By Adam Smith

The North Jefferson News



For five decades, a dragway in Jefferson County gave regional hot-rodders a chance to blow the doors off competitors on a quarter-mile strip of asphalt.

Lassiter Mountain Dragway, located just south of the Fieldstown and Coalburg Road intersection, closed in 2006. However, two new owners — Jay Bostic and Donald Phillips — and a veteran race promoter have high hopes of hearing the sound of rubber burning at the facility once again.

The promoter, Mt. Olive resident Randall Shew, has fond memories of going to the dragway in the 1970s. He said in the dragway’s early days, there were car clubs like the Black Widow Car Club and racers who had names for their cars like “Bad Habit” and “Wee Willie.”

As the times have changed and the cars have gotten faster, Shew said there will probably be other noticeable changes at the dragway when it opens next year.

“The roughneck element of the dragstrip has gone away,” he said. “It will be a family atmosphere and we won’t be selling alcohol. This crowd is not a bunch of drunks.”

Shew said the new facility will also have other features, like a recreational vehicle park, motocross and go-kart tracks, batting cages and a miniature golf course that will be built in phases.

Another difference about the new dragway will be the noise. Shew said most of the cars will have mufflers on them. “There has been some concern about the noise,” he said. “But we’re on top of the mountain and in a hole.”

Fans will also be able to watch the race in a safe environment. Because an embankment separates the 60-foot wide strip from the bleachers, Shew said cars are unable to reach the spectators. Giving local racers a place to bring their cars would also reduce accidents related to street racing, he said.

“We’re trying to take the illegal racing off the street and put them on the track where they belong,” he said. “Now days, the cars are faster. They’ve gotten unbelievably fast.”

Rick Pennington of Performance Specialties Inc. in Fultondale said he’s excited about the prospect of racing returning to Lassiter Mountain Dragway. He said his uncles took him to the track in its early days.

“It was your typical southern-style dragstrip,” Pennington said. “It was as nice as any other facility around at that time.”

These days, Pennington runs a GM-certified machine shop, rebuilding crate motors. He’s also involved with the Outlaw Racing Street Car Association (ORSCA).

“There were national events there back in the 70s and 80s,” he said. “It will be good to have racing there again.”

The original plan was to have the track reopened by August, but rising fuel prices also meant rising prices for asphalt. About six acres of asphalt has to be poured before the track is ready for racing. The fall rain season may also complicate the track’s completion, so it could be spring before the dragway is completed.

Shew said the community could see several benefits from the reopening of the dragway from an economic and philanthropic level. He said racers from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas would bring cars and trailers to Lassiter Mountain and will ultimately need gas or lodging.

As a member of the Gardendale Rotary Club, Shew said he’d like to also find ways to host fund-raisers for the club at the dragway.

“It’s good for Rotary and it’s good for the track,” he said. “It could be a positive thing and generate money for the club. We want to be good neighbors to everybody.”