Wilkesboro Motorsports Park

History

Angus Ellis built this strip in Mount Pleasant in 1955 with his sons Lester, J. C., Bill and Gwyn and his brother-in-law Sam Eller. A 2015 Wilkes Journal-Patriot article covers much of its history. It started as a dirt quarter-mile with no return road, so each pair of cars had to turn around and drive back before the next pair could run. In 1960 the track was paved and a return road added.

The Ellis family owned the track for its first 21 years, and Bill Ellis bought out the rest of the family and owned it alone from 1970 to 1976. In 1973 he put wheels on some of the guardrails so he could turn the drag strip into a paved oval for what he called mini-stocks, which raced Friday nights while drag racing stayed on Saturdays. According to a history of the dragway by neighbor Gena Hodges, the oval used the drag strip’s starting line as its start/finish, ran half the track, went left up a hill and curved back down past the timing tower. Those races are considered the start of the Baby Grand Series, later the Dash Series, which NASCAR sanctioned in 1975.

Ellis sold his shares to Tom Ferrell in 1976, and Ferrell closed the track after two unsuccessful years. Wilson Johnston reopened it in 1980. It changed hands a few times and stayed open until 1989, when Dean and Greg Wilkie of Lenoir took over and closed it for two years of renovations. The Wilkies hosted the IHRA’s Carolina Nitrous Nationals in 1991 and the Jet Car Nationals in 1992. From 1993 to 2000 it was leased to a string of drag racers and renamed Wilkesboro Raceway Park. Hodges said several of those 1990s tenants lasted about a year each and didn’t know much about running a drag strip.

Danny and Mona Dunn bought the track in 2000 and owned it longer than anyone outside the Ellis family. They renovated the pit-side concession stand, built a 10-car garage, and updated the spectator-side concession stand, turning that building into their home. By 2014 they were ready to step back. Phil and Pat Halbedel were at a Saturday race when Danny Dunn told them he was dropping Saturday night racing and keeping only Thursday test and tune. A fan sitting beside them suggested they buy the place, and Halbedel joked that he’d just write a check. He didn’t, but the deal went through as a property swap with the Dunns. The Halbedels held their first race on June 12, 2014, and moved into the house less than three days later.

On August 31, 1963, Archie Vickers was killed when he lost control near the end of the track, was thrown out, and the car rolled over him. The track runs today as an eighth-mile IHRA strip.