Drag Illustrated Issue 136, September 2018 | Page 61

DIALED IN
Back From the Brink
Donnie Gibbs Jr. saves North Carolina’s
famed Mooresville Dragway
By Van Abernethy
L
ongtime chassis builder and
racer Donnie Gibbs Jr. says that own-
ing a drag strip was something of a
lifelong dream, but not just any drag
strip. He was really only interested in
purchasing the legendary eighth-mile track in his
hometown of Mooresville, North Carolina, which
also happens to be located less than a mile from
his race car shop.
The opportunity to buy Mooresville Dragway
was wide open in 2017, but its condition had de-
teriorated in recent years, especially after sitting
desolate for pretty much all of 2016. The reality of
the situation was pretty grim for the continuation
of the track, and in fact, it was just one month
away from the expiration date of its grandfather
clause, which allowed the facility to continue op-
erating as a racetrack. That’s when Gibbs stepped
up and closed a deal to save the track, buying it
outright from the Leazer family, who’d owned it
for much of its existence.
September 2018
For Gibbs, he says it wasn’t even a question –
he simply couldn’t let this track and a lifetime
of memories get bulldozed and replaced by who
knows what. By February 2017, even before the
papers were signed, Gibbs was busy putting the
finishing touches on a race schedule, “just in case
it worked out and the deal went through,” he says.
By March it was a done deal and Gibbs’s lifelong
dream was realized.
Next came the round-the-clock effort to clean
the place up and make it presentable for his first
race season. Virtually all of the track’s equipment
was in poor condition, and everything from trac-
tors, sprayers and electronics needed replacing.
“If anybody wants to know what real work is and
how to be broke, buy a drag strip,” Donnie laughs.
“It’s everything I thought it’d be, plus a whole
lot more!” Regardless, though, the only regret
Gibbs currently has is not having more money to
perform the restoration at a quicker pace. “It kills
me to not be able to do the things I want to do,
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