ROCKINGHAM — Steve Earwood has spent almost half his life owning and managing the Rockingham Dragway.
He remembers the days the Rockingham Dragway hosted such events as the Lollapalooza music festival, the Epicenter Festival and of course, the hundreds of races like the Original Super Chevy Show series, the Mopar events and the NHRA series races. He even remembers the time he once sold the website domain name “therock.com” to superstar actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as his movie career started to take off.
All that is in the past now for Earwood as he begins the transition to the latter stage of his career with the sale of the Dragway and its two-year transition to new owners Al Gennarelli and Dan VanHorn.
“In 2022, I would have been in this business for 50 years,” Earwood said. “I would have been here for 30 years and two more years, that’s enough. I can’t do this forever. And praise God, I’ve been blessed with good health. With the investments I’ve made over the years and with this sale, I should be comfortable in my retirement. So, it’s time to enjoy it.”
Despite never being a driver himself, drag racing has been a central part of Earwood’s family for generations. His father was a racing official for more than 40 years, his brother is a former drag racing champion, he was the PR director for the NHRA and general manager of the Atlanta Dragway for years before owning The Rock and even his daughter and son-in-law help oversee and manage a drag track in Martin, Michigan.
He hopes selling the Dragway will allow him to spend more time with his family and help them more with their track up north.
“It’s time to do some traveling and spend more time with my daughter and the grandkids and son-in-law, and make the best of the time I got left here,” Earwood said.
Richmond County resident Terry Rosberg knows all about the family-oriented aspect of drag racing. He took over racing after his father, International Drag Racing Hall of Famer Dick Rosberg, passed away about 10 years ago, and has been running in races at the Dragway and all over the world ever since.
Rosberg, whose “American Thunder” jet dragster will be doing two exhibition runs Saturday at the 29th annual Griffin-sponsored Mopars at The Rock event, knows Earwood and the Dragway very well, having raced there 50-60 times in the last 10 years, and being a crew chief for a team before that.
“I’m definitely happy for Steve because I think he’s at a point where he’s ready to retire and do different things that he’d like to get done in life,” Rosberg said. “I know that Steve just didn’t want to sell the track to anybody. He wanted to sell it to where the county is going to benefit and not where somebody’s going to try to shut it down and sell it or close it.”
Earwood first bought the Dragway in 1992 from the L.G. Dewitt family. According to Earwood, the family wanted to get out of the drag racing business and focus on the NASCAR side of things at the Rockingham Speedway.
Frank Wilson, who Earwood says managed both tracks at the time, reached out to him to gauge his interest in buying the track, and the rest is history.
Like all businesses during these precarious and uncertain economic times, Earwood and the Dragway have not been exempt from financial difficulties.
He said he’s had to lay off most of the staff, but has been able to maintain some income and keep the track above water in the meantime by hosting competitor-only events with no spectators, while abiding by the CDC guidelines for social distancing and sanitation.
“You still have a $5,000 per month light bill, you got to keep the grass cut, you got to keep everything going,” Earwood said.
Before the days of the coronavirus pandemic, the Dragway has been a revenue source and a major tourist attraction for Richmond County for more than 50 years, catalyzed by the roughly 90 or so events that Earwood says the track hosts per year.
“We draw people from out of the county, out of the state who come here and spend money and then they leave,” Earwood said. “But we don’t have to worry about educating their kids or worry about their health care. They just come and stay in our hotels, shop in our shops, spend money in our restaurants, and then they leave. This county has been very good to me, and I like to think we’ve been good to them.”
Earwood says the new owners will continue to do that, and even bring new and additional events to the Dragway in the future.
“I know everybody doesn’t like change in the United States, especially with these times, but I think it’ll be a good thing for the county,” Rosberg said.
“It’ll be good thing for Steve and the new owners and even for me and the racers. It’s just going to benefit everybody all the way around. And like I said, as long as we can keep on racing and doing our thing, that’s what makes it great.”