Sunday, March 27, 2016

Middle Georgia Speedway in Byron (Peach County)

Michael Rivera
The Middle Georgia Speedway opened in 1966 as a NASCAR sanctioned racetrack. Nine NASCAR Grand National (now Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series) races were held at the track between 1966 and 1971. Richard Petty won four races, Bobby Allison won three, and David Pearson and Bobby Isaac each earned one victory. In 1967 federal agents discovered a moonshine distillery in an underground bunker at turn three. In 1970, the second annual Atlanta International Pop Festival was held in a soybean field adjacent to the track. Jimi Hendrix and the Allman Brothers Band performed in front of 300,000 concertgoers; the town had a population of about 2,000] Seven years later, it was the location for filming of race scenes of the Richard Pryor flick Greased Lightning about Wendell Scott A few years ago, it was purchased with the goal of converting it to a land development site. After the economy crashed, plans were placed on hold On September 15, 2012, an official Georgia Historical Society marker was placed near the raceway to commemorate the 1970 pop festival. In 2011, Dodge contacted the current owner and asked to use the track for an advertisement. After eleven days of filming for the Dodge Durango, filming wrapped up and the commercial was eventually aired. Although the current owner had placed a fresh coat of paint over the walls, Dodge "aged" the walls and even bought a local car for $2,000 and crashed it to add realism to the scenes. In the commercial, a sign stated that it was the Brixton Motor Speedway.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Georgia_Raceway
Not sure when the track actually closed to racing nor what effect (If any) the moonshine distillery had on the business, or what is going on there today. 

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