Backyard Kart Tracks Free, family fun draws hundreds

Story by deborah griFFin PhotoS contributed

EExhilaration and acceleration go handin-hand as dirt flies, tires spin and engines vroom.

It might not be the Charlotte Motor Speedway, but the crowd excitement is on par.

On any given weekend, especially in the warmer months, there will be go-karts racing on tracks among the backfields of Martin County.

Backyard Go-Karting has exploded among thrill-seeking speed-lovers in eastern North Carolina and beyond.

A phenomenon that grew from sheltering at home due to Covid, backyard kart racing has grown from zero tracks in the area two years ago, to four within a 30mile radius.

Martin County has two racetracks within nine miles of each other, and one just over the county line in Bethel.

The South Everetts Motor Speedway at 3698 Everetts Rd., was once a lowly pumpkin-patch. Now, the lighted, dirtpacked, oval-shaped track is a speed arena for excitement seekers, free of charge.

Noah Wynn, 24, originally created the Everetts Speedway for himself and his buddies to race riding lawnmowers.

Wynn grew up watching his father race mini-stock cars, so the inherent need-forspeed runs in his blood.

After he purchased a go-kart, interest among Wynn’s friends grew like wildfire. His was the first track in the county to hold an organized competition - where he opened his track to racers beyond just friends. Since then, the fever has not abated.

“It started with about six people just hanging out, to having 86 entries [drivers] for one race,” he said.

Crowds exploded to 500 people seemingly overnight.

“I had no idea it would grow to the level that it has,” Wynn said.

His track is 1/16th of a mile, or about 330 feet long. His plan is to keep it “backyard-style.”

“I’d like to keep it affordable, and easy to access for the community,” he said. “This is the most affordable form of motor sports you can get into.”

The newest track in Martin County is the Graveyard Motor Speedway at 82698279 Bear Grass Rd. in Bear Grass, which opened this past summer.

Owner Mitchell “Scodie” Bullock said he built his track after taking his six grandboys to the Wynn’s Everetts Speedway.

“By the next weekend, we had gokarts,” he said, laughing. “It’s a fever.”

Bullock ought to know. In the early 1970s, he began racing karts at age 11, at a nearby track called Tranter’s Creek.

“Back then we didn’t have bodies [on the karts]. You had to hold onto the steering wheel or get slung out. It was tough.”

He said the fervor for racing has circled back around.

“It’s hit hard. There were at least 30 carts bought within 10 miles of here when I started building the track,” he said.

At a recent January afternoon race, “we had 53 go-karts and more than 300 people. Most of Bear Grass was here. People came from all over. We even had a couple of guys from Raleigh,” he said.

He never imagined kart racing would grow like it has.

A third track, Pecan Grove Speedway, was created by Martin County residents Sammy and Julie Thomas, who have four children, all of whom compete in kart races.

(Julie is the lead school nurse for Martin County Schools.)

“When everything shut down for Covid, we didn’t have baseball that season,” she explained. “That is when we [built the track]” in a backyard field where Sammy has family. The track is four miles from the Martin County line, in Bethel, at 3191 J.A. Manning Rd.

A fourth track, Penny Hill Speedway in Edgecombe County at 6114 NC 33, also draws many of the same racers and fans.

“The four local tracks all pretty much try to run the same rules,” said Thomas. “Nobody charges to get in.”

Also, “All the tracks strive to keep it a family-friendly environment,” Wynn said.

Tracks are lighted and lined with old tires for safety. Fans bring lawn chairs and pop-up tents and settle in for hours. Many times, food trucks offer concessions.

So there is no overlap, “Owners chat among themselves to see which track is going to race, when,” Thomas added.

Victories often are for bragging rights only. If there are trophies, they are donated. With no charge, there are no cash winnings - unlike the bigger, more professional kart races held at bigger arenas.

“The backyard speedways make it affordable and fun for anybody that wants to get into go-kart racing,” Thomas continued.

She said they built their track for their children; then a few cousins started coming to race, then a few more - then it exploded.

“In the last year it has just really blown up in our county,” she said. “Now, there are 50 to 80 karts that show up to race. It is wild. It is a lot of local folks, as well as folks from Elizabeth City, Greenville and Tarboro.”

They hear about the racetracks through word-of-mouth and Facebook.

She said the track owners all try to drive home, “This is for fun and safety comes first.”

All the backyard tracks require helmets and recommend neck braces.

“We tell them look after yourself and the other drivers,” she said.

Racers at the Pecan Grove track can get up to about 38 mph.

Competitions are determined by age and how much a kart has been modified.

Participants’ ages range from 5 to 65.

Winning depends on a multitude of variables.

“If they get in a wreck they have to go to the back and work their way back up,” she said. “Another thing about backyard tracks is nobody’s dirt is the same.”

Laps are counted by volunteers on pads of paper.

Bullocks’s Graveyard Speedway is the only track in the vicinity that is not oval.

“It’s boot shaped. Mine was a replica of the track I ran in Tranter’s Creek,” he said.

Because of longer straight-a-ways, the karts can gain a higher speed.

The modified class can get up to 54 miles per hour.

“Fifty-four miles per hour, sitting one inch from the ground, feels like 120,” said Bullock. “I’m 60 years-old and I run a modified. That is fast – real fast.”

For now, his is the fastest track in Martin County.

Deborah Griffin is News Editor of The Enterprise in Martin County and a Staff Writer for Eastern North Carolina Living.