Two Speedways: Rest in Peace
World’s Fastest 1/3-mile Dirt Track is how Atomic Speedway is billed. Located just outside Knoxville Tennessee was first opened in 1970 by Knoxville businessman Bob Martin.
A series of ownership changes through the years brought many changes to the speedway including a V.I.P. tower, a new Musco lighting system, a new scoreboard and graduated banking in the turns, an unusual feature for a dirt track.
Many of the nation’s top dirt drivers have competed at Atomic in various special events throughout the years. Scott Bloomquist, Billy Moyer, Donnie Moran, Jeff Purvis, Rodney Combs, Freddy Smith, Jack Boggs, and Bob Pierce are just a few of the names that have competed at Atomic.
In a test of the tracks billing as the world’s fastest, count to eleven; The eleven seconds it took you to count is longer than Scott Bloomquist’s late model record of 10.75 seconds set in 1991. Joey Saldana holds the overall track record set in a 410 c.i. sprint car with a time of 9.990 seconds in 1998.
The tracks Hall of Fame includes names that have gone on to appear in NASCAR including Friday Hassler, G.C. Spencer, Marty Robbins, Grant Adcox and L.D. Ottinger.
Atomic’s current owner, Lenoir City businessman Ed Adams, may be the tracks last.
The Roane County Planning Commission voted to rezone the track site to industrial to allow Crete Carrier, a trucking company, to move in. The issue now goes before the county board of commissioners for approval Dec. 11.
“We have tried all we could to keep Atomic open,” Adams said. “I have spent my life investments, I have borrowed money.”
As seen so many times with so many tracks “life investments” mean little to politicians or others with dollar signs in their eyes.
R.I.P Atomic Motor Speedway.
The second speedway death to report is a late obituary. Hawaii Raceway Park, located on the island of Oahu, closed in April after Mike Oakland, president of the Hawaii Motorsports Center, lease extension expired.
The closure was at odds with the state Department of Transportation. Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the DoT said “I think the racetrack has been a great outlet for folks who do want to race in a safe manner, rather than on the freeways.”
Hawaii Raceway Park was the site of the Hawaii International Racing School, the track also hosted non-wing sprint car and late model races and contained a drag racing facility.
To be fair Hawaii Raceway Park may yet see life. Through lobbying efforts last May by the organization, Save Oahu’s Race Track (SORT), they have successfully convinced legislators to set aside $1 million in the state budget to use toward acquiring the park.
SORT says they will continue lobbying for the state to condemn the property and turn it over to the racing community. “It’s not over yet, not by a long shot,” Evelyn Souza, a spokeswoman for Save Oahu’s Race Track said. “We’re going to persevere.”
With luck Hawaii Raceway Park won’t go the way of Kauai Raceway Park and a final resting place.
Hawaii Raceway Park, Atomic Motor Speedway, Sports, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle
I just learned about Atomic Speedway closing and I’m just beside myself. Atomic was my first dirt track and the best. The races were awesome, loud ass cars, warm Tennessee nights, hazy sunsets over the BMX track, and always some crazy shit like the time they had a jet fuselage stuck on top of a car. The whole point of the show, besides the noise, was burning up an RV and a Pinto. To do so they made everyone who parked at the one end of the track move their cars. And what a show it was. Pure entertainment and glee.
My friends and I would sit in the beer drinking bleachers between I-40 and the track, next to the refreshment stand made out of plywood to look like a stock car and painted black and white. So we got the interstate and the races the whole time and it was exhilarating, Ironically, they put the beer drinking bleachers on the complete opposite side aacross from the Family Stands where 80 percent of the crowd sat in comfort. Being in a formerly dry county, we figured the proprietors of Atomic wanted to keep the sinners away from everybody else.
Anyway, what a loss. I moved to California 6 years ago, close to the Antioch speedway which is a pretty great track for a bunch of other reasons. But sure not the same.