Car Counts On the Rise at Eastern Tracks

As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, the action is getting hotter than ever at three regional racetracks.

Orange County Speedway, East Carolina Motor Speedway and Dillon Motor Speedway have all seen surges in their car counts this season.

East Carolina Motor Speedway, which is located in Robersonville, North Carolina, merged their Late Model Stock Car and Limited Late Model classes prior to the start of the season, matching rules similar to those now in place at East Carolina’s neighboring tracks in Kenly and Raleigh.  The move has paid off.  East Carolina boasted a 14 car field in their season opener and that was followed up by fields with more than 18 cars last Saturday.

On top of the fields, East Carolina has seen three different winners in three different races.  Louis White predictably won the season opener, but last weekend, Jeff Shiflett and Ace Speedway regular Dylan Ward scored victories.  East Carolina has also seen an influx of drivers from other tracks with drivers from Southern National Motorsports Park, Wake County Speedway, Orange County Speedway and Ace Speedway deciding to make trips there this season.

“We’ve definitely reaped the benefit of the rules package,” East Carolina Motor Speedway promoter John Vick said.  “We’ve got three guys now running in the top-20 in the state.  I think we definitely reaped the benefits and I’m really excited about it.  Hopefully we can continue this surge.  We need all the tracks to do the same thing though.  I’d like to see a state champion between East Carolina and Southern National.  We’ve been very lucky with the weather too while others have suffered.”

Dillon Motor Speedway has also seen a steady increase in car counts.  That increase gives the track’s promoter, Ron Barfield, reason to be optimistic not just about Dillon Motor Speedway but the state of grassroots short track racing as a whole.

“You see comments about South Boston where car counts are not up but, it seems like as a whole, everybody’s in the double digits,” Barfield said.  “The way things are going now, they’re better than they’ve been the past couple years.  Things are better and cars are coming to the track.  At Dillon, we don’t run a NASCAR Late Model, we run a Limited class we call Late Models.  I’m tickled to death that the racers are coming out and racing and supporting our local racetracks.  Dillon has a good car count.  We did some changes over the winter, going from an all-scuff tire program to a two-tire program.  That way, the racer always runs on the same tires they have bought.

“I’m not saying, hey, Dillon’s doing great.  As a whole, everybody seems to be benefiting from this Limited class and getting rules to where they’re the same.”

Barfield credits the coastal region’s car count increases to the rules that have merged the Limited Late Model classes and two-tire programs.

“When all these tracks got together and got the rules close, a racetrack’s got to do different things to get the car to work at different racetracks,” Barfield explained.  “There might be some differences in weights for crates and stuff.  It’s different for different tracks because not all tracks are the same but all of us going to the same package is helping a lot of the weekly racetracks.  It’s helped Dillon to get close.  Another thing that’s helped at Dillon is not racing every Saturday night, cutting back and racing two or three times a month.”

While South Boston Speedway’s car count has dropped off some this season, Orange County Speedway’s car count has picked up thanks in part to stronger promotion efforts and higher purses at the Rougemont, North Carolina facility.  Unlike Dillon and East Carolina, Orange County is not on a Limited Late Model rulebook for their premier division.

Josh Oakley, Stacy Puryear, Ronald Hill, Terry Dease, Thomas Scott, Justin Johnson and many others have been racing at Orange County Speedway – a track that has seen 10 different winners in 11 races this season.  The Late Model Stock Car count is not the only increase either.  The track’s Limited Late Model division is also seeing an increase.  One year ago, Orange County Speedway was struggling to get double digit car counts in either division.  Now, they’re accomplishing that.

Langley Speedway (Virginia) has also seen a steady increase in car counts this season with drivers like Lee Pulliam and Tommy Lemons, Jr. making frequent visits to the track.  Then, of course, there’s the CARS Tour which has seen over 20 Late Model Stock Cars in all four races they have run this season.  Chris Ragle, director of operations and marketing for the CARS Tour, said he expects to see the car count increase at Tri-County Motor Speedway on June 12^th.

In the world of social media, negativity often prevails in any conversation about grassroots racing – often fueled by an instant gratification mentality that causes some to air complaints, not praise, about their local short tracks.  Despite the negativity and the snark that often pollutes conversations about short track racing, things seem to be getting better.