Feature article
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Saturday race may spark Kingsport Speedway's rebirth
By Jeff Bobo
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Jeff Bobo, who won’t even get a free hot dog for the preceding over-the-top sales pitch for Saturday’s race, writes about motorsports for GoTriCities.
UARA-Stars Late Model Touring Series “Choroideremia Research Foundation Presents the Anytime Fitness, Courtesy Chevrolet 150”
WHERE: Kingsport Speedway, 2961 N. John B. Dennis Highway
WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 7
7:30 a.m. — Pit gates open; 11 a.m. — Grandstand gates open; Noon — UARA qualifying; 2 p.m. — racing begins
COST: $15, adults; $10, students 13-18; Free, kids 12 and younger |
One of the first things I did when I moved here 12 years ago was find out where Kingsport Speedway was located.
After spending two years in Purgatory (also known as Harlan, Ky.), I was jonesing for some local short track action.
I took Lynn there on our first date in August of 1998. We had lasagna at Amato’s, played putt putt and then went to Kingsport Speedway, sat on the tailgate of my 1968 Chevy pickup in mezzanine parking and watched the races.
That should have been a BIG red flag for her right off the bat. Who takes their first date to a race track? It must have worked. We’re still together, and still hanging out at race tracks.
It was a pretty sad day for me when I learned that Kingsport Speedway wouldn’t be reopening after the end 2002 season. I kind of figured on that place becoming my home away from home.
And, I was dancing in the streets (figuratively speaking, of course) after I found out the track would be reopening this coming Saturday afternoon, albeit for a one race deal.
After seven years in a coma, this race is a blip on the track’s EKG monitor. It’s a faint breath of life. It’s a glimmer of hope. It’s a chance to prove that the track can draw a crowd and become a financially viable source of occasional, if not weekly entertainment in the Tri-Cities again.
But you’ve gotta show up. You’ve got to support your local race track. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.
Your local race tracks are like your teeth in one respect: Ignore them and they’ll go away.
Look at all the fellows around my age (40-55), who spent their youth coming to Kingsport Speedway Friday nights in the track’s heyday of the 1970s.
Wasn’t that a special time? Wasn’t that great?
Watching greats like Gene Glover, John A. Utsman, Harry Gant, Jack Ingram, Butch Lindley, L.D. Ottinger, Bob Pressely, Morgan Shepherd, Sam Ard, Paul Lewis, Jimmy Hensley and other NASCAR legends competing on a weekly basis.
I wasn’t here back then, but just hearing the stories over the years, I know what a special place Kingsport Speedway was to so many people. Wouldn’t it be great to have a place like that today to take your own kids and grandkids? Get them away from video games, the Internet and cable TV for one or two nights a month.
Well, you can test that theory Saturday afternoon when the UARA-Stars Late Model Touring Series comes to Kingsport Speedway for a one-race special show beginning at 2 p.m.
In case you hadn’t heard, a rainout from earlier in the UARA season couldn’t be rescheduled at the original venue and was moved to Kingsport Speedway for Saturday. Originally it was going to be the season points finale until the race this past Saturday in Concord, N.C. was also rained out.
That Concord race has been moved to Nov. 14 for the new season finale.
The UARA-Stars is a regional touring series in the Southeast that runs Late Models under fairly compatible rules to the average local track’s Late model rules. That way when a tour visits a track, the local drivers can test their skills against the tour regulars.
Kingsport Speedway Fun Facts- The generally accepted Late Model qualifying record for Kingsport Speedway on the current concrete configuration is 15:235 seconds set by Bristol racer Adam Dean on Oct. 6, 2002.
- The UARA-Stars Late Model series last visited Kingsport Speedway on Aug. 9, 2002. Coeburn, Va., racer Danny O’Quinn Jr., who was 17 years old at the time, took the pole with a lap time of 15.438 seconds and went on to win the race.
- The NASCAR Sprint Cup competed at Kingsport Speedway three consecutive years beginning in 1969. NASCAR legend Bobby Isaac took the pole in the inaugural race, leading 187 of 250 laps before falling out with engine failure. Richard Petty took the win in the inaugural race. Other notables included David Pearson in third; Wendell Scott, 10th; Isaac, 11th; and Dave Marcis, 14th.
- During Kingsport Speedway’s Cup years (1969-1971), Petty won two races and a pole while Isaac won two poles and a race (1971).
- Newport driver L.D. Ottinger won the Kingsport Speedway track championship 1970 to 1973.
- As of 1974, Harry Gant owned the Kingsport Speedway qualifying record on the old asphalt configuration with a lap time of 15.24 seconds, according to the track program from that year.
- Kingsport native Gene Glover won the 1979 NASCAR Late Model Sportsman (forerunner of the Nationwide Series) national championship competing mainly at Kingsport Speedway.
- Kingsport Speedway’s last Late Model track champion in 2002 was Jonesborough driver Robbie Ferguson.
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And, when the local guys are ready to spread their wings and try a touring series, making their local Late Model mechanically compatible for the UARA series is almost seamless.
These days there’s a fairly interesting cast of characters competing in the UARA Series — Larry McReynolds’ son Brandon McReynolds, Steve Grissom’s son Kyle Grissom, Robert Pressley’s son Coleman Pressley as well as an assortment of the best local short track drivers in the country.
Among these ranks are the future superstars of NASCAR.
A lot of local drivers are supposed to compete in Saturday’s race as well. I don’t want to mention any of the names I’ve heard, and then they don’t show up.
