"Rockingham Speedway Is Alive & Well" Reynolds Reports

A Bump Drafts Special Report by Patrick Reynolds

The only thing constant in auto racing is change. Depending on whose opinion is presented, many of these changes are good or bad for the sport. NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series has implemented The Chase, the Car of Tomorrow, the top 35 rule, and realignment of dates.

Fans debate the pros and cons of this new wave of organization. Some like the new rules, other miss the way things were. Darlington Raceway losing its traditional Labor Day weekend Cup date is a subject near and dear to racing traditionalists. Rockingham Speedway losing its NASCAR weekends all together is another.

After sitting dormant for four years “The Rock” came back to life in 2008 with an Automobile Racing Club of America weekend. This is a big deal.

The number of speedways that are closing in the United States is far greater than the number of speedways that are opening. Fortunately the former North Carolina Motor Speedway is back open for business.

On the land which once sat the speedway I witnessed my first race ever, now stands a shopping mall. My native New England and the northeastern section of the country have had similar stories unfold over the years.

The list includes Riverside Park, Plainville Stadium, Flemington Speedway, East Windsor Speedway, and Catamount Stadium. I could go on but you get the picture. In all cases the acreage that held the tracks became more valuable than the track itself and was sold for development. Where once was turn two is now a housing development or a warehouse.

On paper and from a business perspective it makes perfect sense. In these cases there was far more money to be made by selling the land than by selling tickets one night a week during the summer.

From my racer perspective, I think it stinks.

Roughly an hour to the southeast of Charlotte, North Carolina sits a one mile paved oval that bucked the trend. It hosted NASCAR’s premiere series, a scheduled date any track would love to have. For business reasons the track was sold and shut down.

I hate seeing speedways close, but I really have no more right to tell someone else what to do with property they own, than anyone else has the right to tell me what to do with what I own.

Fortunately, from my point of view, Andy Hillenburg purchased the Rockingham Speedway with no intentions to use the land for anything else but what it was already built for.

Racing.

“I think business wise we have a great future ahead of us.” Hillenburg told me during the recent ARCA/UARA weekend. “Right now it is hard because we are being aggressive with the addition of our Little Rock here (a half mile test track) and we try to keep upgrading the existing facility, so that part is a little bit difficult but we’ll manage. And we have some great support from all of our fans and we are looking forward to brighter days ahead.”

The brighter days include a schedule of races more aggressive than 2008. “The July fourth race is the Cherry Bomb 200” The Rock’s owner continues. “It is twin 100s with the street stockers the ASA late models. Then in October we’ve got the Pro Cup Series on Saturday the tenth and the ARCA race on Sunday the eleventh. It will be the championship race for the ARCA Series and next to last race for the Pro Cup Series. And then our second annual Polar Bear 150 on New Year’s Day.”

Beyond that there are some ideas about other races. “When we got the track we heard from a lot of great sanctioning bodies. Eventually we hope to find a place for all of them to visit The Rock. We want every racer to have raced here in some form. In the next two or three years we might be able to do that.”

I asked Andy about specifics. Like what we could see competing around Rockingham’s banked corners. “It’s not really a secret or anything but at the same time it has to follow the business model and our plan. Some groups can run together and some can’t. I’ve got to be a little bit flexible. Last year we didn’t have any prelim events on our schedule for our ARCA or Pro Cup race. Now this year we brought in UARA, ASA, and we combined the Pro Cup and the second ARCA weekend.”

“Hopefully we will have at least three to five new sanctioning bodies in here in the next few years.”

“I feel like we have the support from the race fans and the community. We are getting a few more corporate partners and sponsors to join our events. So I feel like the outlook is very bright. There are so many people where Rockingham has a piece of their heart I think we are going to make it.”

“There are so many race tracks that have shut down over the past few years and for those of us that eat, breath, and sleep racing, it is definitely a heartache to see a track close up.” Hillenburg concluded.

Some ARCA drivers have high reverence for the track’s place in motorsports.

Gabi DiCarlo: “Andy Hillenburg has done a great job resurrecting this famous track and the town and fans really support us.”

Grant Enfinger: “Racing at ‘The Rock’ is unlike anything I have ever raced on. The track is great because it is a fast, high banked big track, but it drives a lot like a short track.”

Frank Kimmel: “There is so much history at Rockingham. The track has a ton of character and it’s a different type of track than the others we go to which makes it fun for competitors.”

Alli Owens: “Such amazing drivers have raced there and a lot of cool stories come from that place. To have my name as part of the history at ‘The Rock’ would be a huge honor.”

Patrick Sheltra: “Rockingham is a neat place. It’s one of those places you cannot compare with anything else we compete on.”

Rockingham Speedway’s director of public relations, Charles Hudson, shared some of his thoughts on the track as well. “If we can get people out here to see it, then they are going to realize it’s a big show and it is a big deal. It’s not the ticket price of a Cup race and its still a very entertaining race and afternoon. We are trying to get everybody out here, and once they are here they will bring back their friends and neighbors and come back for more.”

Hudson also commented about the local support that was in Hillenburg’s corner. “He talked to the mayor and the community to judge what kind of support he had and to introduce himself and to try to get them on his side as far as getting the track. He absolutely worked hard on it before it ever happened. Of course ever since he did, it has been full force ahead ever since.

“Very clearly early on they knew Andy was the person they needed to get the track otherwise there might be a car running occasionally for a test” Charles elaborated. “There was the possibility someone might have just bought it and taken all the aluminum out and be done with it. So they understood that if racing was to remain here Andy was the one that needed to buy it. So they were very much in support of him.”

Here is some prognosis from the author about what might turn some laps at Rockingham one day. Andy Hillenburg was asked after he bought the track what would be racing there. He responded with a comment that he had nothing etched in stone but mentioned that he was a former ARCA competitor and grinned. Sure enough the first event at The Rock’s reopening was an ARCA competition.

What could be on the horizon for the North Carolina sand hills oval? Well Mr. Hillenburg has also competed in a big open wheel race on Memorial Day weekend in the state of Indiana. I do not have any facts to support my conjecture. But that is interesting food for thought.