Look Closely at the Fence and the Hay Bales!!
Recently someone ask me what it was all about. I mean to still be doing it and looking back now on when we first started at ARP it seems like a life time ago. I actually started working there in 1999. I will never forget the first day I went out there. What I saw made me shiver, but in a strange way it was sort of exciting as well. Here in what use to be gravel pit back in the late 70′s was cut out a bowl shaped 1/8 mile kart track.
I had been working at tracks around the area since the mid 90′s but now I felt that I had a chance to feel at “home” here at Atoka. I had some definite ideas I wanted to press for and I knew if I played my cards right this would be my chance. I had met Clayton Allen, the owner two years prior and he had a burning desire to provide a place for his grand-kids to learn to race at the same time providing a very much needed outdoor facility once again in the Memphis area.
There was much to be done however. I was an announcer of sorts, one who was not ashamed to admit I liked being heard. OK all ego’s aside, I always had problems when traveling to another track and the sound system was not sufficient enough to do the job. Looking Back, I remember the solitaire speaker on one pole with a single wire advancing from that single pole to what had to be called as a very backwoods scoring tower/flag stand. But the one lone speaker did work, sort of. No it didn’t I will not lie. It had to be total silence at the facility for anything to be heard out of that speaker. I thought to myself, things need to be change, and there was only one person I trusted enough to make a few changes and see what happens. So that first year I went out and purchased seven 70volt speakers. Along with the speakers I acquired a 100watt 70v capable amplifier. I installed them myself on existing poles in the parking lot and at the edge of the grandstands. And all of a sudden you could actually hear the class calls, and announcements from the open air scoring booth. But there was a problem….we needed music; “I” needed music; I mean this was a place to create an atmosphere of not only a racing event but also entertainment; you know..Hollywood?
So then came the audio mixer, the audio amplifier, and four box PA speakers. No we had POWER to play with, and with the power came the sounds and the sounds were good. The only problem was, the four speakers, about 60 pounds apiece had to be hoisted on the roof of the scoring booth each race day; but ya know what..they sounded great. Now we had sounds, we needed “looks” as well. Thanks to my son, I had a total of six speakers on the roof and the audio really did kick.
Alas tho, the good times were not to remain…two of the speakers were stolen by the construction crew that built the new facility buildings, I wouldn’t say that if I didn’t know that, and two more of them were stolen in a fit of rage when a former disgruntled employee took them on a night of vandalism none of us will ever forget who had to go through the aftermath, all over being caught stealing a freaking tee-shirt.
The first two season were a learning time for all who worked there. Kart count was in the upper 70′s and growing all the time. We were getting to be known as a tough little track that produced some awesome talent. The second year I worked there, Clayton leased out the track to others and I still worked there but it almost ended my involvement in racing. We raced for 26 straight weeks and we were prepping the track and doing most all the race prep work between two of us and like I said, it was a rough time to deal with.
Looking back now, I almost think that Clayton did what he did by leasing the track out to see who was strong enough to make it work no matter what. I mean you had to love it beyond all else to do it for 26 straight weeks without killing someone or yourself. It the building years that followed, Clayton put all he had into it and made it the special place it was destined to become. It was the end of year 2000, and the real work was soon to start. 2001 & 2002 would be the years that gave Atoka Raceway a new birth and a new beginning. We took the next step in the evolution of something special. We were about to go high tech, and we were about to step on the toes and attitudes of every kart racer in the southeastern United States.
