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Corinth Speedway... Grass Roots Cool
Late Model Mark
May 25, 2010
Pinson, Alabama
This past week I put another check in the new track box for 2010. That's 4 new tracks this year with hopefully more to come. This week's Red Clay Report is about a trip into Northwest Mississippi for the first Super Late Model race in 3 years at Corinth Speedway in Mississippi. This track was previously known as Northwest Mississippi Speedway, had been shuttered for some time until it's recent rebirth.
On this nights slate was a visit by the P.R.O. Series tour that is in it's first year of operation under the guidance of Mike Mauldin, Jeff Greer, and Johnny Stokes. The ole Dodge left the house on the mountain in the early afternoon for the scenic 150 mile drive thru the Northwestern part of Bama then into the Magnolia state. You can always tell that it is raceday Saturday in Alabama as the interstates are loaded with all kinds of racecars heading in every direction. Once in the upper reaches of Bama, it get's very rural and even more pretty. Across the stateline and about 20 minutes later you pass thru the ultra-small town of Glen, all I saw was 1 gas station! Just past that "fillin" station there is a small road that you bear to the right on and seconds later there is the gate to Corinth Speedway, very interesting place to put a track. You would never know it was there without the signs.
The facility is a classic small town grass roots track. One gates handles all traffic when you pull in. Spectators who get there early, and some did, can park on either side of the grandstands right up against the fence on the main straight. I'd say about 10 spots on each side. The tower is in the middle of the two small grandstands, upstairs is race control while down below is where the concessions and restrooms are. The track has concrete block walls ringed by nice fencing. The infield is empty so the sightlines are good. The lighting is good and the soundsystem is easily heard. The pits are not that large, they are located off of turns 1 and 2, the pits have decent lighting as well. It's kind of tight but it seems to work out good on this night. Fans who arrive early park right behind the seats and along the short access road form the entrance road. For some fans, the walk from their seats to the car may take 5 seconds!! It does fill up fast and the later arriving fans park on the road outside of the facilty, still a short walk. The track is quite wide and has some real serious banking to it, to me it looked like a 1/3mi. in size. One cool feature is that there are 2 grandstands in the pits right at the apex of turns 1 and 2 that provide excellent views. The track had been called by some as the smoothest track in the South, that is a good arguement, it was smooth.
The man in charge of the rebirth and present-day operation of Corinth is Steve Nelms while Johnny Willbanks handles the track prep. The announcing team consisted of North Alabama Speedway regular "Big Al" and as guest announcer, Ross Tingle from Magnolia and Columbus Speedways handles the Super portion of the show. The track had received a load of rain on the Thursday evening and Friday morning, I expected a quagmiere when I arrived, nope, ole Johnny Mack had scraped of the top layer of goo to expose somewhat of a drier lower layer, that boy had that thing ultra smooth. Drivers meeting was scheduled for 7:00pm. on this warm and muggy night. At 6:15 the water truck came out a squirted the track to perfection, it would payoff later in the night. Hot laps went off at 7:30pm. with the Supers flingin' dirt at 7:45pm. After a few heats of stockers the Supers timed in at 8:50pm. Only 17 Supers sighned in tonight, there were so many tracks in the greater area running Supers, that was my view on why the car count wasn't higher. The track was indeed smooth and dust free most all of the night. To set the field the Supers ran a b-main at 9:35pm.
The feature was a pretty darn good despite a number of early cautions, the track turned racy, stayed smooth and only had a small amount of dust, or grit if you will. It took 45 minutes to complete the 40-lapper, 10:45-11:30pm. David Breazeale won the show holding off Anthony Burroughs thru heavy lapped traffic to take the win. Steve Nelms and crew have taken a dead track and have taken a lot of guff, worked thru a tough economy, and have themselves a racetrack! Far from new, far from fancy, not a showplace by any means and that is just fine. This is no doubt a grass roots racetrack, the kind I like. Steve struggles with many an issue at the track but keeps his head down and keeps working. He has had vandals break into the track on a number of occasions, takes some heat from racers and fans yet keeps going strong. Tonights crowd looked good as I saw hardly any empty seats, the fans are good folks who are respectable and well behaved and love their racing. One thing I must mention, I have heard how good the hamburgers are at Corinth, let me just say that those burgers are by far the best of any track in the South, fresh, hot, clean, large and super tasty.
The ole Dodge hit the road at midnight for the dark drive back home to Alabama, all with a full belly and a smile at yet attending another cool dirt track in the South. Thanks to Steve Nelms and crew for a fun night at a really cool grass roots track, I'll be back for another show, and some more of those belly expanding burgers!! Till next time.
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