SC speedway supporters continue push to save historic property. Here’s the latest plan

After the resounding disappointment of not being able to lease the historic Greenville Pickens Speedway to resume racing, supporters have not given up and are pushing instead to find a buyer.

The property was listed by John Shaw of Shaw Realty last year with an asking price of $5.8 million.

Much of the property around the speedway was bought or is under contract by RealtyLink, which is developing several warehouses with about 4 million square feet of space.

There was some concern the track would be folded into that development but that has not happened.

Tasha Porter Kummer, the first woman to win a Late Model race — the prime event — at Greenville Pickens, said in an interview she and others are working hard to find a buyer, specifically within the NASCAR community.

She said she thinks NASCAR should step up for the second oldest short track just as it did for the oldest. Last year, NASCAR bought Winston-Salem Speedway, Inc., the lessee of Bowman Gray Stadium in North Carolina, and intends to manage racing operations at the track that was built in 1939.

The lease runs through December 2050.

Greenville car dealer Kevin Whitaker owns Greenville Pickens, but has not commented publicly on the track’s future or sale. He owned much of the land bought by RealtyLink as well.

Kummer said several offers in the $3 million range have been made for the track.

Her family has been associated with the speedway for 40 years. Her brother races, along with other family members.

Besides being the second oldest, it is different from all other tracks of its kind. It has a long straightaway and the corners are not banked, but flat, making driving harder and more interesting.

She is spearheading an effort to have racers make videos about what makes the track worth saving and organized a Zoom call to rally supporters.

Kummer says the Upstate and racing would lose a piece of what makes the area and the sport special if races don’t resume. It’s already lost two seasons, but other tracks have been dark for years and reopened.

She and others also intend to attend a March 31 meeting of the Pickens County Planning Commission to further express their concern that the track remains a track and not a part of a warehouse project.

Greenville Pickens was the site of the first race aired on national TV, start to finish, broadcast in 1971 on ABC’s Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay doing lap by lap coverage.

Greenville Pickens Speedway opened in 1940 as a half-mile-long dirt track. When racing resumed after World War II on Independence Day, fans saw two horse races and a car race promoted by Bill France Sr., who two years later founded NASCAR.

The Blackwell family bought the track in 1955, the same year NASCAR began sanctioning races there. Mark Blackwell, son of the former owner, worked with driver Jackie Manley to lease the track last year.

He said Monday he hopes a buyer can be found and the racetrack saved. He continues to hear from people interested in it.

The track was paved in 1970 and hosted various Winston Cup races through the years.

Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and his son Dale Jr.. raced there. Many of the legendary racers’ names remain painted on the walls surrounding the track.

Kummer said racing is not the only money maker for the track. Its Christmas lights display was quite lucrative, she said. Shaw has said the track could be used for swap meets, concerts and car shows.

The speedway ran on Saturday nights, drawing thousands of fans estimated between 22,000 to 35,000 seats. It was a family spot so popular people would come early just to get a parking space. A concession favorite was fried bologna sandwiches on hamburger buns.

Kummer said the thrill of the roaring engines, the wind whipping by was a draw as were the occasional wrecks, one of them her own. In 2022, she totaled her car in one of the last races of the season and was hospitalized for four days. Recovered, she bought a 2023 Hedgecock, her first brand new race car, and readied for a new season that was not to be.

She said she intends to keep fighting.

“I won’t give up until it is torn down,” she said.