Peach State Speedway

Peach State Speedway

Paved oval

Lifetime track #363

The Peach State Speedway in Jefferson, Georgia is officially listed as my 363rd-lifetime track. Peach State was the sixth track where I had seen racing in the Peach State.  

I did not begin writing my famous “Trackchaser Reports” until the middle of the year 2000.  My first official Trackchaser Report was written for track #425, the State Fair Speedway in Sedalia, Missouri.  I saw that track with my brother Mark on May 28, 2000. I went to Jefferson, Georgia on Saturday, May 1, 1999.

Before 1980, I never kept track of when I went to a track. I just know from memory that I had seen racing at 71 different racetracks from when I was born in 1949 through the 1979 season. This was affectionately known as the “Group of 71”. As this is written I’ve seen racing at more nearly 2,800 racetracks.

You see when I first became a racing fan I never gave the idea of “trackchasing” a passing thought. Why? Trackchasing requires the funds to travel long distances. I grew up poor. We had no money for travel. The ONLY vacation I can ever remember taking until I was in college was a bus trip from Peoria, Illinois to Evansville, Indiana to visit my grandparents. We had absolutely no money for luxuries and travel was a luxury.

I began my racing fan “career” as a “racechaser”. How did I decide beginning in college and running through the early 80s where I would go to the races? That was easy! I simply followed my favorite drivers. I scoured the Hawkeye Racing News for advertised race dates. I followed my favorite dirt driver, Darrell Dake, all over his home state of Iowa and my home state of Illinois. We were big Dick Trickle fans. When he was racing at a big show we tried to make it there. Yep. I was a racechaser. I didn’t give a second thought to whether I was visiting a new track or not.

However, somewhere in the 80s, I decided I liked going to a track for the first time more so than re-visiting a track for the 10^th time. It was also about this time that Darrell Dake (above) was slowing down his race schedule and Dick Trickle was moving from the midwestern short tracks to NASCAR. Of course, during the 60s and 70s, I was a regular at my hometown track, the Peoria Speedway. To this day the Peoria Speedway remains my all-time favorite track.

Much of what I can tell you about the Peach State Speedway is from memory. And, frankly, I don’t have much of a memory from that track visit of 23 years ago as this is written. My one and only written comment from that day went like this, “Well run with good viewing. 250-lap U.S.A.R. race run in two hours”.

I know that I went to see racing at four tracks during that trip to the south. On Friday I saw Wesley English #16 win the feature at the Sugar Creek Raceway in Blue Ridge, Georgia.

The next day, Saturday, I was at Peach State. I’m suspecting that the USAR race was on Saturday afternoon. Marty Ward #97 (above) won that big show. That evening I saw Tom Hardy #16 win the main event at the Lanier National Speedway in Gainesville, Georgia. I finished off the weekend seeing Asa Candler #98 win at Road Atlanta in Braselton, Georgia. Back in the day seeing racing on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday was my “classic” trackchasing trip.

I can tell you that “The History of America’s Speedways – Past and Present” authored by Allan E. Brown has this to say about the Peach State Speedway. By the way, I can’t even imagine the level of research it took to make this book. There is a listing from virtually every racetrack that ever existed in the U.S. and Canada. It truly does border on the unbelievable. Well done!

The Peach State Speedway opened on July 30, 1967. I had just graduated from high school! I could have driven down to Georgia for opening night. Alas, I did not come to the track for 32 years following their very first race.

The track ran from 1967 through 1976. Then they closed and reopened in 1981 and continued until 1988. They re-opened again in 1990. Later the track’s name would change to the Gresham Motorsports Park. The track was also known at the Jefco Speedway during its history.

You might have remembrances about this track.  If so, please feel free to share your memories of the comments section below.  If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com.  I’ll try to include them here.

Thanks for reading about my trackchasing,

Randy Lewis

World’s #1 Trackchaser

Peoria Old Timers Racing Club (P.O.R.C.) Hall of Fame Member

That’s all folks!  Official end of the RLR – Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Report