Drag Illustrated Issue 151, December 2019 | Page 52
DIALED IN
TONY SARACENI III
could be their driver. “I said, ‘Well, great then!’”
he laughingly recalls.
Saraceni started running points at Rocking-
ham Dragway in the mid 1990s, not too long
after Steve Earwood bought the facility in 1992.
“We were at Rockingham every time they had
something going on.”
Saraceni was racing so much, in fact, he even-
tually left Home Depot because he was having
trouble getting weekends off, so he took a job
at Cheerwine so he could race on weekends. He
drove for quite a few years before the team dis-
banded when health problems arose, and other
interests came long. “That’s when I made the
lateral move to start my T-shirt business. I did
that just so I could go around to tracks and be
involved, but it eventually turned into a full-time
business with three trailers.”
He worked upwards of 70 events at the height
of the apparel business, traveling with Fun Ford
Weekend, ORSCA, Pinks All Out and witnessing
the birth of the ADRL. At one time, he even ran
a total of five souvenir stands at Rockingham.
Since he’s never one to turn down a good-
natured challenge, Saraceni fell into race pro-
motions by way of a New Year’s Eve bet from
a good friend who challenged him to promote
a race at a small drag strip near his home in
Rockfish, North Carolina. His friend told him
that he couldn’t make it work, while Saraceni
emphatically disagreed. Saraceni named the event
Carolina Powerfest, and booked in Pro Mods
and a jet car to headline the event, which also
included bracket racing.
To say things didn’t go as planned is putting it
kindly. It was a disaster in too many ways to list.
He left the track that day shedding bitter tears,
vowing to not only never promote another race,
but to never even return to a drag strip – ever!
It was truly that bad, and the financial losses
were staggering.
Amazingly, this all took place just three weeks
before his wedding with his fiancé, Angela, who
was instrumental in Saraceni keeping his sanity
in the days following his first promoted event.
“Angela doesn’t get the credit she deserves,” insists
Saraceni, who actually returned to the drag strip
the following week, at Angela’s encouraging. In
fact, Earwood was expecting Saraceni to oversee
a souvenir trailer at Rockingham for Super Chevy,
and Angela wasn’t about to let Tony disappoint
him. “If not for her, I probably wouldn’t have
gone to the track that weekend.”
Before long, though, winter set in and Saraceni
says his brain started moving and after a while
he was ready to give race promoting another go.
“I finally said, ‘You know what, I’m not a quitter
and I’m not going out like this,’” he remembers.
He contemplated the idea of once again promot-
ing Carolina Powerfest, but this time holding the
event at Rockingham, a track where he had tons
of history. “I’ve known Steve Earwood for decades
and he’s always been real good to me, and I’ve
also learned a lot from him.”
So together they collaborated and made it work.
Carolina Powerfest is now in its eighth running,
seven of which were successfully promoted by
Saraceni’s 1320 Race Promotions and held at
Rockingham. In addition to Carolina Powerfest,
Saraceni held a total of seven events at Rock-
ingham this year, and speaking of expanding his
horizons, one of those events wasn’t even a race.
“It was a ‘redneck event’ is what it comes down
to,” Saraceni laughs. He called it the “Red, White
and Fun Festival” and participants enjoyed time-
honored attractions such as Moon Pie eating con-
tests, best Daisy Dukes, best mullet, best southern
couple, a multitude of live bands, local radio sta-
tions doing live remotes and lots of diesel trucks.
The event was hampered, though, by a bizarre
cold snap in August that ushered in a frigid rain,
but the potential was overwhelming. “We sold
500 spectator tickets in the rain,” Saraceni says.
The event is definitely something all involved
want to revisit moving forward.
These days, each of Saraceni’s promoted race
events are vastly different from each other, and
he organizes everything from the Third Amber
Showdown, which is an all-bottom-bulb door
car race, to Holiday Junior Jam on Thanksgiving
weekend, which recently attracted racers from
Alaska, Canada as well as 13 states. In early Oc-
tober, he put together a Twin $20k race for Top
Eliminator entries, which also included a category
for Footbrake and Jr. Dragsters.
Saraceni is always exploring new ways to orga-
nize successful events, and he steadfastly believes
that drag racing is enjoying a resurgence in recent
years. “It’s already been a great ride for me and
I wouldn’t change any of it,” he says, “because I
think everything I’ve experienced has given me
a little bit of wisdom and knowledge.”
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