Best _ _ _ _ place for a racer to live

[Michael Kilduff]

Probably pretty tough to beat central NC, or anywhere else in NC for that matter.

I live on the coast ( Carolina Beach, NC) and have 5 'local' tracks within about 100 miles, and we have races year round. It does slow down to about 1 per month in dec-Jan-Feb, but they are all good paying bracket races. Of those 5 local tracks 3 are IHRA (Coastal Plains in Jacksonville, Dunn-Benson, Fayetteville).

Go out out another 100 miles and there is Zmax, Piedmont (IHRA), Darlington SC (IHRA with a triple header points race on Labor Day), Outer Banks Dragway, North East Dragway, and another 30 miles will find Richmond VA (NHRA), Roxboro, Farmington, and a couple other dragstrips.

If someone was living in the Raleigh area they would probably have more tracks within 100 miles than anyplace else.

There are also a couple of specialty organizations like the CCRA (Carolina Class Racers Assoc.) and the Classic Gearjammers that race all over NC.

EDIT- The tracks here have always been friendly to me, most of the time track prep is very good, lots of race shops and engine shops around, and really good payouts compared to other areas I have read about. A typical program around here will have a $45 entry for footbrake that pays $1000-1500 to win. Michael Beard and others put on big bucks races like the one scheduled next weekend at Coastal Plains-a 5K, then a 20K, then another 5K (all in 2 days) footbrake race.