Posted by Langley Austin on March 8, 2008, 11:58 pm
Message modified by board administrator March 10, 2008, 8:48 pm

by: Langley Austin/www.RACE22.com Doc Love also Contributed to the Story Elkin, NC ~ The asphalt laying around the four tenths mile oval of Friendship Motor Speedway will soon be be ripped up and replaced with red clay and the track will be reopened in 2008 as a dirt track once again. Sources close to the Friendship Motor Speedway staff have confirmed that Friendship Motor Speedway will once again be operated as a dirt track. The tracks history is filled with competitive dirt racing since the facility was built back in 1982 and ran almost non-stop as a dirt track from 1982 to 2002. Then in 2003 Checkered Flag Promotions, a collective effort between Danny Baker, Thomas Needham and Randy Myers purchased the speedway and converted the semi successful dirt track to a paved facility. The track has operated since April of 2003 as a paved track, most recently an ASA Member track, but is now going to see red clay dirt again as the track readies to return as a dirt track this season. Sources have linked former Late Model Dirt Track star, Phil Hall will operate the facility in 2008 as they transition to a dirt facility once again. An announcement on the ASA Modified website(www.southernmodtour.net) has sent rumors flying about the future of the series and the 4/10 mile track. The announcement on the ASA Modified series website states that Randy Myers and the ASA Modifieds are no longer associated with the Friendship Motor Speedway, the series "home track" and will not be scheduling any races there this season. The Friendship Motor Speedway website(www.friendshipmotorspeedway.com) has also been temporarily shut down while "construction" to the site is being done. The official announcement about the track returning to dirt is expected in the coming days when the website is back up and running. *Phil Hall gave us a few comments this evening as he and a partner work to put together a season of dirt racing on what is right now a asphalt 4/10 mile oval. Question & Answer with Phil Hall: RACE22 ~ Is there any truth to the rumors that you will be running Friendship Motor Speedway this season? Phil Hall ~ This Wednesday we will find out a definate on what we've been working on. That's the plan right now. RACE22 ~ Will the track be going back to dirt? Phil Hall ~ Definately going back dirt. RACE22 ~ What made you want to do this? Phil Hall ~ I've been racing for 35 years, I've seen it all and I remember back several years ago when Friendship was dirt and it was going pretty good. Then it fell off right before they sold the track to make it asphalt. Dirt racing is strong again right now and I think that this move will come at a good time. It all comes down to the fact that I'm out of work now and I gotta do something for work. RACE22 ~ Are you comfortable with not racing? Phil Hall ~ I like to drive the crate cars, but I really love the Super Late Models and right now there's just not any competitive rides out there right now. I'll be comfortable as a promoter. RACE22 ~ Knowing that not many race car drivers make good promoters, what do you think will make you different? Phil Hall ~ I don't necessarily agree with that. If you look at what Johnny Stokes in Missisippi has done, you know that some drivers do, do a good job. We will have an 11:30pm curfew, which will be good and when it gets down to 11:15 or 11:20pm we will go green, white, checkered and end it. My biggest complaint over the years has been being at the tracks all night and thats something we won't have to worry about at Friendship. I've seen a lot of stuff done wrong and I'm not saying we're going to do everything perfect, but we're going to try and do things the opposite of the bad things we've seen over the years. RACE22 ~ Will you run on Friday nights? Phil Hall ~ No, we'll be running on Saturday nights. But, we aren't going to run big Crate or Super Late Model shows up against any of the big shows at either 311(in Madision, NC) or Wythe Raceway(in Rural Retreat, VA). Running big shows against one another doesn't help anyone and I'm good friends with Fred Brown at Wythe Raceway. **Phil also stated that he wasn't alone in this venture and that he has a partner someone he's worked together with in the past and that they've got some big plans with a big race scheduled for September 6th, that he can't release details about until after Wednesday, when the deal with the current ownership of Friendship Motor Speedway will be complete. Phil Hall also has agreed to give us more information on this transition to dirt on Thursday once the deal has been completed.