For the first time in years, Newport Speedway welcomed racers to the Tennessee track this past weekend. More than 30 cars took up the opportunity.
(For more on Newport Speedway, read “Newport Speedway Set to Have New Owner.”)
Chris Tunnell had last raced at Newport in 2006.
“It’s been a while,” said Tunnell, of Wise, Virginia. “They did a whole lot of renovations here — got rid of 5,000 junk cars. There’s been a lot of painting. The track looks really good, just like it did 20 years ago. The surface has lots of grip. It reminds me of a little Bristol Motor Speedway.”
Derik Duggan brought the dirt mini stock driven by Grace Duggan to practice on the pavement.
“We loved it,” said Derik Duggan, of Lenoir City, Tennessee, said. “I wanted my 17-year-old daughter, [Grace], who has raced on dirt in the mod four division, to have options.”
Grace took to the pavement quickly.
“She told me she was amazed that she could feel the steering and feel the front end working because there was no spinning and slipping through the turns,” Duggan said. “In her first hot lap session, despite my urging to take it easy, she went out there wide-open. She ran the wall, the middle, and scared me as a dad, but the car took to the track, and everything was great.”
The Duggans left the car in its dirt-track setup, with the exception of slick tires.
“Tires were the main thing,” said Duggan. “I hunted for two weeks for asphalt tires, but no one seemed to have any. So I put some two-year-old [dirt] tires on her car — they were the hardest we had on hand.”
Rick Watson, who manages the track, hopes to see more dirt racers compete at Newport Speedway after the nearby dirt track of 411 Motor Speedway announced its sale.
“Some cars from 411 Motor Speedway showed up — they were so excited after Friday hot laps that they came back on Saturday and skipped going to a dirt track,” Watson said. “After talking with them, we will be figuring out how to get them to fit into the program. It would be exciting to have dirt late models on pavement. They did it back in the day and they are doing it down south this year.”
(For more on racing dirt late models on pavement, read “Dirt Late Models on Pavement: Asphalt Assault 40 in September.”)
New promoter Chuck Ward provided an update on a season opener. Its first competition event will actually be part of a stage rally, the Overmountain Rally, featuring Travis Pastrana.
“I am used to doing things the right way, so there are a few things — like the sound system — left to do before our opening,” said Ward. “We’re opening with the Travis Pastrana show on September 14. We’re trying for four races after that — possibly two races for the Southeast Super Trucks and two races of our own.”
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.
