D.I. COLUMNIST
On the Road
with Van Abernethy
W
hen it comes to hidden
gems tucked away deep
inside North Carolina’s
racing landscape, Nahunta Dragway
may just be the best-kept secret in
the entire Tar Heel state. Although
I’ve had the track on my radar for
years, astonishingly, this indepen-
dently owned and operated eighth-
miler was the only drag strip here
in my home state that I had never
visited, that is, until I made a detour
coming home from Florida in late
January and traveled to this land of
scenic farm country in the eastern
part of the state near Pikeville.
It was there I met track operator
Eddie Radford on a Tuesday after-
noon and he told me the full history
of how this track came to exist. “For
years I thought circle track racing
was the only kind of racing there
was, but it’s not!” laughs Radford, as
he tells of his family’s long history
in oval racing.
The Radford family’s introduc-
tion to the car business (racing
them as well as selling them) can be
traced all the way back to the 1960s
when Eddie’s father, Ed Radford Sr.,
was busy carving out a modest living
as a barber, that is, until someone
asked him if he’d ever thought about
parking a used car on the property of
his barber shop and trying to sell it.
Mr. Radford was intrigued with the
idea, so he soon found a car to park
and advertise and was astonished
after he made more money from the
sale of a single automobile than he
would typically make working an
entire week cutting hair!
Over the next few decades the
Radford family would open mul-
tiple car lots, auto auctions and yes,
even built an oval track on the same
property that is now home to the
drag strip. “We had been involved
in circle track racing for many years,
and honestly, I was shocked when
Dad told me he wanted to build a
drag strip,” Eddie recalls.
So, in 2001 the Radfords once
again broke ground upon the fam-
ily-owned land that already accom-
modated their circle track. After the
drag strip was up and running, Ed-
die would ride his four-wheeler over
to the track and watch, but could
hardly make sense of the whole
thing in the beginning.
“It was different than
what I was used to, and
I couldn’t understand
how one car could get
a half-track head start,
and then somehow the
slower car could end up
winning!” laughs Eddie,
as he describes his first
impressions of bracket
racing. “I did take a Ford Taurus
SHO off our car lot and brought it
out here to race one afternoon, but
I couldn’t cut a light for nothing,” he
laughingly confesses.
From the very beginning, the drag
strip (originally called Wayne Coun-
ty Dragstrip) experienced moderate
success, although Eddie believes it
never really took roots and grew
during those early days. The track
offered racing in Top and Modified
eliminators in the beginning. It then
transitioned to simply test-and-tune to operate the drag strip
in any capacity. That’s
when Eddie decided to
try his hand at operat-
ing the track. “After Dad
got sick, I just walked
in here like I was the
rooster and took the
place over,” he confesses.
Among the first things
he changed was the name. “I got
to noticing how on Facebook and
social media in general everybody
referred to the track as ‘Nahunta’
because of the community where
we’re located, so I decided to name
it that officially.”
Then, after one of his Modified
racers left the starting line with the
front end of his Nova pointed sky-
ward, the racer walked up to Eddie
and declared, “Man, this place is
hook city!” Eddie thought it had a
nice ring to it, so he plastered “Hook
sessions, and from around 2008 to
2010, the track even shuttered its
doors completely and didn’t oper-
ate for several seasons. Circle track
racing was also beginning a decline
in eastern NC, and the decision was
made to shut down the oval track,
which remains closed to this day.
By this time, Eddie developed
a better understanding of dial-in
racing, especially after he started
traveling with a friend who was a
serious bracket racer. “After a while
I got hooked!” he laughs. Radford
also began to note how things were
done at other area facilities and saw
no reason why his family’s drag strip
couldn’t flourish in like manner.
The defining moment happened
about three years ago when Ed Rad-
ford Sr. became sick and wasn’t able City” in bold letters on the sign at
the front gate.
Suddenly, there was a buzz of
excitement in the air that the track
had never experienced previously.
Radford continued offering test and
tune for those who were interested,
but there was also a growing interest
for organizing some big Footbrake
races at Nahunta.
The area is rich with Modified
cars and the newly established
“Hook City” seemed to be the per-
fect place to showcase these guys
and gals as local heroes of the drag
racing community! “After 35 cars
showed up for that first Modified
race, I realized instantly that I had
something to work with,” recalls
Eddie.
More and more races followed,
then came special events such as the
Triple Crown, The Kings of Nahunta
and finally, the Roger Rhodes Me-
morial Race, all geared toward the
old-school style of racing. “It’s all
Footbrake racing here – old school
with no electronics...that’s how we
like to do it!” smiles Radford.
Every Saturday night you can
count on bracket racing at Nahunta,
often with a special event thrown in
such as a stick-shift race, and always
test and tune mixed in. “I plan on
trying a new class this year featuring
stock-block small-blocks with no
power adder,” Eddie says. “It will be
heads-up racing with instant green
on the tree. I’ve had tremendous
interest in it, and will probably do
the same thing with some big-block
entries.”
As for his regular Saturday night
bracket racers, the recent inclusion
of a “second-chance” race was a huge
hit, as Eddie has a slightly different
twist on his secondary race by offer-
ing it completely free of charge. “You
must run the first and second round,
but after that all third-round losers
can come back for a separate race
that typically pays $250 to win and
is completely free to enter. People
came to race, so I want them to race!
The fans love it and it keeps them
here longer,” says Radford.
Speaking of fans, the attendance
of spectators for a bracket race is
anything but typical here at Na-
hunta. “I’ve never seen anything like
it!” says legendary announcer Alvin
Dilldine, who came here last year to
call the action on the microphone
and was stunned at the amount of
people in the stands.
It’s also notable that this track
is operated largely by family. Ed-
die’s mother, Gail Radford, is the
first to greet race-goers when they
come through the gate, while Ed-
die’s brother, Mark, hands out time
slips down at the return road booth.
Everyone else involved mainly con-
sists of life-long friends. “It’s a tight
circle we have here and if you’re in
it, you’re family,” Eddie vows.
One thing is for certain, Eddie
Radford is extremely thankful he
discovered drag racing later in life,
and he can’t seem to say enough
about the quality of people he’s met
along the way.
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I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com
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Issue 154