classes, including heads- up racing. As part of the outside-the-box thinking, Fayetteville was home to the first major no-prep race on the East Coast. However, the track still maintains a focus on its weekly bracket racers through the IHRA Summit SuperSeries program. Now in its 18th consecutive season, the IHRA Summit SuperSeries remains the most prestigious bracket racing program in North America. Timmy Hilburn (Top), Lauren Edwards (Mod) and Connor Caulder (Junior Dragster) won IHRA Summit SuperSeries track championships at Fayetteville Motorsports Park is located in the heart of racing country in the Carolinas and the IHRA member track consistently pumps out great competition. Conveniently located off Interstate 95, the North Carolina racing facility attracts some of the best drivers in the country. With a strong core of racers, the track’s staff works hard to maintain a high standard at the facility which features a 1/8-mile drag strip. “We’ve got a good group of racers,” said Dexter Currie, event coordinator for Fayetteville Motorsports Park. “Fortunately, there’s the competitiveness of drag racing in the Carolinas. We have five or six tracks within an hour radius. It makes it better for the racers. They get better quality, bigger purses and makes us think outside the box to provide more diverse racing.” The tracks in the area have a mutual respect and the different operators try to work together not to schedule big races at the same time as their neighbors. It is an area with a rich military history as Fayetteville is the home of Fort Bragg, the U.S. Army base which houses such elite units as the Special Forces and 82nd Airborne division. It’s also the home of Pope Field, formerly known as Pope Air Force Base. The area also features a variety of racing. Just a half-mile from the drag strip is Fayetteville Motor Speedway, a half- mile clay oval which hosts series such as the World of Outlaws Late Models. Four decades ago, the track operated under NASCAR sanction with Dale Earnhardt winning three races there during the 1978 season. With the drag strip, Fayetteville Motorsports Park has its own share of special events and features a number of different Fayetteville in 2018. New for this season is the addition of a Sportsman class which fits nicely into Fayettevile’s racing programs. “It caters to the little guys,” Currie said about the IHRA Summit SuperSeries. “I like how they’ve added the Sportsman class. The future looks good.” Part of that future involves generation of racers at Fayetteville Motorsports Park. That is something near and dear to Currie’s heart, watching the young racers progress through the ranks of the sport. “My satisfying part of the job is watching the competitiveness of the racing,” Currie said. “The best thing for me is watching the Junior Dragster class. I love watching those kids compete and grow up into modern-day racers.” Click here for more info about Fayetteville Motorsports Park and to see a current schedule of events. COMPETITIVE RACING IS A STAPLE AT FAYETTEVILLE MOTORSPORTS PARK TRACK SPOTLIGHT 29 28