PHOTOGRAPHS BY VAN ABERNETHY |
North Carolina ’ s Mooresville Dragway hasn ’ t changed a whole lot in appearance over the last few decades , but if the new owners are able to accomplish just a few of their ambitious plans , you might have a difficult time even recognizing the place in a few short years from now . Eric Yost is a life-long native to the area who grew up racing at Mooresville , and wound up buying the track two years ago along with his business partner , Robert Buker . Initially , their motivation for the purchase was to simply ensure that the track remain open and continue operating as a dragstrip since there were some rumblings about the track being closed and used for another purpose entirely .
The purchase indeed went through , and thus began a general cleaning up and removal of dragstrip debris that had been piling up over the years . After the property became tidier , the new owners begin to visualize what the future might hold for this beloved , but aging facility . “ Our short-term goals include concrete walls and 800 feet of new concrete for the racing surface , along with lengthening the shutdown in an effort to open up the opportunity for a wide assortment of racing that ’ s just not available currently ,” explains Yost .
In addition to his desire to transform Mooresville into what he describes as a “ really good , super-nice eighth-mile track ,” Yost has an even more inspiring vision for the rest of the property . He ’ s already constructed a tractor pull track on site , which completely packed the place during
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their first event held in late September , and Yost hopes this is only the beginning of Mooresville ’ s expansions . He also anticipates mud bog and go-kart racing will soon be the next addition to complement the dragstrip and pulling tracks .
The most ambitious of all Yost ’ s expansion plans by far is his desire to construct a racing facility to host major events for jet boats and sprint boats ! Yost explains that currently there ’ s only two such facilities in the entire country for these watercrafts , and he ’ s hoping Mooresville will be the third .
“ Washington State and Oregon are the other two locales , and in terms of the Oregon track ,
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the nearest hotel is two hours away and they get 10,000 spectators for their events ,” Yost says . “ We believe these events would be massive here in ‘ Race City USA !’” It requires the footprint of a football field to construct one of these tracks , and Yost says Mooresville ’ s 85 acres provides ample room to build the watersports track , which he hopes becomes a reality in the near future .
As for the drag racing at hand , it ’ s definitely not being neglected , and the roster of events have been producing solid results . The small-tire events have worked well at Mooresville for years , and the 704 Outlaws and 704 Street classes are supported nicely by the racing community and
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November / December 2024 |
DragIllustrated . com | Drag Illustrated | 83 |