ROCKINGHAM — Matthew “Mad Dog” Davey took the checkered flag for the second consecutive year at Rockingham Speedway’s Open House.
Davey, 23, bested five other drivers to win the first race of the season in the Allison Legacy Race Series on the speedway’s roval course.
“Everybody believed in me,” Davey said after his win. “We’ve done it again — back to back. Pretty cool.”
The California native, who now lives in Cornelius, said he loves driving on a road course, having started his racing career driving International Kart Federation road races on the West Coast in 2005. He earned his first championship at the age of 7.
He said the karting experience “really helped.”
At one point, he jokingly asked if all the races could be held on the roval.
“It’s so nerve-wracking,” he said about the turns, “you don’t know what car’s going to go where.”
While the main oval has a fresh coat of asphalt, the road course hasn’t been repaved, aside from concrete being poured by the MB Drift crew to widen corners.
“The track felt really good,” Davey said. “It felt hot, nice and smooth. A little rough bumps coming through the carousel pushing the chicane. A lot of straightaway speed.”
“We came in not knowing how many cars there were going to be today,” Davey said after his win. Last year’s race featured 13 drivers.
Justin Oplinger, whose rookie season was last year, came in second, followed by Andon Mendenhall in third. Ryan Todd, Clay Abbott and Ethan Elder finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively.
Davey thanked his crew and his dad for “all the hard work my team’s put into it.” Davey also thanked “the Lord for keeping me safe,” his mother back in Arizona, his brother and girlfriend for their “support every day, day in and day out, to get me here. I wouldn’t be here without them.”
Davey added that he didn’t have the paint scheme he wanted because they were working on the car “until the last minute.”
During the interview, the first-place trophy, which was sitting on the top of the car, was blown over by the wind, slid down the windshield and stopped just short of sliding off the hood.
“Congratulations to the car, he saved the trophy.”
Davey said his goal is to keep calm and stay focused through the rest of the season and “not worry about winning a race.”
“The less you think about the win, the more wins you’ll get,” he said. “Just go out there and drive smooth and make sure I play my cards right. Hopefully we’ll get another win later in the year.”
The Allison Legacy cars — which are three-quarter-sized NASCAR Cup car replicas with a five-speed transmission and Mazda truck engine — were designed by the sons of former NASCAR driver Donnie Allison. Allison, who was at the Open House to sign autographs, had two career wins at Rockingham — in 1968 and 1977.
The season schedule has the Allison Legacy series racing next at Dillon Motor Speedway in South Carolina, on April 1. Other short tracks on the schedule include Florence Motor Speedway, Carteret Speedway, Orange County Speedway and ending at Caraway Speedway in October.
Davey finished the 2022 season fourth in points, with nine top-five finishes and just the one win at Rockingham.
Click here to read about Davey’s win in 2022.
Following the Allison Legacy race, the road course went hot again as three drivers from the MB Drift series — Marshall Eggerling, Tony Martin and Darin Onorati — gave a demonstration. Martin lives in neighboring Anson County and Onorati is from Southern Pines.
MB Drift moved to the Rock in 2021 after 15 years at Myrtle Beach Speedway when that track was shut down.
This year, the grassroots drifting series has six two-day events scheduled at Rockingham Speedway, starting with its annual Spring Matsuri March 18-19.
MB Drift will also host four competitive events — April 29-30, June 17-18, July 29-30 and Sept. 9-10 — in addition to its annual Halloween Havoc Oct. 21-22.
During open drift times, free ride-alongs are available for spectators 18 and older.
Stock Car Classics fielded more than two dozen cars, and a few trucks, for several exhibition laps around the recently paved oval.
When the cars weren’t on the track, they were parked in the Papa Joe Hendrick Garage for spectators to get a gander.
The cars ranged from the Cotton Owens No. 70 ‘37 Plymouth Coupe to a Bobby Issac ‘71 Dodge Daytona and cars from a more recent era.
At least two cars, including one that was street legal, bore the scheme of Richard Petty’s No. 43. Petty holds the record for most Cup Series wins at Rockingham with 11, followed by Cale Yarborough with seven, according to RacingReference.info.
