Easley, South Carolina native Anthony Anders has established himself as one of the best Late Model drivers on the East Coast during the 21st Century. His successful career includes a trip to victory lane during the Myrtle Beach 400 in 2012, as well as a NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship in 2014, when he won 30 races at his home track of Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
Anders elected to take a step back from full-time competition following his championship run in order to focus on helping his son, Brandon Lee Fox, get started with his racing career, but Anders still makes occasional appearances in both Late Model and Super Late Model competition. Anders’ other main focus has been managing the track where he achieved most of his on-tracks success, as he signed a six-year lease to operate Greenville-Pickens Speedway back in 2015.
Since taking over the facility, Anders has worked to improve competition at the historic short track by making changes to the inspection process and adding more officials in the garage area, and has made several renovations to the track over the past three years. Greenville-Pickens has been a huge part of Anders’ life over the past several decades, and he hopes to keep improving the facility in order to make the track appealing to both old and new generations of auto racing drivers and fans.
“The local owner was looking at possibly not proceeding with Greenville-Pickens Speedway as a racetrack, and I didn’t want to see that legacy go,” Anders said. “Greenville is one of the fastest growing cities in the United States right now, and the population has doubled in the past four years, and Greenville-Pickens is right in the middle of that.”
Greenville-Pickens’ association with stock car racing dates back to the 1940s, with the first official NASCAR sanctioned race being held at the track on October 6, 1955, which was won by Bob Flock. The half-mile short track would go on to host 28 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, as well as two Xfinity races in the 1980s, before the two top NASCAR divisions left the track in order to pursue larger markets.
Despite losing NASCAR’s top two series, Greenville-Pickens has played host to several other auto-racing divisions over the past two decades, and has been a part of the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East schedule since 2006. The track has also hosts a weekly Late Model division, with drivers such as David Pearson, Ralph Earnhardt and Robert Pressley all claiming track championships since 1957.
The weekly series at Greenville-Pickens features several different classes of auto racing, which include Super Stocks, Late Models and Limited Late Models, with the season running from the first week of February up until the end of September. When Anders took over as general manager, he introduced the Greenville-Pickens Winter Meltdown as the season-opening event, which is a 150-lap Super Late Model feature event that pays $10,000 to the winner.
Anders admitted that he took a risk by starting the season at Greenville-Pickens with an afternoon race, but added that he has been impressed with the results and turnout that he has seen from the competitors and the local racing community.
“The Meltdown has been a very successful race for us,” Anders said. “We don’t do many day races at Greenville-Pickens Speedway, and I was the first one to do a February race at the track. We noticed that the first time we held the Meltdown that the 2:00 start time brought in a lot of seniors, which made up about 60% of our audience. Every year since then the event has grown, and it’s given people something to look forward to in February. It’s just a different, laid back kind of atmosphere.”
The 2018 edition of the Greenville-Pickens meltdown will feature a 35-lap 4-cylinder race, and 75-lap Late Model feature to accommodate the Super Late Models, in which $1,000 and $2,500 will be awarded to the respective winners of each event. The 150-lap Super Late Model event will contain a competition caution between Lap 100 and Lap 125, in which teams will be allowed to make a two-tire pit stop to prepare for the closing laps of the event.
Anders, who has over 50 career victories at Greenville-Pickens, believes that being conservative early in the race will be crucial in having a chance at victory, but added that the recent repave of the track in 2016 has created more opportunities for drivers to be aggressive throughout the duration of the event.
“Back in the day, it was about balancing the tires and saving rubber for the end of the race,” Anders said. “However, with the new asphalt, everyone brings a different motor package, and tires aren’t that big of a concern anymore, which is why I think the Meltdown is going to be a great race from start to finish.”
Anders expects more than a dozen Super Late Models for the season-opening event at Greenville-Pickens on February 3rd. Among the drivers that are on the preliminary entry list include Chase Purdy, who will be running for a championship with MDM Motorsports in the ARCA Racing Series, as well as former All-American 400 winner Bubba Pollard.
