If you’re a sport compact racer, you might want to put the SCDRA Compact Clash on your calendar. The event hosted by Beckley Motor Speedway in West Virginia will pay $12,000 to win, $500 to start, and offer a $500-to-win non-qualifiers race. The date will be October 25-26, 2024. Yes, 2024.
Beckley Motor Speedway is an ideal location for a big SCDRA race. It’s between SCDRA that runs primarily in the South and SCDRA Northeast. Furthermore, Beckley Motor Speedway runs under SCDRA rules weekly.
“The idea was actually born at the Outside Groove Racing Show,” said SCDRA promoter Kelley Carlton. “The promoter of Beckley Motor Speedway, Randy Kinder, wanted my ideas on how to grow the sport compact class at his track.
“The beauty of the early announcement is that SCDRA racers will look forward to having a big-money event at their home racetrack. Those who want to race at Beckley Motor Speedway can start building cars, knowing that they can race weekly and have a big money show to compete in for more return on their investment.”
Carlton has a proven formula for success when it comes to sport compacts.
Have set rules in place. Let racers know they will race weekly. Have great tech. Make safety a priority. Give the division a big event to look forward to.
“We provided a spark to build Beckley Motor Speedway’s program,” Carlton said. “We did the same thing at Lake View [Motor Speedway in Nichols, South Carolina,] and Sumter [Speedway in South Carolina]. They switched to our rules, we scheduled $5,000-to-win tour races, and helped them grow their fields.”
(For more on the growth of the division, read “Sport Compacts: SCDRA Steps Up its Image.”)
Even without a big SCDRA event this year at Beckley Motor Speedway, Kinder has seen the formula work.
“We had 14 cars on a bad night, but we had an average of 18 to 22 cars weekly under the SCDRA rules this season,” said Kinder. “I’m envisioning an event with 150 to 180 sport compact cars in the future. The more that come, the more we can pay.”
Overall, the SCDRA Compact Clash, which offers a $40,000 purse, is another marquee event at Beckley Motor Speedway.
“We wanted a big race for the division — one which we could grow every year,” Kinder said. “We want to keep the race and make it a staple along with big shows at the end of the season for our other divisions. When someone thinks of Beckley Motor Speedway I want them to think of the new Beckley Motor Speedway. People have noticed the changes. I had a three-year plan when I bought the track and I’m way ahead of that plan.”
(For more on the Beckley Motor Speedway, read “Beckley Motor Speedway: TLC Beyond the Surface.”)
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.
