Spark of Racing Life Back in Wilkesboro

Story by Corinne Saunders

To the delight of local NASCAR fans, the sound of racecars whirring around the North Wilkesboro Speedway was heard for the first time in 13 years on Saturday, June 27.

Buck Baker Racing School, the oldest stockcar racing school in North America, plans on using the speedway as an additional outlet for its classes. Former racing school students include Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon.

“North Wilkesboro is a historic speedway,” said Thomas Heavey, marketing manager for Buck Baker Racing School. “We’ve always wanted to run there.”

The school offered “hot laps”—rides in a race car designed to be as much like a race as possible—on Saturday, said participant Patrick Pitzer.
The event was held “to generate interest in the school and in the track in the Wilkes community” said Thomas Heavey, marketing manager for Buck Baker Racing School.

The school brought five cars to the event, and hot laps cost $20 per lap, with a two-lap minimum. The event opened with a woman singing the National Anthem, and a man announced “Gentlemen, start your engines” before the hot laps began.

“All the cars have seen competitions,” Pitzer said. “Passenger seats have been added to them [and] the engines have been de-tuned a little bit.”
The North Wilkesboro Speedway was an intrinsic part of the NASCAR circuit from 1949 to 1996, at which time it was sold and had not been used since. The two Sprint Cup Series events formerly held at the track moved to New Hampshire and Texas motor speedways, and the North Wilkesboro Speedway now has grass growing in cracks on the track and trees growing in one of the stands.

Buck Baker Racing School currently leases or rents motor speedways—each at least a mile long—in Charlotte, Rockingham, Atlanta, Ga. and Darlington, S.C. The only short track currently utilized is about half a mile long and is in Bristol, Tenn. The North Wilkesboro Speedway would give the school use of another short track, measuring five-eighths of a mile.

Buck Baker Racing School holds one-, two- or three-day-long schools at its various tracks, and is interested in running future schools there, Heavey said.

“We had a wonderful time [Saturday]. Thanks to everyone who came out and the support from the entire Wilkes community,” he said.