Deluges damage three north Georgia dirt tracks
Disastrous flooding in north Georgia that left 10 dead and caused $250 million in damage earlier this week has also damaged some of the state's racetracks that host Dirt Late Model racing, including Dixie Speedway in Woodstock, Toccoa Speedway and Boyd's Speedway just south of Chattanooga, Tenn.
"I've never seen this kind of rain in my life," said long-time Dixie Speedway owner Mickey Swims, who said the 40-year-old track received 21 inches of rain over two days early in the week. "We've got a gauge, and it don't lie."
The frontstretch wall stayed intact during the deluge, but dirt on the grandstand side of the wall was pushed over the wall and onto the frontstretch of the D-shaped track that once served as the home of the Hav-A-Tampa Dirt Racing Series.
Swims, who had been on crutches until Tuesday with gout in his left foot, said it would probably take nearly a week to get the facility back into racing condition using "backhoes and shovels and plenty of labor."
The track's infield scales were covered by the standing water and the scales themselves are mud-packed while the electronics must be repaired after being soaked, he said.
The track cancelled its Sept. 26 program, the final regular-season event of the season, but plans to be ready for the $10,000-to-win Dixie Shootout on Oct. 10, one of the final events on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series.
"We're going to have to reclay the corners," Swims said. "It just played the dickens with us. It'll take a solid week to get ready, but we'll be ready for the Shootout, the Good Lord willing and if nothing don't happen.
"We're just pleased it's no worse than what it is. It's just a lot of work, but we're used to that."
In Georgia's northeast corner, Toccoa Speedway promoter Randy McCoy had already cancelled Sept. 26's action because of a conflicting event, but it will take extensive repairs of the frontstretch wall before the track can host racing again. The double-layered guardrail collapsed onto the racing surface over a 60-foot stretch between turn four and the flagstand at a track that soaked up 18 inches of rain in the deluges.
Toccoa's 3/8-mile oval, Georgia's oldest operating track that opened in 1955, isn't scheduled to compete again until Oct. 10. Attempts to contact McCoy were unsuccessful.
At Ringgold, Ga., the flooding Chickamauga Creek virtually covered the Boyd's Speedway oval by Tuesday, with the track's victory lane sign nearly submerged. The creek, which runs along the track's backstretch, receded by Thursday and crews were pumping water out of the infield at the third-mile oval.
"We've gotta get to the track's electrical system and survey the damage," track owner Richard Harvey said Thursday after surveying the damage. "We're gonna do everything we can to prepare for the SRRS Super Late Model series event in eight days."
A $3,000-to-win Southern Regional Racing Series is scheduled for Boyd's on Oct. 2.
