Historic short tracks look to the future

SOUTH BOSTON, Va. (WDBJ) - South Boston Speedway is preparing for the start of the racing season and what it calls a “crown jewel” of competition.

Track officials and race teams hope to pack the stands for the “King of the Modifieds” event this weekend and continue building on the rich tradition of short track racing in the region.

A day of testing at South Boston Speedway this week included short track standout Burt Myers and his 16-year-old son Slate. Both will be driving on Saturday as the Smart Modified Tour makes its latest stop in Southside.

“Man, I’ve been coming here since, golly, since probably 1990, watching races,” Myers told WDBJ7. “Started in ’94, so yeah, I’ve been coming here a long time.”

“This became a place that me and my brother both came and competed every Saturday night,” added former NASCAR driver and current race team co-owner Hermie Sadler. “And some of the best stock car racers in the country grew up cutting their teeth and racing right here at South Boston Speedway. So we learned if you could do well at South Boston, you could go pretty much anywhere in the country and be successful.”

South Boston Speedway held its first race in August 1957, and the early stars of NASCAR competed there. NASCAR Hall of Famer Benny Parsons claimed his first Cup Series victory there in May, 1971.

“This is the cathedral of NASCAR racing. It started here. That’s what’s so exciting about it,” said Sen. Bill Stanley, who teamed up with Sadler to field cars in the SMART Modified Tour. “So, when I bring my family here, my own son who loves racing, and he looks out, he’s looking at history as we all are as the cars go by.”

Stanley has introduced legislation in the General Assembly that would make Virginia’s racetracks more competitive financially.

And during a podcast he hosted this week, he described the micro-targeting techniques he borrowed from his political campaigns to identify race fans and deliver text messages encouraging them to buy tickets for Saturday’s race.

“If we can apply that, not just for this race or this racetrack but also the race tracks around North Carolina and South Carolina, Virginia where you race, where the smart series races, we can bring more people more fans grow fans and do a lot better for these local racers that want to come out here and race and want to race for bigger purses,” Stanley said.

A handful of short tracks including Martinsville, Bristol and Richmond remain on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, but many of the tracks around the country have struggled financially.

“A lot of it is done by pure heart and gut, because they’ve lived it and want to see it succeed,” said SMART Modified Tour Owner Chris Williams.

To make sure they succeed, supporters of “grass roots racing” hope to win over a new generation of fans.

“I think the coolest thing about short track racing is you can pull for a guy that’s out here racing on the racetrack and you might see him at the hardware store on Wednesday, so fans can relate to that,” Myers told us.

“You take these grass roots racers, a lot of them are nine to five workers, blue collar, and you put them out here and showcase them to people who are like them and you can really get your emotional energy behind that,” said South Boston Speedway General Manager Brandon Brown.

Friday’s schedule includes practice and qualifying for the King of the Modifieds, with racing to follow on Saturday. And there’s a full season of short track racing ahead at more than a dozen tracks across the state.