CHEROKEE SPEEDWAY OFFICIALS MAKE CHANGES IN PREPARATION FOR ROCK GAULT MEMORIAL WITH $40,000-TO-WIN FEATURE ON SATURDAY
GAFFNEY, SC – MARCH 25, 2021 – “It’s the power and the glory, it’s a war in paradise.” That’s two of the many ways Canadian rock band Rush describe “Big Money.”
Big money is what drivers competing with the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series are gunning for over the next three weeks.
It starts Friday and Saturday, March 26-27, in Gaffney, SC, at Cherokee Speedway, for the inaugural Rock Gault Memorial. Friday night will be twin features, each paying $5,000 to win. Saturday night’s feature pays $40,000 to the winner, $15,000 for second, and $10,000 for third.
Co-promoters Tony Adair and Scott Childress are excited about how the purse came together. Local businesses are chipping in money, so the winner isn’t the only one walking away with a high dollar amount.
“It’s a page full of businesses, and Mike Gault [Rock Gault’s son] has done a tremendous amount of work raising the money to get [the purse] where it’s at,” Childress said. “Everybody liked [Rock Gault] so everybody’s really supporting this event.”
“It’s definitely the biggest thing we’ve seen around this area,” Adair said.
A high-paying purse isn’t the only thing drivers can expect this weekend. Cherokee Speedway officials are making some changes.
After talking to drivers, Adair and Childress made the decision to add some banking in Turns 1 and 2, to try and create another groove on the high side of the speedway.
“We’ve had to add some concrete blocks in [Turns] 1 and 2, so we could bring some of the dirt up,” Childress said. “We think it’s going to be a big difference, and we’ve been thinking we needed to do this anyway.”
“We just had the barriers in [Turns] 1 and 2, and it was too short to keep banking the turn up. It was dangerous,” Adair said. “I think the drivers will be more enticed to get up on the high side now.”
The track surface and concrete walls aren’t the only change at the speedway. Officials are also giving the walls around the track a new patriotic look.
“We’re going red, white, and blue around the walls on the speedway, inside and out,” Adair said.
After Cherokee, the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Models head to Farmer City Raceway April 2-3, for the Illini 100. Friday night’s 25-lap Feature pays $6,000-to-win, and the winner on Saturday gets $20,000 in Saturday night’s finale.
One week later is the highly anticipated Bristol Bash.
Friday, April 9, drivers will battle for $10,000 in a 40-lap feature. They’ll then battle for another 40-laps Saturday, April 10, but this time with a $25,000 top prize on the line.
South Carolina driver and 2021 Rookie of the Year contender Ross Bailes is excited about the high paying races on the horizon.
“It’s really big, it seems like tracks are stepping their purses up,” Bailes said. “It’s good when we can go and race for $10,000 almost every weekend.”
With big money on the line, the best Late Model drivers in the country will be gunning from the drop of the green flag. But as “Rush” also said. It could lead to “A Cinderella story, or a tumble of the dice.”
If you can’t make it this weekend or any other event, catch all of the action on DIRTVision with the annual Platinum FAST PASS subscription for $299/year or the monthly FAST PASS subscription for $39/month.