In addition to Allison, Will Cronkite was also signing copies of his book, “I was a NASCAR Redneck.” Cronkite worked with many racing legends throughout the years, including Dale Earnhardt Sr., L.G. DeWitt and Benny Parsons. He also provided cars for Hal Needham’s 1983 film “Stroker Ace,” starring Burt Reynolds as the titular character.
There was also a booth honoring the late J.D. McDuffie, who drove for 27 seasons until his death from a wreck in 1991 at Watkins Glen.
McDuffie,from Sanford, holds the record of most Cup race starts without a win at 653. He had 106 top 10 finishes, with third being the closest he ever came at Albany-Saratoga Speedway in 1971.
Early in his career, he raced at the Rockingham dirt track, and according to a 2018 post at brock.lastcar.info, the Rock was McDuffie’s favorite track.
McDuffie’s best finish at the speedway, according to the post, was at the Carolina 500 in 1968 “when he charged from 30th to finish 7th in a race won by Donnie Allison” – the first of Allison’s two career wins at Rockingham.
YouTuber Christian Wilson interviewed several of the Stock Car Classics and Allison Legacy drivers and recorded the SCC laps from the bed of a truck following the official pace car from the AC-Delco 500 at N.C. Motor Speedway on Oct. 23, 1994.
‘BELIEVE IN THE ROCK’
As the activities throttled down Saturday afternoon, Rockingham Speedway’s Justin Jones said he “could not be more pleased” by the turnout for the event.
“The weather was absolutely beautiful and it’s exciting to see the community come out and stand behind us again,” Jones said.
The speedway also kicked off the #believeintherock campaign, which was announced the day before, with shirts, hats and stickers.
Jones said the speedway is partnering with the new owners of Rockingham Dragway and the county “to bring the economic power” of the two tracks together for the benefit of the community, the state — and the fans.
The campaign is similar to the “Save the Speedway” movement that helped bring North Wilkesboro Speedway back to life.
“We’re partnering with the same people that North Wilkesboro used,” Jones said.
The Ragg Company, based in North Wilkesboro, is one of those partners, providing merchandise with the slogan.
Jones added that the speedway is also getting support from Terri Parsons, wife of the late NASCAR Hall of Famer Benny Parsons, as well as representatives from local and state government.
Benny Parsons, a native of Wilkes County, called Ellerbe home during his 24-year career, driving for DeWitt Racing during the ‘70s. He later moved into broadcasting and the press box at Rockingham Speedway is named in his honor. He was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2017, a decade after his death.
Click here to read more about Benny Parsons.
In February, the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources kicked off the Moonshine and Motorsports Trail at Rockingham Speedway, with guests including Gov. Roy Cooper and several members of the N.C. House of Representatives, as well as former driver Rusty Wallace.
Click here to read about the Moonshine and Motorsports Trail.
“I really hope the community gets behind it and everywhere you go you see ‘Believe in the Rock’ because it’s not just Rockingham Speedway, it’s the drag strip as well,” Jones said.
To coincide with the dual-track cooperation, the hashtag #twotracksonevision is also being used.
TRACK IMPROVEMENTS
Rockingham Speedway sat mostly idle from the last NASCAR truck race in 2013 until its revival in 2021.
The track was purchased by the current owners in August of 2018 and is currently in the midst of renovations.
Just a few months ago, the track was repaved thanks to an allocation in the state budget that awarded the county $9 million for infrastructure improvements. A bulk of that funding is being used for a wastewater line.
SAFER barriers have also been reinstalled. Several lights have been erected around the track, with more to come starting this week, in the hopes of luring night races.
New lights will also be installed across the entire property, including out front and at the Little Rock, the half-mile paperclip track, and the future “Dirty Rock.”
“So when you drive through here at night, it looks like a lit-up carnival…not a track that’s closed for the day,” Jones said.
Jones first announced plans for the dirt track at the Moonshine and Motorsports kickoff. He said that it is tentatively slated to be a quarter-mile track.
There are also plans for an ATV obstacle course behind the paintball course.
Combining the neighboring dragway, which has undergone its own makeover during the off-season, Jones said, “It’s going to be a motorsports complex when we all get done with it.”
