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Wake County Motor Speedway
I'm a Driver, I'm a Winner, things are gonna change, I can feel it
by Jon Ratty
photos by Steve Egan

Every Friday the gear heads in Wake and other surrounding counties get together for an adrenalin filled night of ferocious engines, burnin’ rubber, and awesome "G" forces. These are ordinary folks driving extraordinary vehicles. It would almost be an insult to call these racers cars because there is virtually nothing-street legal about their setup. This is the kind of action that would make an actuary shudder. But actually there have only been two fatalities in all 38 years and one of the fatalities was a heart attack in the pit area.

The Wake County Speedway opens it doors every Friday night for some hell raisin’ racin’. Glenn Simpkins and Cousin Marvin Simpkins built Wake County Speedway in 1962 under a lease agreement with Glenn Simpkins father, Oscar Simpkins. When Oscar died in November of 1994 he left the ownership to brothers Talmadge and Glenn Simpkins, with Talmadge’s daughter Deborah as the track manager.

The track is a quarter mile with four 17° banked turns. Originally it was clay, but management saw the change in trend so they changed it to asphalt for the 1987 season. After the track was paved attendance increased 20%. Due to the increase in attendance new steel high-rise grandstands were installed.

Over the years Wake County Speedway has seen many Winston Cup Stars. Appearances include the late JD McDuffie, Bennie Parsons, and Ken Schrader. Other notables include Loy Allen Jr., the 1994 rookie poll sitter for the Daytona 500, Dennis Seltzer who was runner up for Rookie of the Year in the Bush Grand National division. And one future note Mr. Simpkins and Felix Kerr also told me that Dec (pronounced Deek) Masackle should be a big time contender in the Winston Cup Series in a couple of years.

For those of you who think you can only find good racin’ at Nascar or Bush events you are wrong. Out here is some excellent racin’ out there. The Late model Sportsman class provides the closest to the Winston Cup Series. The Pure Stock Four Cylinder is probably the most fun to watch because there is a bunch of them, they can get three wide, and they are always wreckin’. The Street Class is really competitive because it one step above Pure Four Cylinder and one below Modified Four Cylinder. Now lets get acquainted with the different classes.

Four classes of cars race out here. The first is the Late Model Sportsman. These are the money cars. They are Winston Cup replicas such as the Ford Taurus and Chevy Montecarlo. You won’t find any Advance Auto parts in these missiles on wheels. All parts on these rockets with seats are polished and blue printed. These things haul tail around the track. They run this quarter mile track around 12 seconds, keep in mind the four turns, if you do the math that is around 100 mph.

The next class is the Modified Four Cylinder. They run on small chassis like the Ford Pinto and the old Mustang II and are allowed to run the wide racing tire (slicks). Their weight requirement depends on the their CC. For example, if they displace 2300 CC then there weight cannot exceed 2300 lbs.

Next is the highly competitive Street Class. This is for the intermediate driver who has been at the wheel for a couple of years. These cars are the old style Ford's and Chevy's. They have a steel chassis and cannot exceed 3200 lbs. They run on the same street legal racing Eagle tires the Highway Patrol use.

The final class is the Pure Stock Four Cylinder. This is the starter class with the keyword being "money efficient." Anybody can get into this. All they need is a set of rules and just a little bit of money. They run on their original steel chassis with small 13 inch wheels with tread. Like the Modified Four Cylinder their CC must equal their weight.
I myself love cars that go fast and loud. I can’t think of a better way to turn gasoline into noise. I get excited with goose bumps when they cut on their engines and really open it up. But my favorite part about stock car racing is the people. The whole night was dedicated to young Adam Petty who had passed away recently. Most of the fans out here are families. There are kids running around everywhere. Begging their parents to buy them Matchbox cars of their favorite driver and fathers teaching their sons about the sport. One of the racers had "Take a kind fishin" painted on the back of his spoiler, to me that it is beautiful. These are proud, good-natured folks.

If you are worried about it being a drunk fest, it’s not. I was there all night; walking around and I did not see any unruly people or too much drinkin’. The speedway does not sell beer and glass is not permitted, but you are allowed to bring a 14-inch cooler. They do not allow any alcohol in the pit area. I asked Mr. Simpkins if there is much trouble and he says, "not really, and if there is the sheriff takes care of it." The only kind of skirmish I saw was with a driver who was pissed because he got taken out of a race by another car.

Wake County Speedway is located in Raleigh, NC. Get on 401 South make a right on Simpkins Rd. and go about a quarter mile, it is on the right. The address for their website is www.wakecountyspeedway.com. Gates open at 6:00 p.m. and racin’ starts about 8:00. The facility, provided by the town of Garner, offers full EMS, fire trucks, and law enforcement. The season lasts until early September. One race that you should check out is the Virginia Old Timers Racing Club that will take place on August 6th. They race 1936-37 racers and some 1951-1957 racers. If you want more information call them at (919) 779-2171 or (919) 772-2944 and ask for Glenn Simpkins or Deborah Simpkins-McDonald.

So go on out there and check out Wake County Speedway. Even if you know nothing about the sport you’ll still have a good time. The people are friendly and love talking and answering any questions. Some nights you can pay about 10 bucks and hang out down in the pits. If you do go down in there you might want to bring in some earplugs. Racing ends about 11:00 p.m. due to the noise ordinance. Watch out, you might catch the fever and go out and start building your own racin’ machine, I thought about it.