Ben Kilcrease will take over the reins of the former Antioch Speedway in Morganton, North Carolina, and rebrand it as The Speedway at HorsePower Park. The track recently released its 2024 schedule, with 18 dates and several touring series set to visit.
Kilcrease’s resume includes stints as photojournalist, announcer, USAC safety director for sprint cars, and promoter of Deep South Speedway in Loxley, Alabama. This past year, he worked at Carteret County Speedway in Swansboro, North Carolina, as its competition director and head of media. He’ll finish those duties this month and then get to work at HorsePower Park.
The motorsports facility also has trails for ATVs, a track for go-karts, and offers monster truck events, but Kilcrease will lead the dirt oval effort. He looks to increase community involvement with the ½-mile dirt oval.
“We’ll have 50/50 every week, but instead of the track getting 50%, the money will go to a different charity each week,” Kilcrease said. “We’ll have Battle of the Schools, where coupons for free admission will be passed out to students and their families. The school that brings the most people to the track will get a donation from the track.
“We will have local civic clubs volunteering to park cars. We will have baseball teams and cheerleading squads working the concessions to benefit their organizations.”
Kilcrease looks to make capital improvements as well. They will clear the backstretch tailgate area of plant growth and grade it. Other changes include adding billboards, improving walls, refreshing concession and ticket booths, and moving the track’s entrance.
“The layout of the ½-mile track will stay the same,” said Kilcrease. “It’s a big, wide track with a lot of room for passing. We’ll test the clay to make improvements, if needed.”
The 2024 season for The Speedway at HorsePower Park will begin with a test and tune session on March 16. The first races take the green flag on March 30. Series visits include the American All-Star Series, Fastrak Racing Series, and the Ultimate Super Late Model Series.
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.
