The Emerald Coast Dragway's track is cracked, the control room's windows are shot out, and weeds surround the bleachers. The lone sound comes from rushing vehicles on Interstate 10.
But Ozzy Moya and Robert Brown envision engines screaming, the smell of burning rubber and packed bleachers.
Reviving race tracks is Moya's passion. After selling a chain of auto racing supplies stores in the late 2000s, he rehabilitated the Lakeland Drag Strip, Orlando Speed World Dragway and the South Georgia Motorsports Park near Valdosta.
“He’s amazing. He’s the man,” Brown said. “He’s the 'track whisperer.'”
Now it’s the local track’s turn.
REBIRTH OF A TRACK
Emerald Coast Dragway, between Holt and Harold, was foreclosed in 2011, and crumbled over the past four-and-a-half years as it worked its way through financial and legal systems.
Moya and Brown credit real estate agents Gary Watson of Exit Realty in Pensacola and Jake Maurer of Premier Property Group in Miramar Beach for guiding them through the complicated acquisition. “Without them, it would have been a very hard battle,” Brown said.
The partners anticipate the track's purchase to close on Feb. 26. Within three months, they hope the sound of auto racing will again pierce the air of west Okaloosa County’s rural countryside.
But first, they plan several improvements to the facility, including:
●Repaving the track and bringing the surface up to industry standards
●Replacing metal trackside walls — Moya and Brown call them “can openers” because they can slice open a racecar that hits them — with formed concrete barriers
●Renovating the vandalized control building
●Replacing the front gate and lighting
●Expanding the sand pit at the end of the strip, a safety feature that arrests cars unable to stop
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This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Holt dragway to re-open