By Jane Smith
Recently Andy Hillenburg was a guest on realracinusa.com and had plenty to say about his racing and his recent purchase of the North Carolina Speedway located in Rockingham, North Carolina and affectionately known as “The Rock”.
“I started my racing school in 1989 and have classes with ride-alongs to driving the car yourself in a 2 day class. It is for stockcar driving and I love the enthusiasm of the school. We have many fans who follow racing and they just come to the school to see what it is like for their favorite racers behind the wheel of their car.:
“We have had a few famous drivers come thru our school some of which are Jeremy Mayfield, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jason Keller and presently Bryan Silas who drives our No. 11 ARCA car. Bryan will also drive the 11 next year for us in ARCA.”
“When Rockingham came up for sale, it was just what we needed for our racing school. We had been looking for a track for our school so we could have more flexibility in our schedule. It just feel right into our business plan. It will greatly enhance our driving program and we look forward to having racing back at “The Rock”.”
“We still have a lot of paperwork to do in the next 2 B= weeks and hopefully after that is done, we can have more official news of the racing future of Rockingham. We can’t make an official announcement but it would be great to have the first race back at the track to be an ARCA race. We have had a lot of support on this purchase.”
“The local community is excited to see racing return after seeing Rockingham close down in 2004. But we have found there is a whole other side of racing that we must learn now which is concessions, ticket sales, fire rescue, everything it takes to run a racetrack successfully.”
Andy Hillenburg was born April 30,. 1963 in Indianapolis, Indiana. When he was 11 years old, Andy competed in the Indianapolis Soap Box Derby and history began.
“There will be some improvements of the track but we want to keep the history also of the track. Fans won’t see shiny new stands but the old stands. We want to keep the legacy continued and we promise that it will be grand.”
Rockingham opened in 1965 as a flat, one mile oval. In 1969 the track was reconfigured to a high-banked, D-shaped oval measuring slightly over one mile in length. Originally it was called North Carolina Motor Speedway but in 1997 when it merged with Penske Motorsports it was renamed North Carolina Speedway.
Rockingham has been used for a few movies including The Dale Earnhardt Story, Talladega Nights, and the 2007 film Ta Ra Rum Pum.
“We hope to see many different kinds of racing at the track and have at least one major race a month.” said Hillenburg.
Hillenburg, who is definitely not a stranger to racing, was the 1975-1979 Indiana State Quarter Midget Champion. He won the ARCA Championship in 1995. He was twice won the Daytona ARCA 200 in 1995 and 1997. He has been a test driver for the IROC series. He competed in his dream race, the Indy 500, in 2000 finishing 28th. He was 16 Winston Cup starts, nine Busch Series starts, and four Craftsman Truck starts.
“There is not much that I have not done in racing. I have run Silver Crown cars, midgets, sprints and modifieds. Anything that would help me get to the Indy 500 which was my dream. Twice I entered the Indy 500 only to see my dream fall apart and that is when Bill Simpson suggested that I go to the Daytona 500 instead. So I moved to North Carolina and won the ARCA Championship and made the Daytona 500 in 1998. That is when a friend said to me that if I wanted to make the Indy 500 that I needed to do it soon before I was too old and in 2000, I ran my dream.”
For more of the interview with Andy Hillenburg, click on Andy Hillenburg interview at realracinusa.com.
-Jane Smith is Editor of Florida Stock Car Racing and motorsports writer for Florida Today. She has written over a thousand racing articles, not surprising as her dad Patrick Smith has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize more than once.
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