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RACE TO THE FINISH: RACE TRACKS IN SIGHT FOR JEFFERSON COUNTY

By Lewis Delavan/Special to The Commercial
Monday, May 18, 2009 10:25 AM CDT

Groundbreaking for dragster and mud racing tracks could come this year in Jefferson County.

County Judge Mike Holcomb, who races with his son, said racers have a remote site in the county’s far west corner where they plan to develop a one-eighth mile paved track and a mud track.

Racers do not have a formal organization at this time, but there are a number of individuals and families in Jefferson County who race. Estimates range from 150 to 200.

Some people who own dragsters keep them garaged because of the distance to a track, currently a two-hour drive.

“These guys want to race,” Holcomb said.

This year, the Legislature modified an existing law that allows building and operating a stock car track in Jefferson County. The law previously allowed construction of a track “only north” of the Arkansas River. Neighbors voiced opposition to that site.

Act 1287 of 2009, sponsored by Rep. Toni Bradford, D-Pine Bluff, changed the law to allow a track to be built “only south” of the river.

The track will be in her district, Bradford said. All other Jefferson County legislators co-sponsored the bill.

Under the law, the track must be more than two miles from any existing interstate highway, public or private school or church facility.

The minimum distance from a neighboring county was reduced from three miles to one mile. The law cites “noise pollution and traffic congestion” as reasons for the minimum distance.

The track probably will not allow open headers, to reduce noise, Holcomb said. Also, racing will not be held late at night, and normally not on Sunday.

“It will be a family activity,” Holcomb said.

Bradford and Holcomb both cited economics in building the tracks. Participants and fans will be buying food, fuel and other items in the county, and possibly staying in motels, helping businesses and adding to sales tax revenue.

Safety will be a prime consideration.

Vehicles will be inspected prior to each race, and drivers will wear helmets and safety harnesses.

Additionally, protective devices will be built to ensure spectator safety, Holcomb said.

The tracks would be built on a 130-acre wooded area along Huntley Trail, which runs between U.S. 79 and Arkansas 54, approximately seven miles south of Pine Bluff.

Permits must still be obtained from the state Department of Environmental Quality, but Holcomb foresees no problem for approval, as the state law was designed to ensure environmental compliance.

Heads up

The proposed one-eighth mile drag strip in Jefferson County would feature “heads up” drag racing — two vehicles racing against each other at the same time.

“Heads up racing is a crowd pleaser,” with hundredths, or even thousandths of a second separating winners and runners up, said Arnold Harden of Pine Bluff, who began racing 32 years ago at age 30.

Ironically, most tracks today feature vehicles running individually, against the clock, Harden said.

Vehicles reach speeds of up to 100 mph on a one-eighth mile track, and possibly 120 mph on a quarter-mile track. Most new tracks are the shorter length, he said.

Harden sometimes has three race cars, but currently has two — a 1967 Chevrolet Camaro and a 2001 Chevrolet Camaro.

Matt Holcomb, 28, races a street-legal Chevrolet S-10 pickup he has owned for 10 years.

“I drove it back and forth to work for a long time,” Holcomb said.

“I’ve been racing since I was 12 years old,” he said. “My dad (Jefferson County Judge Mike Holcomb) said if I kept my grades up and kept out of trouble, he’d get me a car. That’s how I got started. He had to put a block on my gas pedal so I could reach it.”

His father has another couple of race cars, and his mother helps transport vehicles to races.

“It’s a family activity,” Matt Holcomb said.

He attended races with his parents, cousins and friends as a 4- or 5-year-old.

“That was a big deal to me,” he said. “It was unreal to me, as a little boy.”

He and his friend Harden agree more women are racing, and often doing quite well.

“They say women are better drivers, because they have a better reaction time,” Matt Holcomb said.

The engine in the S-10 produces 650 raw horsepower enjoys an additional 250-horse boost on demand with nitrous oxide, he said.

He has a hand-held switch to produce the boost when desired.

Matt Holcomb also has a 1999 Chevrolet Camaro that he bought from Harden. “They look identical,” he said.

Harden’s 1967 Camaro has a 500-horse engine. He has another motor that’s supposed to produce 780 horsepower. “All my car needs is a driver,” Harden joked.

He generally races at the Prescott track, while Holcomb races both there and at Paragould.

Holcomb enjoys popping “wheelies” in his vehicles.

“I don’t care about the winning,” he said. “I’m just there for the thrill.”

Racetracks generally have strict safety rules but allow great creativity for engineering.

“A short word for heads-up races is ‘run what you brung,’” Matt Holcomb said.

Harden’s first race car was a 1963 Plymouth. He remembered when his brakes went out in a race. Disaster loomed. But he hit second gear on the push-button automatic; then the first-gear button. It slowed, but not enough to make the turn. He hit the reverse button.

“I went around the corner on two wheels,” he said. “Some said, ‘You probably ruined your (transmission’s) converter,’ but I said, ‘Who cares? (I made it safely.)’”

The highlight of his racing career was winning the Super Pro class at Prescott three weeks in a row. Some had won it twice in a row, but not three times.

“As far as I know, it’s still the record,” Harden said.

Matt Holcomb won fastest truck in 2004 in a race at Barton Coliseum in Little Rock. More than 75 trucks competed, and he won a 7-foot-tall trophy.

Both racers say the track will be a financial boon for the county. “It will be a great thing,” Holcomb said.

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