ROCKINGHAM — The CARS Tour announced Thursday evening that the Rockingham Speedway will be the site of its 2021 season opener on March 6, 2021.
The racing event will feature late model stock cars, according to CARS Tour owner Jack McNelly. The CARS Tour schedule consists of 17 racing events running from March 6 to Oct. 16.
“People have all been clamoring to bring racing back to that part of the country and especially at Rockingham, and hopefully we’re going to pull this thing off and COVID won’t get in our way,” McNelly said. “I just hope that the racing fans and the community really turns out to support this event. I think it’s very important for the area in which you folks are.”
Rockingham Speedway is owned by a group called Rockingham Properties LLC, led by majority owner Dan Lovenheim in Raleigh. According to McNelly, that group has leased the track for the CARS Tour event to a company called Red Dot LLC, and that group contacted the CARS Tour about coming to the track to put on the show.
“As I understand it, they’re also going to have two other classes (of cars competing), but I’m not really sure what,” McNelly said. “But, our cars will be the headliner and we’re going to run a 100-lap event and it’s paying $10,000 to win. So, I think we’re going to attract a nice, quality field for our event.”
Representatives for the Speedway could not be reached Thursday. Lovenheim did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
McNelly said the Speedway’s ownership has been wanting to bring racing back to the track on a limited basis. The venue has not hosted a racing event since the Camping World Truck Series race in April 2013. The CARS Tour racing event will serve as a kind of “test run” for the track ownership to judge the logistical and financial feasibility of whether they can continue to bring more racing events to the track in the future, according to McNelly.
“The track surface is in good shape,” McNelly said. “There’s some things that need to be touched up, of course. But, they have the desire to bring racing back on a limited basis.”
Currently in North Carolina, state COVID-19 restrictions allow a 7% capacity for large venues with a seating capacity of more than 10,000. The capacity of Rockingham Speedway is about 34,500, which means under the current restrictions, a maximum of 2,415 people would be allowed to attend.
However, there’ s no way to predict where the state will be with regards to the pandemic and the relevant restrictions in four months.
“If the promoters [Red Dot LLC] can’t have fans, naturally (the event) is not going to happen because they need the revenue from the gates to make it happen,” McNelly said. “All of us, including myself, just hope and pray that this doesn’t get any worse and the powers-that-be don’t go completely crazy and lock everything back down again, basically putting us all out of business.”
McNelly said he started the tour in 2011 under the name “Pro Cup Series.” In 2015 they transitioned into dual-classes with the super late model and late model stock cars that they run now.
“Our series is a travelling series,” McNelly said. “We don’t stay at one track. We travel all over. We travel through Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee. A lot of people refer to them as NASCAR late model stocks because they are the same vehicle that runs on Saturday nights at the NASCAR tracks.”
The CARS Tour is based in Mooresville and is sponsored by Solid Rock Carriers.
The most recent event to be held at the Rockingham Speedway was the “victory lap” for Richmond Senior High School graduating seniors back on June 12.
“I mean, the facility is there,” McNelly said. “I think [the owners], they spent a lot of money on it. I’m sure they want to start doing something, making something happen and getting a little bit of return on their investment.”