D.I. COLUMNIST
On the Road
with Van Abernethy
W
hen I begin to think of
tracks that host well-
known events that have
stood the test of time, the first obvi-
ous considerations I have are events
such as the US Nationals at Indy, or
perhaps Cordova’s amazing World
Series of Drag Racing, which will
host its 65th running in 2018. When
it comes to time-honored races local
to my neck of the woods, an event
known as “Easter Bash” immediately
comes to mind.
For 58 years, Roxboro Motors-
ports Park in Timberlake, North
Carolina, has steadily hosted the
event that’s practically as old as
the track itself, which dates back
to the late 1950s. Held annually
each Easter weekend, this
small, unsanctioned track
packs in tons of fans and
race cars, both competi-
tion and exhibition, to en-
tertain fans and hand out
cash and hardware. This
month’s column photo is
from Easter Bash 2012,
and shows Ken Hall and
Rich Hanna thrilling fans
with a fiery jet car show
on the starting line be-
fore scorching Roxboro’s
eighth-mile strip with
side-by-side 200-mph
runs!
Without a doubt, the
craziest thing I’ve ever
witnessed during Easter
Bash was the time Bobby
Lagana brought his Top
Fuel dragster to entertain
fans, many of which had
never seen a nitro-burning car be-
fore. Lagana, who’s both lovable and
nuts, blasted down the track, clock-
ing a 3.39-second elapsed time at
229 mph, and had the blower belt
not come off the car shortly before
the finish line, his time would have
been quite quicker.
Lagana later told me that his on-
board computer recorded the car
traveling 250 mph at the moment
the engine pitched the belt. For
those of you who’ve actually been
to Roxboro, just close your eyes and
imagine what 250 mph would look
like! The crowd who witnessed this
run was straightway stunned, in-
cluding yours truly. “Roxboro has
a lot of personality, and
I’m just in shock at the
turnout of this event!”
Lagana commented that
day.
As entertaining and
profitable as Easter Bash
is for this track, it would
be unrealistic to assume
this kind of magic could be recre-
ated every single weekend, therefore,
Roxboro found itself in a state of
decline of late. In fact, the track has
been basically closed for the last two
years, with the lone exception being
its marquee Easter weekend gather-
ing. So, with Roxboro’s future clearly
in question, things turned around
dramatically when Jody Williams, a sents Logan’s first stint at
managing a track, he says
he’s been accumulating
lots of ideas regarding
management and pro-
motion during the past
10 years, and now the op-
portunity to put them to
good use has presented
itself. For starters, Logan is plan-
ning a weekly test-and-tune ses-
sion that is geared for a particular
audience.
“I’m going to hold ‘Import Night’
once a month during test-n-tune
in which I will offer a couple hun-
dred bucks for the fastest import
time shown. Import owners have
been largely neglected at our local
Virginia building contractor, bought
the track last December and vowed
that Roxboro Motorsports Park will
be improved and greatly renovated
in the coming months and years.
Among the first orders of business,
Williams appointed well-known
announcer Steve Logan to serve as
general manager of the track. Lo-
gan first came to Roxboro a decade
ago, originally serving as the staging
lanes coordinator before finding his
way to the announcer’s booth. Since
then, his public-address skills have
been highly sought-after at many
area tracks, as well as Discovery’s hit
show Street Outlaws. Even though
Roxboro Motorsports Park repre- drag strips for years, and this is the
generation of young people that’s
growing up right now...these are
the muscle cars of today!” Logan
exclaims. “When my generation was
young you could go out and buy a
muscle car for $2,500, but those
cars are now highly collectable and
worth a lot, so young people today
go out and buy an import and begin
tuning on it the best they can.”
So far, interest in Logan’s Import
Night theme has gained lots of in-
terest in the area, including several
car clubs from nearby Raleigh, all
promising they’ll be bringing hun-