LUCAMA, NC :: Southern National Motorsports Park has become one of the premier short tracks in the southeast since its reopening in 2012. After a successful 2013 season, this season promises to be as big as ever and track co-owner Michael Diaz is excited about what’s to come.
Along with continuing the Dirty Dozen with Motor Mile Speedway, Southern National Motorsports Park will also align itself with East Carolina Motor Speedway which is 51 miles away from Southern National. East Carolina was one of three tracks in the region to go under the NASCAR banner during the off-season. Southern National also plans to have big races for the Limited Late Model division.
Diaz will begin selling segmented lap times to race teams in 2014. Southern National is unique in that it has multiple scoring loops around the track much like tracks on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tour. The segmented lap times would allow teams to see where their car is performing well and where improvement is needed.
“For $20 laps, drivers can purchase segmented lap times instead of just seeing lap times,” Diaz said. “They usually only see their fastest laps. They can’t see their segmented lap times anywhere else. We invested in scoring loops so we know how long it takes to get from start/finish line to turns one and two, turns one and two to the backstretch, backstretch to three and four and back to the start/finish line. You’ll learn you’re really good coming through turns one and two but horrible in three and four. The only way you can tell is through these lap times.”
Diaz says Southern National will host a big Limited Late Model race on November 1st and that details will be forthcoming in the coming weeks and months. The Limited Late Models will also run a Father’s Day race in the memory of Jerry Moody on June 7th. Moody, who passed away on November 24, 2013, was a long time racing enthusiast and car owner.
“I don’t have a lot of details on it right now,” Diaz remarked. “They asked me if we could do something like that. It’s something that our general manager Dale Moore wanted to do and Haley Moody called us and wanted to do it. We just haven’t had a chance to break it down yet.”
Jerry Moody’s daughter, Haley, will compete in the Limited Late Model class at Southern National after running in the Charger division last season.
“Southern National is putting on a race on June 7th, which would be the Father’s Day race, for cancer and doing it in my dad’s name,” Moody said. “It means a lot to me because I know my dad loved racing and everyone else knew it also so it would be awesome to see a lot of people come out and support this event.”
The Thanksgiving All-Star Classic, a long time staple on Southern National’s schedule, will return in 2014 on the final weekend in November. Last year, Ronnie Bassett scored the victory in an instant classic with a late race bump-and-run on two-time defending NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Champion Lee Pulliam.
Diaz also spoke about the alliance with East Carolina and plans to have a U-CAR series between the two tracks, similar to the Dirty Dozen.
“We’re trying to do something to promote both tracks,” Diaz explained. “We’re just trying to promote the tracks together. They want to do a U-CAR or something like what I have going with Motor Mile. Ever since I’ve done that, everybody’s wanting to do things like that and now all kinds of tracks are doing competitions and that’s cool because I feel like tracks need to work together.”
Ever since Southern National and Motor Mile formed an alliance with the Dirty Dozen, several other tracks have worked out championship series. Franklin County Speedway, Dillon Motor Speedway and Ace Speedway recently announced the Mid-Atlantic Street Stock Championship. Kingsport Speedway and Lonesome Pine Raceway, which both fall under the same management, will be co-promoted. A Late Model championship series that has been organized by three area tracks and will be run in memory of Rodney Cook, who passed away in December, will be announced in the coming weeks.
Along with book-ending the 2014 Late Model Stock Car season, Southern National Motorsports Park will host the Pro All Stars Series (PASS) three times this season, which includes the PASS National Championship finale in November and the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour will return to Southern National twice this season.
The 2014 season at Southern National Motorsports Park kicks off Saturday afternoon, March 1st and RACE22.com will be there with complete coverage during and after the race.
