Junior Johnson was there, and Bobby Allison and Ned Jarrett and other former drivers. Race engines were revved up, and firetruck sirens wailed.People leaving the infield garage took up an offer to drive a lap around North Wilkesboro Speedway.
About 200 people turned out in a steady rain yesterday to hear about plans to revive racing at the historic 0.625-mile oval that was 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., the president of SAI, said yesterday that two more series are coming here. The American Speed Association Late Model Series will bring its 300-lap Kings Ransom televised finale sometime in November 2010. Also coming will be the Pro All Star Series late-model touring series. Dates are still to be confirmed.
McBride also said that the group wants to play host to a fair at the speedway, and has letters of intent from two major festivals that he didn't name.
There weren't a lot of new details announced at the gathering, which lasted more than an hour. But it was a festive atmosphere -- like a pep rally-- with people expressing 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 yesterday, 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.
Wilkes County residents have been skeptical of people who have come in with promises of reviving 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 redevelop the speedway.
Local officials say that 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. Yesterday's news conference included mayors and town managers of both Wilkesboro and North Wilkesboro, along with Wilkes County commissioners, the county manager, the sheriff, the superintendent of schools, the president of the Wilkes Chamber of Commerce and other officials.
Zach Henderson, the chairman of the county board of commissioners, said that this is the first comprehensive plan to bring racing back.
"Yes, much has been accomplished," Henderson told the crowd. "But there is a great deal more to do…. We look forward to seeing this facility being used to its fullest potential."
North Wilkesboro's mayor, George Church, and mayor-elect, Robert Johnson, pledged the town's support, as did the mayor of Wilkesboro, Mike Inscore.
Afterward, county and city officials said that 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 believes that the group's plans could utilize the track's existing septic system.
"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 sought autographs, and car engines roared, Inscore said that enthusiasm about the track had declined after the problems with Collins, but now it has returned.
Inscore planned to drive a lap at the invitation of organizers.
"I wouldn't miss that for anything," he said.
Local character Harold "Mule" Ferguson came up gave McBride a copy of a photograph that was taken on Sept. 29, 1996 -- the day that Jeff Gordon won the last race at the speedway.
Ferguson was a volunteer at the track 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.
mmitchell@wsjournal.com
667-5691
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