(Words and photos by David Whealon) – Was it worth the long three year wait? Judging by the well over 300 drag racers that braved the heavy morning rains and showed up at the newly opened Galot Motorsports Park in Benson, NC. for the inaugural NHRA Southeast Division 2 race held at the totally redesigned track on April 2-3, I would say yes. When owner Earl Wells bought the track he was prepared to take that old Dunn Benson dragstrip and morph it into one of the country’s premier motorsports facilities. And man did he ever!! Tearing up the old racing surface and replacing it with some of the smoothest temperature controlled concrete along with widening the entire track was just a start. Add some ginormous state of the art LED scoring screens, premium Musco lighting and acres of newly paved pit parking made it one of the best racer friendly playgrounds. Along with the racing improvements the fans were not to be denied of all the comforts of a 1ST class experience. With indoor seated concessions and 1000’s of grandstand seats purchased from Daytona Speedway, Wells made that historic 59 year old dragstrip into the ultimate showplace.
With the NHRA on board and a full schedule slated from April to November including NHRA Summit Racing ET races and a NHRA Division 2 Lucas Oil race on June 3-5 there will not be a week gone by without thundering horsepower rattling the windows of the new tower. On tap is the PDRA ProMods in September, the EOPM and the No Limits Race Fuels Championship I-95 Bracket Series scattered through the season. Among other specialty events, Thursday night test and tunes have a new twist thrown in for added excitement. On four Thursday nights and one Saturday, “Mad Mule Thursday” will be offering ProMod racers a free race entry and $5000 to win with an 8 car elimination. How badass is that??? A free test and tune with a chance to win 5k!!
But let’s not forget about the good ol’ tractor pull track out back that Well’s built 2 years ago to get things going. On Memorial Day weekend the NTPA comes to town with 4 sessions of awesome pullin’ action with the multi engine Unlimited Modified’s showing up for the first time at the 3rd Annual Mule City 300. Also on the schedule in September at the pull track is the PPL Diesel Truck Pull and the “Monster Truck Showdown”.
GMP is truly a mecca for any form of gearhead out there and considering that it’s just a few miles off of I-95 there is definitely no reason not to stop by and check out one of the finest works of dragstrip transformation on the planet.
Check out the Galot Motorsports Park schedule from the link below:
http://galotmotorsportspark.com
Click the images below to expand them and then scroll on to see ’em all!
galot stands for:
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he is an awesome guy and his pulling tractors are top notch nice. don’t know where he made his money,butnhe doesn’t mind spending it on motorsports.
That’s a mighty clean blue Nova in the opening photo.
Pintos,Datsun pick-ups,people having fun and enjoying racing with whatever they have.
Looks like a fun place to be.
Gear Jammers will be here the end of the month. No pussy automatics at this event!