When William Scogin told his friends that he wanted to buy a racetrack, they told him it was a “dumb decision” and that his money was “going to wind up in the sh-tter.” That’s how the idea of the Tuckasee Toilet Bowl Classic was born.
Scogin set out to prove the naysayers wrong. He purchased Clarksville Speedway in Tennessee. Scogin took their warning and ran with it. He created the Tuckasee Toilet Bowl Classic, now in its 18th year. It awards its winners a toilet. The porcelain throne comes with a custom blue wrap to turn it into a one-of-a-kind trophy.
“You can’t paint porcelain,” Scogin said. “I buy expensive toilets — more than $400 each — because they have smooth sides where the trap is, which allows them to be wrapped perfectly.”
Scogin takes the toilet humor one step further. On Friday night, feature winners receive six-foot-high trophies made with plungers and toilet paper.
“Life is too stressful, and it’s getting more stressful every day,” said Scogin. “I wanted to have a tampon dash for the female drivers, but my wife, Laura, said that would be a bad idea. She wanted no part of it.”
The Tuckasee Toilet Bowl Classic takes place this weekend, Friday, March 4–Saturday, March 5, with a practice on Thursday, March 3. The slate for the weekend includes DIRTcar UMP/Quicksilver late models, Quicksilver 602 late models, Quicksilver street stocks, Quicksilver B-mods, open wheels (aka modifieds), 604 late models, mod lites, and pure minis.
Scogin offers weekly racing at Clarksville Speedway’s dirt track, with specials scattered throughout the year. The facility also offers drag racing, autocross, drifting, a county fair, a circus, and a drive-through Christmas lights show. Clarksville Speedway is his full-time job. However, racers can be Scogin’s biggest critics. Nevertheless, he shrugs off the negative comments because most people don’t understand the business.
“I have to pay out more money in one day than most people make in a year,” Scogin said. “Everyone thinks that being a promoter is a dream come true, but it isn’t always so. Seriously, it takes hard work and being willing to take big risks. Not everyone understands that.”
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.