But, I’m willing to bet that a conservative estimate on the Late Model car count for Saturday between the tour regulars and the locals is at least 26.
You put 26 Late Models on Kingsport’s little three-eighths mile concrete oval bull ring, and you’re looking at a lot of beating and banging, a lot of close racing, and a lot of action.
That’s not to mention the two support divisions running after the Late Model race. We’ll have one of the old favorites, the Street Stocks, which are comprised of mainly V-8 Camaros and Novas with a few other models thrown in for good measure, running 30 laps.
And then there’s the little Pure-4 four-cylinder division running 25 laps, which historically has been the most exciting race wherever it competes. Lots of beating and banging. Lots of action. Occasional temper tantrums.
You don’t have to be a race fan to come out Saturday afternoon and enjoy a pleasant auto racing experience.
As of Tuesday the weather forecast is perfect for Saturday afternoon. Sunny, 65 degrees with zero percent chance of rain. You couldn’t ask for a better day to spend at the race track.
Consider it a cultural experience or a historical event.
It’s going to be a happening. It’s going to be a day to remember. It may be the very last chance we’ll ever have to see competitive racing at our home track. You want to be able to say you were there.
(If you come, don’t forget to bring a lawn chair. Those concrete block grandstands can wear out a rear end after a couple of hours.)
I have selfish reason for wanting the track to reopen. I want a nearby place to race. Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn, Va., is great. I love that track.
It’s just that drive — 45 miles each way — week after week. It wears you down. Especially an old fat guy like me.
For me, Kingsport Speedway would be a five-minute drive. Heck, I can hear the race cars from my front porch. That’s how close I live to the track.
And I’ve seen what good local racing does for a community. It’s a family sport. Parents get their kids involved in racing at a young age at their local track, and the family stays closer. They maintain a common bond. You don’t see many young people involved in racing getting tangled up with drugs or crime or hanging around with bad elements.
It teaches kids good work ethic, dedication, patience and how to set goals and achieve those goals.
Not every race kid is going to grow up to be Jeff Gordon, but they are going to grow up with skills and personality traits that will help them succeed at anything they work at throughout their adult life.
I guess the point I’m trying to make is that Kingsport needs its speedway open and operating again. But the only way that’s going to happen is if the community supports it. And the first step in that direction is to plant your rear in the grandstands Saturday afternoon and watch three entertaining races.
Give these dedicated racers a good crowd to perform for, and give the track owner incentive to open the track up again, if only for a couple times a year.
Kingsport Speedway boasts storied past
Editor’s Note: This is an excerpt from a Jeff Bobo article that originally ran in 2007.
The first racetrack wasn’t built in Kingsport until 1965 — the original dirt Kingsport Speedway, which was constructed at its current location on the John B. Dennis Highway.
The featured division back then was the old Modified division, which was basically a 1930s model passenger car converted into a race car.
“Over time the old Modified cars started to fade away, and they wanted to get into NASCAR so they paved Kingsport around 1969,” Kingsport racer Gene Glover recalled. “Up until then we were pretty much dirt racers, but I was loyal to Kingsport Speedway, and when they paved it I switched from dirt to mainly asphalt. It was really the right thing to do at the time because as soon as they paved Kingsport it became a regular stop for NASCAR, and they had a long stretch of really good racing there.”
Upon being paved, Kingsport Speedway immediately became a NASCAR track and hosted Cup races between 1969 and 1971. Richard Petty won the first two Kingsport Cup races, and Bobby Isaac won in 1971.
Kingsport Speedway was also the only race venue in Northeast Tennessee that hosted weekly action in the NASCAR Late Model Sportsman series (now the Nationwide Series).
Without exception, anyone who lived through the Kingsport Speedway glory days of the 1970s will say that track produced the best racing anywhere. Kenny Hunley, son of the late Church Hill racer Ken “Bear” Hunley, pretty much grew up at Kingsport Speedway in the 1970s.
“Every week you had Harry Gant, Jack Ingram, Jimmy Hensley, Butch Lindley, Gene Glover — all these great race car drivers,” Hunley said. “Pretty much every major NASCAR driver of that time came through Kingsport Speedway at one time or another, and a lot of them raced there on a weekly basis. Any given week you had at least 10 cars out there capable of winning, and they put on some great races.”
Kingsport Speedway of the 1970s was configured differently than it is now.
“It was asphalt, and a lot higher banked than it was after they made it concrete,” Gene Glover recalled. “It was a lot faster, and you had a lot more side-by-side racing. In my opinion it was the best racetrack in the country, and that’s probably what attracted so many top drivers to come here.”
Throughout the early 1970s Appalachian Speedway, also in Kingsport, and Kingsport Speedway raced in direct competition with each other on the same night. Still, both tracks thrived.
Kingsport drew the NASCAR asphalt crowd, and Appalachian drew the dirt outlaw fans, and there was plenty of both to go around.
By the late 1970s, Kingsport Speedway began a downward cycle. The NASCAR Late Model Sportsman series was beginning to fade in popularity, and shortly after the new NASCAR Busch Series was formed in 1982, Kingsport Speedway was converted back to dirt. In the 1990s it enjoyed a brief rejuvenation as a concrete NASCAR Weekly Racing Series track but hasn’t operated since the end of the 2002 season.
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Jeff Bobo, who won’t even get a free hot dog for the preceding over-the-top sales pitch for Saturday’s race, writes about motorsports for GoTriCities. E-mail him at jbobo@timesnews.net.
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