Those seeking signs that the economy is on the mend need look no further than Steve Earwood’s Rockingham Dragway which, in the midst of the current recession, attracted record numbers to its eight fall events.

In the fall quarter, The Rock drew 2,890 racing vehicles and more than 105,000 fans for events as diverse as the IHRA Team Finals, a competition for entry level, grassroots racers; the American Drag Racing League’s Dragstrock VI, featuring the extreme Pro Modified and Pro Stock vehicles; and the IHRA World Finals, last event in the IHRA NitroJam Series featuring 320 mile-an-hour Top Fuel dragsters.

“It was a very gratifying quarter,” Earwood said. “The economy being what it is, we were very happy with the numbers. Everyone in business is challenged right now, but our position is that in times like these, people need to be entertained more than ever and, thankfully, drag racing is a great outlet.”

The participant numbers would seem to support Earwood’s premise. A total of 180 hybrid Pro Modifieds and Pro Stocks participated Sept. 11-12 in the National Guard-backed Dragstock VI event to the delight of a two-day crowd estimated at 40,000.

Three weeks later, 596 cars were pitted for the Holcomb Motorsports Civil Wars race for street legal vehicles and a week after that, 221 Harley-Davidson Motorsports battled for championships in the All-Harley Drag Racing Association Screamin’ Eagle Finals.

The aforementioned IHRA Team Finals attracted 430 race car entries during its Oct. 15-18 run and the IHRA World Finals drew another 402 pro and semi-pro entries a week later.

After hosting 169 cars for its Halloween “Spooktacular,” The Rock closed the regular season with the Lee’s Performance Fall Nationals, last event in the Mickey Thompson Tires MiRock Superbike Series, and the final race in the Phantasm Motorsports Street Wars series.

The former drew 486 motorcycles; the latter 225 cars and bikes.

“I think the race car numbers were a bit of a surprise,” Earwood said.

“But it goes to show that if you have the cars or the bikes or whatever, you’re gonna draw fans. They’re tired of sitting home and worrying about the direction the economy is going. They’re looking for a diversion.”

Building on the track’s fourth quarter success, Earwood and his staff are putting the finishing touches on a 2010 schedule that will feature 103 days of competition and more than 90 events.

“Right now, I think all of us are looking forward to slowing down a little for the holidays,” Earwood said.

“But that doesn’t mean the track’s going to be dark. One of the things we’ve done to generate a new revenue stream is to aggressively promote our testing availability. We have a world class quarter mile and that appeals to pro teams in both the IHRA and NHRA series.

“In fact, over the winter, we’re going to host the teams that’ll be running the Ford Mustang Pro Stock cars in the NHRA series next year. And we’ll have some others, I’m sure. We’re looking forward to a great 2010,” Earwood added.



On the Web: www.rockinghamdragway.com-