In a dream come true, Rob Wilson now promotes Rock Crest Raceway, formerly known as Twin Cities Raceway Park. Wilson’s father, Bobby Wilson, ran the North Vernon, Indiana, 3/8-mile dirt oval during the early 1990s.
Jim Price, who operates Indiana’s Brownstown Speedway 40 minutes away, purchased the track now known as Rock Crest Raceway. Wilson flags at Brownstown Speedway, and Price enlisted him to take over the reins of a track that means so much to Wilson.
“The opportunity of a lifetime was given to me by Jim [Price],” said Wilson, 49, who lives 500 feet away from Rock Crest Raceway. “I was 23 years old when I worked alongside my dad at the track. That launched my interest to work in racing.”
Rock Crest Raceway held one race last fall. It has an ambitious 2022 schedule, with racing mostly on Friday nights under the DIRTcar UMP banner. Non-winged sprint cars headline the weekly show that also features super stocks, pure stocks, and hornets. Several specials are on the slate, too. The BOSS sprint car series makes two visits, with the Pat O’Connor Memorial on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend. The Indiana Late Model Series (ILMS), a crate late model series, stops by five times. Lastly, the track will host a super late model event dedicated to local legend John Gill on the Friday of Labor Day weekend.
With an action-packed slate scheduled, Wilson and his team look to renovate areas of the facility.
“The track is in great shape,” Wilson said. “Our focus will be on the grandstands. There are repairs needed to the bleachers, and we’ve already started that project.”
With a fresh team at the helm, Wilson looks to make his hometown track the place to be this summer.
“We have all good help lined up — all family,” said Wilson. “Rock Crest Raceway is the new name, which was needed to show we have a new owner and new promoter. The track will have great, family entertainment in a very scenic setting.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
