Seniors to take ‘victory lap’ at Speedway again

ROCKINGHAM — The Rockingham Speedway will be opening its gates for the Class of 2021 this May, just as they did for the Class of 2020.

Graduating seniors from Richmond Senior High School, Richmond Early College and Ashley Chapel Education Center will be able to ride around the track with their families and cross the finish line. This is in addition to RSHS’s graduation ceremony which will be June 4 at Raider stadium, weather permitting, which Principal Jim Butler announced in a livestream last month.

“The decision to do it again wasn’t much of a decision,” said Jamie Saad, spokesperson for The Rock Speedway & Entertainment Complex, citing the joy the event brought to families last year during the early months of the pandemic. “It went really well last year.”

Saad said that Butler was the one who really put it all together with the “master plan.” Butler could not be reached for comment by press time Wednesday.

For last year’s event, it was a “skeleton crew” of three individuals preparing for the victory lap over the course of two weeks. Saad said they had to overhaul large sections of the property.

There will be no fireworks at this year’s event. Saad said that it took a lot of infrastructure to plan for it last year and most families were busy celebrating with each other. The fireworks also only took up about 20 minutes of the event, while cars were driving around for hours.

Saad said it was difficult canceling so many events in 2020, but the graduation lap last year was a highlight. He said it was one of the smoothest events that they had run and credited the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department for their help in directing traffic.

The Senior Victory Lap will be taking place on Friday, May 7. Seniors will line up at RSHS at 6 p.m. and begin the parade at 7 p.m. Participants will enter through the Hamlet gate. The public is encouraged to line US 1 to cheer on the seniors, according to the flyer for the event.

“It was a rough year for everybody,” Saad said. “When the high school approached us, we said ‘You know, what are we doing having this great venue and not doing stuff for the community?’”