DTGW

Wildman and Donnie Atkins at Windy Hill

April 2008 was the very first dirt track race I had ever attended. Being one of those women who hates to get dirty, I thought I would absolutely hate it, but boy was that way of thinking wrong. My husband and daughter had been to the races at Travelers Rest Speedway on and off during the 2008 season. They begged, pleaded and made me go to my first one, but since then, I have been the first one out the door on Saturday night.

Having fell in love with this sport and the track, I thought it was high time to find out how TR Speedway came to be the hottest dirt track in the Upstate. With the age being that of only 9 years old, how many stories and trips down memory lane could there possibly be? A hundred maybe was my thoughts, but in all actuality there are thousands.

Since 1948, there have been 5 owners of the property that the actual race track sits on. Cynthia G. Funk owned the property from 1948 till 1962. The parking area along the front entrance and main gate of the grandstands is actually a separate deeded piece of land. Both the parking area, track, pits, grand stands, ect. sit on over 33 acres.

Back in 1977 the property was purchased by the Hawkins family for a truck salvage yard, which operated until the land owner began to clean it up around 1992 or 93.

Oh yea, and the boat question has been answered. Upon my first arrival at the Speedway, my attention was drawn to the boat on the hill. “What in the world is a boat doing at a dirt track? Is it for the rainy season” I searched high and low for a lake or an ocean, but one was never found on the grounds. Come to find out, the boat has a story of it’s own to tell. This is one chapter that will be saved for the book. OK, I’ll share this one tidbit of information I learned. At some point in time, that boat sat on the bottom of the ocean just off the coast of the United States. Yes, it too was a salvage that had gone down and once forgotten, until recovery brought it back to a useful life.

Mike and Billy Hawkins and David Debusk started out racing go-carts on the property of Southern Sales in Marietta until the mid to late 90′s brought about a new plan after repeatedly having to deal with the local officers over noise complaints. Windy Hill was then brought into play. Hawkins had the property, so off they went to bring the plans to life.

The first race was ran under the name of “Windy Hill Motorsports Park” with Hawkins being the promoter at the time in April of 2000 growing with each race. They started out running go-carts, dwarfs and on from there. “They did run Dwarf cars then too, Charles Southerlin was hard to beat. Jamie Silvers and David Debusk were also good.” said RAT Motorsports. Sam Brown said,” I don’t remember what year it opened, but I won on opening night in Stock 4 (it was the first main ever at the track). I don’t remember all the classes that they had as well but I know they ran T&L and either Bill Morgan or Strawberry Davis won it.” “And Ricky Teems in the Dirt Dobber car won the Stock 8 race that night after getting into it with another driver in the heat races at Riverside. He was barred and left… went to Windy Hill fell in the rear and won the 1st Stock 8 race ran at Windy Hill.” according to Dirt Chick.

So much has taken place on that piece of land over the last 9 years, that it would be impossible to list it all here. Not only was it a race track, but I was also told by Mr. Presnell “There also have been some rodeos at the track. If it was not a rodeo it was some kind of fiesta. I could see the sombreros flying in the air all the way from the shop.” Over time it has been a Motor Cross track under Cody Motorsports and then Travelers Rest Speedway under Jody Palmer.

Since I have found so much information pertaining to championships and such from 2000 till 2009, a book is soon to be published. Several sources, such as the Travelers Rest Monitor and Safe Family Videos have been a wealth of information as have racing teams, drivers and fans. The stories that have been heard are priceless. This article is just a tiny part of what will be covered in the small book set to be completed by opening season 2010.

It is not too late. If you are a driver, promoter, fan or racing team from the past at this track and would like to be included in the upcoming book about TR Speedway, please send any pictures, articles or any other information to robingreen@dirttrackgonewild.com .

© 2009, Dirt Track Gone Wild. 2008 – 2012 Dirt track Gone Wild All rights reserved.