DIALED IN
Getting to Know Loose Rocker
By Van Abernethy
PHOTOS: BRYAN EPPS, VAN ABERNETHY
L
oose Rocker Promotions is a racerfriendly sportsman series that burst onto
the scene several years ago and has quickly
taken the sportsman scene by storm during the
course of its four-year existence, as events have
been growing larger at a very rapid pace. Ironically, series founders Anthony Walton and Michael Beard weren’t exactly trying to reinvent the
wheel when they collaborated on promoting an
event at Coastal Plains Dragway in Jacksonville,
North Carolina, a few years back, and in fact, the
two barely even knew each other.
Walton was the original race promoter between
the two and Beard had previously assisted him
in creating some fliers for his events through
his graphic design business in Columbus, Ohio,
where Beard resides. “We were mainly acquainted
over the internet and Michael had actually been
to a few of my races to compete,” says Walton.
Pretty soon though they were bouncing around
some ideas regarding race promotions, which
eventually produced an event they billed as the
Fall Footbrake Frenzy at Coastal Plains Dragway.
While the event was most certainly a success, it
didn’t exactly set the world on fire, and neither
was it supposed to. The real magic began to hapAugust 2016
pen during the following off-season after Walton
realized that one of his and Michael’s favorite
races (a $20,000-to-win door car race) was not
on the schedule at one of Walton’s local North
Carolina tracks.
“That’s when it all started to come together,”
explains Beard. “Instead of moaning about the
20-grander being cancelled we just decided to
start one of our own.”
And since they were planning to get completely
serious about this whole race promoting business,
it was then they realized they needed a name for
their enterprise. “We juggled around plenty of
possibilities, but when we came up with ‘Loose
Rocker’ our wives said, ‘Yep, that describes you
two perfectly,’” laughs Beard.
In short, the Loose Rocker brand features big
money bracket style events contested in popular
classes such as Top E.T. and Footbrake, and since
Beard and Walton are both life-long racers themselves, they seem to have keen insight on what it
takes to make these races wildly successful.
“The whole concept is about racers putting on
‘crazy good’ races,” explains Beard. Participants
undoubtedly agree since the Loose Rocker brand
saw a sharp rise in car counts at each and every
one of their 2015 events when compared to that
of 2014 levels – a trend that continues in 2016.
So what does a “crazy good” race look like exactly? Well, the duo point to their big money payouts as one example, which have been increased
multiple times over the years, while the entry fee
remains the same. For less than $300, in fact, racers can enter a Loose Rocker event and compete
in three big money bracket races over the course
of the weekend. Another example is the buy-back
fee, which remains $75 for a $10,000-to-win
race – or a $100 re-entry fee for a $20k event. “I
also feel like the racers see a value in what we’re
doing since our round money payout is more than
the re-entry fee, and the round money adds up
in a hurry,” proclaims Walton. “This is a working
man’s race and we try to make it affordable to get
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