Moonshine Capital Promotions will return to Franklin County Speedway in Callaway, VA to promote the Southern Turkey Derby on Sunday, November 23rd-24th.
Moonshine Capital Promotions is operated by Langley and Kimberly Austin and previously managed Franklin County Speedway during the 2013-2014 and 2016-2017 seasons before issues with track ownership forced them out. They return this time but only for a single event.
Franklin County Speedway ran a limited schedule in 2018 and held just a handful of small events this season. Event promoter Langley Austin says that he wanted to run an event there because it’s been a while since the track has had this kind of show.
“It’s been a while since there’s been a show like this on that track,” Austin said. “I think probably June 2017 at our last event was the last time an event of this size was held there. The racers want it and the fans want it. I hear from them when I’m out at another track and on Facebook all the time. We want to do something that brings drivers and fans back there to enjoy one of the best short tracks in America in my opinion.”
The Southern Turkey Derby will feature NASCAR style Late Model Stock Cars, Mod 4’s, U-Cars, Stock 4’s and possibly an Any Car or Destruction type division to end the evening. Details on the Destruction type division will be announced at a later time but Austin says he wanted to get this out there as soon as possible. We’re also open to the possibility of another division being added.
“We wanted to do an October 13th event but we just couldn’t get all of our ducks in a row. It seemed as if everything was working against us to make that date work. We looked at doing October 27th but the NASCAR Cup races at Martinsville that day and we didn’t want to go up against that. I wanted to get this info out there as soon as possible and let drivers get their cars ready and let fans know that a big event will take place at Franklin County this season.”
Open practice will be held on Saturday, November 23rd with all racing taking place on Sunday, November 24th. The race is tentatively slated to start at 2:00pm but final details will need to be worked out.
“This is going to be the big event of the year for this region. It was great to have Motor Mile Speedway back open this year for the drivers and fans but after the Martinsville Late Model Stock Car race this region has nothing for the diehard drivers, teams, and fans. We’d like to make this an annual event and something we can really build on. It all starts with this one and see what we can do with it.”
Austin says he feels as if the drivers and fans will want to be a part of this event.
“Promoting is what I love to do,” Austin explained. “I’m going to work really hard at making this the type of event that every fan wants to watch and every driver wants to say they’re a part of. Since putting the word out that we were looking to do a race there, we’ve had a lot of drivers reach out to us. I think it could be one of the biggest car counts we’ve had for any event there. The local racers are hungry to get back there and the fans are hungry to see a good race there.”
Details on the race will be announced next week with purses, laps and all the other important information. Austin hasn’t promoted a race in two and a half years and says it’s going to take him a couple of weeks to get back in the swing of things but expect to see a lot of promotion for this event.
“This isn’t something you can just flip a switch on and go do. We’re going to build a website next week and we’re getting our old Facebook page back up and running. We’re going to be changing out signs at the track and along 220 in Roanoke. Putting up flyers and doing radio commercials and whatever it takes to get the word out there. It’s going to be a challenge but we’ve done this twice already and made a splash. There’s no reason this race won’t be a huge success.”
For more information on the event visit www.FCSpeedway.com or call Langley Austin at 276.613.4208.
