Ok, we’re sorry the headline freaked you out but we thought it was funny. As we mentioned earlier today in the item about the gasser event at Greer Dragway in South Carolina, the sport of drag racing as a whole is in damned good shape these days. Look, we’ve told you lots more stories about tracks coming back online, making improvements, and being bought by enthusiastic new owners than bleak tales of woe in 2013 and that’s the stuff we love. Consider this another one.

Dunn Benson Dragway opened in 1957 and has been a well known spot for eighth mile racing in North Carolina for more than five decades. If you have not figured it out yet, the Carolinas have been and continue to be one of the hottest beds of drag racing anywhere in the world. We know we’ll be corrected on this but there are dozens of operational facilities in the Carolinas and while lots of the facilities are far closer to the humble side than the “super track” side, we could care less. Drag racing lives at local tracks and they’re the place we love to visit and drink in the most.

So back to Galot Motorsports Park (formerly Dunn Benson Dragway), the track was purchased by Earl Wells in August/September of this year and Wells immediately announced his intention to spruce up the drag strip and have a pulling facility. As luck would have it, Galot Motorsports fields a Pro Mod and also has a pulling team. Basically they are living the BangShift dream situation and for those of you that are regular readers you know what we mean! While we have seen lots of guys purchase tracks and express grandiose plans to make everything better for racers and fans, there sure is not a 100% follow through on those statements. Earl Wells is a man of his word.

One of the first things he did was to hire Satch Gragg as the general manager of the facility. Satch is as fine a man as I have ever met and worked with in the sport of drag racing. Having more than three decades experience with the IHRA in roles like Division Director and Race Director and having worked with the likes of Don Carlton and others in his career, Gragg has been there and done that 100x over. He’s one of those people that is almost universally respected and if you can’t tell by the gushing, we love the guy too.

Further illustrating his commitment to make the drag strip better and safer, Wells has commissioned the destruction and rebuilding of the strip itself and all of the guardrails, timing system, etc. It is pretty shocking to see the below photos of the place completely shredded, looking lots like it did in 1957 before the place was paved…if it even was paved when it opened. Dirt drag strips weren’t all that uncommon in this part of the world back when hot rodders were thirsty for any spot to get their speed fix without having to run from the police.

We love sharing these stories of tracks that you may or may not know revamping for another 55 years in business. The big mega-tracks get most of the love and we understand that, but as we said above, the lifeblood of drag racing are tracks like Galot Motorsports Park. These are the places where families visit on a Friday night, where kids sit on the tailgates of their trucks and watch their friends beat the stuffing out of their street cars, and where the stars of tomorrow are born. Talk with most of the southern pro mod guys and they will tell you that their teeth were cut at places just like Galot.

It has been a good news drag strip lovefest around here with the Dragway 42 announcement and now this. We wouldn’t want it any other way!

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SCROLL DOWN TO SEE WORK UNDERWAY AT GALOT MOTORSPORTS PARK IN DUNN BENSON, NORTH CAROLINA –

(Photos: Galot Motorsports Park)