DIALED IN
STUART PATTERSON
TAKING MATTERS
INTO HIS OWN
HANDS
Scotty Richardson assumes
operation of Mountain
Park Dragway
By Van Abernethy
member of this cavalcade of racers. It’s
more than just a catchy name, and at its
peak this group had a membership roster
of roughly 80 people, who represented 14
race cars!
The Wild Bunch from Virginia is a close-
knit group and you don’t have to be related
by birth to be family. “We look out for one
another and we take care of each other,”
explains Patterson, who launched the group
with several close friends about three years
ago. “We’re all crazy about racing, too!” he
laughs. The gang travels together, parks
together and, of course, grills out together
in the pits at their local tracks, such as Vir-
ginia Motorsports Park, Richmond Drag-
way and Colonial Beach Dragway.
It was actually the latter where Patterson
and Holmes’ drag racing interest was first
sparked close to three decades ago. “We
were just teenagers when we traveled to
Colonial Beach Dragway for the first time,”
recalls Patterson. The duo drove Patterson’s
1972 Nova, a car he still owns to this day.
They showed up at Colonial Beach that fate-
ful day as spectators, later deciding to make
a few test laps, and were both thoroughly
and instantly bitten by the drag racing bug.
The Nova still sees plenty of action all
these years later, and was even slated to be
entered in a big meet at VMP in early May.
“Our grandson, Trevor, is currently driving
the Nova. He’s being groomed to drive the
Oldsmobile someday,” says Stuart’s wife,
Donna, who also loves being a part of the
traveling Wild Bunch.
As for the classy Cutlass, Patterson envi-
sions himself keeping the car forever. “We
have no plans of slowing down. We’re gonna
keep on racing for as long as we’re able,
and when we can’t do it anymore we have
kids who will!” Patterson laughs. “The next
generation will continue our tradition and
hopefully be even wilder!”
DI DI DI
W
hen famed
bracket racer
Scotty Richard-
son momen-
tarily hung up
his helmet in 2016 and bought the
lease to Kentucky’s Mountain Park
Dragway, the transition more than
raised a few eyebrows within the
sportsman community, especially
considering his success behind the
wheel. “Honestly, I just kinda got
burned out on driving,” admits Rich-
ardson, who is regarded among the best sports-
man racers of this era.
Taking the plunge to buy this vintage strip in
Clay City, Kentucky, was a decision Richardson
says he hopes will benefit the racers of this area. “I
think bracket racing here on Kentucky’s east side
needs salvaging, because I continue to believe that
most people who own drag strips don’t put a lot
of love into it,” Richardson confesses.
Not only was operating a drag strip not exactly
a lifelong dream of Richardson’s, he barely gave
it a fleeting thought until he sponta-
neously made an offer for Mountain
Park. “The Kennon family actually
offered me a job managing this track
about five years ago, but we couldn’t
come to an agreement at the time.”
Fast forward to the summer of
2016, when Richardson and his wife,
Savannah, and their kids came to
Mountain Park to participate in a
bracket race. “We came here with a
truck and trailer and it was really hot
that weekend and I just thought it
took a long time to run the race, so I actually told
them I’d like to buy the track if they ever wanted
to lease it to me. Two weeks later they called and
asked me if I was serious,” Richardson recalls.
A deal was signed in December 2016 for a 10-
year lease option and Richardson took over op-
erating the track at the beginning of 2017. That’s
when he momentarily gave up driving so he could
devote all his time to getting the track situated,
but it wasn’t without some hiccups along the way.
“Where I started off wrong was trying to please
DI DI DI DI
62 | D r a g
DI DI DI
Illustrated
| DragIllustrated.com
Issue 133