Almost a half an hour east of Milton, in Holt, sits a stretch of track drag racers used to visit to see how fast they could travel an eighth of a mile. Today it’s abandoned and overgrown, but the Emerald Coast Dragway (ECD) used to pull in 3,000 to 5,000 spectators on a Friday or Saturday night during the early 2000s, according to local pro modified racer Joe Baker. Though just over an hour away, locals do still have a place to go and race or watch blazing fast cars, the Atmore Dragway in Atmore, Alabama.
For five to six years, Baker said it was bumper to bumper at ECD and probably held the crowd it did for being something new in the area. He said the track was “very nice and very close. There was a lot of community involvement.”
Joey Martin, a local race car builder used to race pro modified at the ECD, but more than being a racer, he said he was intimately involved in the track’s creation from putting up the fencing to helping with the tower.
“I worked at the race track. I ran the starting line for the first nine months.” Chip Kooser, Martin said, built the track. “Chip’s ambition, his vision was to have the best eighth mile around.” Martin said the first three-second pass happened at the track in 1998. “That was R.E.Smith.”
Unfortunately, Martin said poor management of the track after Kooser had to sell it led to liens and its eventual downfall.
With the recently renovated Atmore dragway, Martin, and Baker agree there’s little chance anyone will take on the expense of cleaning up the Emerald Coast track and then try to compete with Atmore. Baker noted with cars faster than they were a decade ago, the Emerald Coast track would need to be extended to account for the longer stopping distance. Martin focused on the cost of running a track. He said “It costs so much just to insure a track. It’s $10,000 just for insurance for one weekend. If you race all month, that’s $40,000 a month.”
Gary Moore has been in the racing business he said for 44 years and has operated the Atmore track going on four years. He also owns the Mobile dragway. Moore said the Poarch Creek Band of Indians approached Moore at Mobile and asked for an estimate on fixing up the Atmore track and if he would do it. Moore said yes “because it was a very nice facility.” He said after they spent a million and a half dollars to renovate the track was open for business.
Moore said the track now draws racers from Tennessee, northern Alabama, northern Louisiana, Kentucky, northern Georgia, and Florida. He said on a regular Saturday night the track will see 100 cars. He said “two cars down the track every 30 seconds, 700 passes down the track on a normal Saturday night.” He said on a big race, there may be between 150 and 200 cars. “This Saturday we’re looking at 1,400 passes down the track.”
Moore attributed the track’s success to a lot of experience and top-notch equipment. “You’ve got to know what you’re doing with the right equipment to deal with the hit, the mix compounds to spray on the track for traction. We don’t cut any corners.”
True Street Drag Champion Chris Escobar said, “The Atmore track is incredible, the best surface I’ve ever seen. I’ve probably seen 50 to 60 race tracks and it’s by far the best surface I’ve ever seen.”
Still, he said, “We live and die by the rain.” This season, he said the track has seen a record 34 rainouts. “It’s the worst I’ve ever seen.”
This season, Moore said the Atmore track will feature pro mod and super charge races once in September and two times in October. Other features at the Atmore track include grudge racing, bracket racing, and junior drag racing. Moore said the “junior dragsters” are from six years old to 17.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: The throttle and the tower