wilkesboro Speedway.
About 200 people turned out in a steady rain Tuesday to hear about plans to revive racing at the historic 0.625-mile oval that closed in 1996. Speedway Associates Inc., the group that has a three-year lease on the track, had already announced that a USA Racing Pro Cup race (the former Hooters Cup series) will be held here Oct. 3, 2010.
Alton McBride Jr., president of SAI, announced that two more series are coming. The American Speed Association Late Model Series will bring its 300-lap Kings Ransom televised finale here sometime in November 2010, he said. Also coming is the Pro All Star Series (PASS) late model touring series. Both dates are still be finalized.
McBride also said they want to host a fair at the speedway, and have letters of intent from two major festivals he didn't name.
There weren't a lot of new details announced at the event, which lasted more than an hour. But it was a festive atmosphere, like a pep rally, with people talking of fond memories and hopes for the future.
Wilkes County resident Terri Parsons, the widow of Winston Cup champion Benny Parsons, pulled people together to make the deals happen. As she faced the crowd Tuesday, she asked former drivers to stand, then race team owners and volunteers and past spectators, and so on, until nearly everyone there was standing and applauding when she introduced McBride.
"After all that I feel like I should have a cape on," McBride said.
People in Wilkes County have been skeptical of people who have come in promising to revive the speedway, especially after the last potential developer, Charles Collins Jr., wound up in jail earlier this year. Collins is awaiting trial for financial problems associated with his bid to re-develop the speedway.
Local officials say this effort is the real deal. Collins, who had outstanding criminal fugitive warrants in Georgia and Florida, attracted almost no one to events at the track. Tuesday's news conference included mayors and town managers of both Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro, along with Wilkes County commissioners and the county manager, the sheriff, school superintendent, president of the Wilkes Chamber of Commerce and other officials.
Zach Henderson, chairman of the Wilkes County commission, said this is the first comprehensive plan to bring racing back.
"Yes, much has been accomplished, but there is a great deal more to do," he told the crowd. "…We look forward to seeing this facility being used to its fullest potential."
North Wilkesboro Mayor George Church and Mayor-Elect Robert Johnson pledged the town's support, as did Wilkesboro Mayor Mike Inscore.
Afterward, officials of both towns and the county said the group has not asked the local governments for anything. North Wilkesboro has the nearest water and sewer lines, which are about a mile away along N.C. 115, but Johnson said he believed the group could use the track's existing septic system for its plans.
"This could be the last viable chance to stabilize this track…and bring back the sights and sounds of short-track racing," Inscore said.
Later, as people mingled and got autographs, and car engines roared, Inscore said enthusiasm about the track had dropped after the issues with Collins. But he said the enthusiasm is back.
He planned to drive a lap as organizers invited people to do.
"I wouldn't miss that for anything," he said.
Local character Harold "Mule" Ferguson came up and gave McBride a copy of a photograph someone took on Sept. 29, 1996, the day Jeff Gordon won the last race at the speedway.
Ferguson was there as a volunteer that day parking cars with the North Wilkesboro Rotary Club.
"It was sort of a sad day for us, when we knew it was going to go away," he said.
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