BRISTOL, Tenn. — Progress continues at a rapid pace as construction crews brought out the big equipment this week to pour concrete and provide a new race surface at Bristol Dragway from the starting line to the eighth-mile mark.
The project has been in the works for a couple of months and on Tuesday crews were able to pour the right lane and smooth out the concrete. On Thursday, the left lane will be poured and smoothed. The project is headed by local contractors Summers Taylor and Baker’s Construction. An engineer from Texas A&M University also is on site to consult with the project.
Steve Swift, senior vice president of operations and development for Speedway Motorsports, said while this project looks straight-forward, putting in a new drag racing surface is a lot more involved than paving a driveway or an oval racetrack. There’s quite a bit of science that goes into it.
“There’s a lot of sheer force to account for on an oval track like this past weekend’s Food City 500,” Swift said. “It’s unique in drag racing because you have tensile strength in the surface of the track to hold heavy objects. Concrete works better for the launch pad because of its compressive strength which helps with the sticky tires and hot summer conditions.”
Swift said now that they are past the removal of the old surface and addition of the base of gravel and steel reinforcement bars the pouring of the concrete is the final step.
“We’ll pour out both lanes (this week), and all we will have left to do after that is come back and actually fill in the concrete between lanes,” Swift said. “Roughly in 30 days, we’ll be ready to start putting rubber back on the race track, and get ready for NHRA.”
The Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals begins in 58 days, on the weekend of June 12-14. The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is celebrating its 75th anniversary and the NHRA’s national event at Bristol Dragway is also at a milestone of 25 years.
Bristol Dragway president and general manager Jerry Caldwell said he is looking forward to giving the region and the sport of drag racing one of the best track surfaces in the country for what is going to be a very busy year at the Dragway.
“It’s quite the undertaking,” Caldwell said. “Steve Swift and his team are doing a great job. It’s moving right along. This is something we’ve been looking at for a few years. We felt this year made the most sense and worked for everyone. It’s been almost 20 years since the top has been redone. It was time.”
When asked by media what the cost of the project is, both Caldwell and Swift responded the same: “Expensive”.
“These sports facilities are big facilities, and they’re expensive to keep up, and it’s part of what we have to build into our business plan each year looking ahead,” Caldwell said. “It will improve the racing here, I’m sure, and be good for the sport as a whole.”
Swift said a lot of people have been involved in making this project become a reality.
“Thunder Valley has got a special place in the NHRA world, and now having a flatter Thunder Valley is going to be exciting for the competitors,” Swift said. “A lot of (the drivers) have been in touch through this process. NHRA has been a great partner working with us too, so it’s been a big conglomerate of people that’s come together to make this happen.”
