The Third Annual Rodney Cook Memorial event will now take place on Saturday July 2nd at Ace Speedway in Altamahaw, NC.
RACE22.com founder Langley Austin, who also operates Franklin County Speedway in Callaway, VA will be promoting the event through RACE22.com. Austin knew Rodney Cook very well from Rodney’s days of racing at Franklin County to covering him racing throughout the Carolinas on RACE22.com.
“Rodney was one of the coolest guys at the track,” said Austin. “He was one of toughest racers in the country but he was one of the nicest guys off the track. It’s an honor to be able to take this race and make it something that will truly honor Rodney’s life and racing career.”
Austin says he’s wanted to promote this race since learning of Rodney’s passing and appreciates the opportunity given to him by the Cook family and Ace Speedway General Manager Mike Dailey.
“Mike (Dailey) came to me and said ‘Look I can’t do this race the justice it deserves. It needs someone who knew Rodney and someone who can genuinely give this race the attention it deserves’. I knew right then that I wanted to do it but I also wanted to do my due diligence and get with Rodney’s brother Nukey and make sure he was on board and go from there, he said he was 100% behind it and was looking forward to it.”
RACE22.com will operate the event completely separate of other activities this season at Ace Speedway.
“We’re looking forward to going in there to do this event but we want to do it our way,” continued Austin. “RACE22.com and Moonshine Capital Promotions are both two companies that have done a lot for short track racing and we want this to be our crown jewel event. We will be handling everything except the concessions for the event and we’re going to put a lot of man hours into the event and the facility ahead of the race.”
The Late Model Stock Car race will be 114 laps honoring both numbers that Rodney competed in regularly 1 and 14. The race will be run by NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car rules and will be run on four new sticker tires.
The purse and additional divisions will be announced in the coming days but Austin expects it to be big event.
“I don’t want to just do this race for the sake of running it. Rodney deserves this race to be like the old Ace Speedway. With big car counts and the grandstands full of people. We’ll have the backstretch grandstands open and everything back the way it was when Rodney was winning races there. We’d like to run all the divisions that people have come to expect over the years at Ace and maybe a few more. It’s going to be a big day of racing with a true Late Model race to highlight the event.”
More details concerning the event will be released in the next few weeks but race fans Mark your calendars because the Third Annual Rodney Cook Memorial is going to be the biggest yet.
A new website for the Rodney Cook Memorial is in development at www.rodneycookmemorial.com. That will be your source for all information for the Third Annual Rodney Cook Memorial event on Saturday July 2nd at Ace Speedway.
