Darlington's rejuvenation has track thinking bigger

DARLINGTON, S.C. -- The future of NASCAR's oldest major speedway sits on Chris Browning's desk, in the form of a thick, ring-bound booklet packed with timelines, blueprints, architects' renderings, and maps. The president of Darlington Raceway reaches into his five-year master plan and pulls out a graphic of a two-story, barn-styled garage complex, complete with a fan observation area, that may one day grace the infield of this revered 57-year-old track.

September bound

Racing will once again resonate around Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend with the inaugural Darlington Historic Racing Festival on August 30-31, 2008.

The Darlington Historic Racing Festival will feature legendary cars and drivers from a variety of racing series, including NASCAR and IndyCar, from the 1950s through the 1970s. Racing personalities who have already agreed to participate include Junior Johnson, Buddy Baker, Darrell Waltrip and David Pearson.

"We are absolutely thrilled to bring more than 100 vintage race cars to Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend," said Chris Browning, track president.

The first tickets to the inaugural event were sold December 13 in the Darlington Raceway ticket office. Florence, S.C. resident Jack Hesley was the proud purchaser.

"When I heard tickets were on sale for this event I could not wait to purchase them," said Hesley, who first attended an event at Darlington Raceway in 1978. "I am excited to be back at Darlington Raceway on Labor Day weekend."

Tickets for the event are $15 per day or $25 for the entire weekend, children age 12 and under will be admitted free. Tickets can be purchased by calling the Darlington Raceway ticket office at 866-459-RACE or online at www.racetickets.com.

There's more. There's the hospitality village and the campground Browning wants to add to the banks of the pond that forced Darlington's unique egg shape. There are the new Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series garages, on either side of a new media center and Victory Lane. There's the relocated care center and helipad, the addition of a high-end motor coach lot overlooking the backstretch, the new credential buildings off the new road leading into the new tunnel.

"Can we get it as quickly as we want? Probably not," Browning said in his modest office alongside the first NASCAR facility to host a 500-mile race. "But the bottom line is, we can make good arguments for each of these projects, why we need them, the return on them, and how they're going to have a positive impact on the fans' and competitors' and the media's experience. Everybody who comes in here, these things are going to touch them in a positive way."

The way things have gone lately for Darlington, it might be unwise to bet against him. Browning's grand plans are but the latest chapter in what's been a remarkable turnaround for this old track in South Carolina's cotton and tobacco country, a speedway that only a few years ago seemed on the brink of falling off the schedule forever. It's been not only rescued but revitalized, buoyed by sellout crowds for its Mother's Day weekend races, and rejuvenated by a steady stream of capital improvement cash from parent company International Speedway Corp. ISC has pumped roughly $20 million into this facility the last four years, beginning with lights and a soft-wall system, and continuing with a new grandstand unveiled last season.

The current project is one of the more involved in the track's long history, a $10 million effort to repave the coarse racing surface and add a long-needed new tunnel capable of accommodating motor coaches and team transporters. On a recent afternoon the milling machines and pavers were at work, digging up the last remaining vestiges of the old asphalt, and evening out patches and rough spots in the base. And in a hole torn between Turns 3 and 4, where cars usually run so high against the wall, snaked the skeleton of a monstrous tunnel that will one day be buried by dirt and rock.

It's a behemoth, 30 feet wide and set in a hole dug 29 feet at its deepest, made of 29 arched, pre-cast roof sections weighing 15 tons apiece and swung into place by a crane. Work is about a month behind schedule due to water table issues, but it's expected to be completed well in advance of Darlington's May race weekend. It's desperately needed, as anyone who's tried to wriggle through Darlington's two narrow, old tunnels, or has waited in a long line of big vehicles waiting to cross the backstretch after an event, can attest.

Once the tunnel is completed and the gap around it filled, the repaving can take place in earnest. All around the racetrack are orange, spray-painted numbers and pins sunk in the surface, the hieroglyphics of a paving crew that wants an even surface all the way around. When Browning was last involved in a repaving process, at North Carolina Speedway 15 years ago, the machines dipped with the potholes and rose with the bumps, creating a smooth if uneven racing surface. The current crew from Sunmount, the Texas company that also repaved Talladega and Richmond, has the place computer-modeled down to the square inch.

"It's going to be exactly the same [all the way around], without the bumps and dips," Browning said. "It's going to be smooth as silk when we're done. It's going to be the same Darlington as far as the banking and everything else; we haven't altered any of that. But the track surface itself is going to be very, very smooth." (Continued)