Memories of Banks County Speedway Still Linger


Briefly Asphalt-And The End

Tommie Irvin poses outside his store, located not far from the remains of the Banks County Speedway, in 2007. Photo by Brandon Reed

The track spent most of its existence as a dirt bullring, but for two years, they did make the move to asphalt.  The track was paved in 1965, but didn’t stay that way long.

“We decided to go asphalt because of the cost of watering the track and getting it ready.” Irvin said. “With asphalt, all we had to do was go down there and turn the lights on about 5 o’clock Saturday.  If it rained at 4 o’clock, we could still race that night.”

But the asphalt drove some of the popular local dirt racers away, so after two years, the asphalt was plowed up.

The beginning of the end for the little track was signaled with a tragedy that occurred elsewhere in the state.  In March of 1969, an out of control dragster killed 11 people at the Yellow River Dragstrip near Covington.  The state government responded the next year by passing legislation saying all racetracks had to have $1 million in liability insurance.

Irvin said they had the insurance, but when the fire marshal visited the track and started insisting on changes, the writing was on the wall.

A look at Banks County Speedway as it sits today.

“They came along, and said we were going to have to put in concrete grandstands instead of our wooden ones, and all kinds of retaining walls.  It was going to cost us more money than we could ever get back out of it, so rather than do that, we just quit.”

Irvin said once he closed the track down, he never looked back.

“I never did miss it.  We cut off the lights one night, and just walked off.  I never did go out there to have the lights cut off for a year after that.  I just got burned out on it.”

Irvin says that the Banks County Speedway was one of a kind, and the county will never see another one.

“There’s no way you could build a race track in Banks County today.  There’s no way.  They’ve passed so many rules on permits and all this stuff that there’s no way you could get a license to do it.”

So the Banks County Speedway sits, grown up with grass and pine trees, a reminder of what used to be. The light poles, portions of the catch fence, and the old concession stand on the hill still stand in place.  Even a racecar or two remains where they were left.   But in it’s day, it was a sight to behold.

Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the July 25, 2007 edition of the Banks County News. Tommie Irvin was inducted into the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in 2009. He passed away in November of 2010.

Brandon Reed is the editor and publisher of Georgia Racing History.com.


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