The 11th annual Spartanburg Dragway Reunion (Spartanburg, SC) will take place on Saturday, January 8, 2022, at the Beacon Drive-in.
As many as 300 former drag racing, track officials, and race fans will assemble at the iconic restaurant to celebrate the dragstrip, which played host weekly to many drag racing legends and future champions.
The track, which closed in 1983, set the foundation for Spartanburg County to establish its place in drag racing history as one of the more successful counties for drag racing success.
“There are many drag racers who consider Spartanburg Dragway to be the sandlot field of their careers,” said Bobby Bennett, the event organizer said. “It wasn’t the most beautiful or efficient track, compared to today’s multi-million dollar facilities, but it was where many used as a springboard to a career on the worldwide stage.
“I know for me, as a kid, it’s where I got the chance to build a foundation for my career as a professional journalist.”
Bennett wasn’t old enough to drag race at the time but admittedly drove a 1972 Dodge Polara to an eighth-mile 11.5-second pass before the gates opened.
“Yeah, I had to sit on a pillow to see going down the track, and it took all the maneuvering I could manage to keep the gas mashed to the floor,” Bennett said. “I made it to the finish line without hitting anything, so that was a major victory.”
Major victories were something commonplace for those who raced at the track, which during its tenure carried sanctioning from NHRA, AHRA, and IHRA during its two decades of existence (1963-1983).
Eleven different drivers in Spartanburg County have won 30 world championships. Additionally, there were another seven championships won by drivers in neighboring counties.
One of those drivers, Scotty Cannon, who lives in Lyman, South Carolina, parlayed six IHRA series championships into Hall of Fame status. He was most recently inducted into the Bristol Dragway Legends of Thunder Valley. Cannon will also join the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in March 2022.
Bennett will present Cannon during the ceremony preceding the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Fla, and he proved that one does not need to have a race car to do big things in the sport.
Bennett, who grew up less than a mile from the dragstrip, worked as an announcer, race director and even picked up trash on Mondays after the races initially for the opportunity to get in free every Saturday night.
“Not bad for a kid who got caught sneaking in the first time,” Bennett admitted.
Bennett tried the right way to gain admission into the track in 1979 by seeking permission from his parents, but when both declined, citing “too much beer drinking and fighting” and too much money ($5), he took matters into his hands.
“You can blame that one, my mother; she taught me from the time I was little that when others won’t give you a chance, you make your own chances in life,” Bennett said. “I learned there’s a fine line between making a chance for yourself and doing it honestly.”
Bennett, then 12, exercised his entrepreneurial skills by working his way into the track’s operational team and creating a track magazine. Today, his CompetitionPlus.com is the leading source for independent drag racing news, and his CompetitionPlusTV, an online video network, produces millions of views annually for race-starved drag racing fans.
Spartanburg Dragway closed in 1983 when a golf course was built in the community, and its owners purchased the land to silence the iconic South Carolina dragstrip.
“It’s a sad story because that place meant so much to so many of us,” Bennett said. “But we do have this reunion every year to remind us all of what we had and the special times – closing the track never erased those memories for us. In fact, it made them stronger.”
On Saturday, the 11th annual Spartanburg Dragway Reunion begins at 4 PM EST, with Wall of Fame inductions scheduled for 7 PM.
There is a Facebook page dedicated to the reunion and can be found at REMEMBERING THE OLD SPARTANBURG DRAGWAY
