Drag Illustrated Issue 149, October 2019 | Page 55

DIALED IN
Carrying the Torch
Mike McCracken trades race car for racetrack
at Beaver Springs Dragway  By Van Abernethy
P
ennsylvania’s Beaver Springs
Dragway is a picturesque quarter-mile
drag strip that remains a treasured fa-
cility since its inception in 1971, when
it was built by “Beaver Bob” McCardle,
who would own and operate the track for the first
46 years of its existence. Upon his retirement at
the conclusion of the 2017 season, McCardle felt
certain his successor should be longtime racer
Mike McCracken, although it took a while to
convince McCracken he should be the next owner
of Beaver Springs Dragway.
October 2019
McCracken admittedly believed his days of tak-
ing on huge endeavors like this were behind him,
and he told McCardle as much, but “Beaver Bob”
was persistent and finally convinced McCracken
he should buy and operate the track upon his
retirement. “I told Bob that I owned a farm as
an investment, and if I was able to sell it I’d buy
the track,” says McCracken.
What happened next was an act of fate by all
accounts. “I was thinking it would take forever
to sell the farm, so I went home and listed it and
in probably three hours it was sold! The town-
ship actually wanted it and I had no idea, so they
put a rush on the sale and it was unbelievable
how quickly it all worked out, so I bought Bea-
ver Springs Dragway midway through the 2017
race season.”
McCracken encouraged McCardle to go ahead
and delay his retirement long enough to finish
out the season, holding the traditional awards
banquet and crowning of points champions. “Ba-
sically, Bob turned the lights off on the track in
2017 and I turned them back on in 2018,” says
McCracken, which is exactly how he envisioned
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