Mountain View Raceway(Photo from the track’s Facebook page)
The greatest compliment to any race track owner or promoter is for fans and competitors to offer positive testimonials of their tracks. Mountain View Raceway owners Kelvin and Susan Hampton certainly appear to have achieved that very thing with driver Jesse Lowe after a recent practice session at the newly renovated facility. The frequent front runner on many of east Tennessee’s dirt tracks sang the praises of the venue located in Spring City, TN.
Lowe, who has won numerous Crate Late Model features, believes the track once known as Spring City Speedway has limitless potential for any number of reasons. The Crossville, TN native says that the track has a unique quality about it but east Tennessee fans and drivers will also have a couple of familiar speedways to compare it with.
“The configuration of the new Mountain View is very different,” Lowe explained in a telephone interview with InsideDirtRacing.com. “It’s got a little bit of a Bulls Gap feel. It’s got a little bit of a Tazewell feel. The banking is different on both ends even though it looks the same. Entering one and two is really steep then it kind of crowns off so you have to be careful on entry and make sure you don’t get in too high. Then in turns three and four it’s a little flatter getting in so you have to get into a little bit of a slide then you get into the banking and it loads the car down.”
Lowe adds that the similarity with Tazewell Speedway comes from the so-called ‘seat of the pants’ feel.
“It’s like you’re at Tazewell where it pushes you down into the seat,” the 27-year-old racer pointed out. “When we went(for a practice session) it was really fast so everything happens so quick that it was hard to pay attention to everything that was going on.”
Although Lowe believes the track is very close to being just as it needs to be for good racing, an actual event has being contested will give everyone a better feel for what will work best in terms how to race at Mountain View.
“I’ve talked to Kelvin and Susan about how it felt in the race car out there,” Lowe stated. “I think if they massage it a little bit and do a little bit of grade work and maybe take a little banking out of the bottom and put some more at the top you’ll be able to race all over the place. It’s plenty wide enough to race two-wide, for sure. They haven’t really had enough cars on it to see that but I honestly think it’s going to be one of those racetracks where you’re going to move around all night.”
Jesse Lowe in his CVR Race Car
The driver of the No. 5j CVR Race Car competed there several years ago when the track was known as Spring City Speedway. After his first time on the racing surface in his own car since the ownership change, he says there is no comparison to how it once was.
“The facilities are very top notch, very organized, and very well thought out,” Lowe commented. “They have made a separate entrance for the trucks and toters to come in so you’re not going to be waiting in line to get in. When you park your truck you’re going to park at a diagonal angle then you can literally just back up and exit out around the racetrack. It’s just one big circle from the time you pull in to the time you pull out. It’s easy to get in and out of for the spectators and the competitors.”
As is the case with any new or newly renovated track, there will always be things that need to be sorted out. However, one thing that has been done correctly from the very start is the lighting.
Lowe says the lighting at MVR is excellent(Photo from the track’s Facebook page)
“We started out in the day and went into night time,” Lowe recalled. “They’ve got plenty of lighting on the racetrack. There weren’t any blind spots and you could see really well. The lights didn’t even glare in the race car since the lights on the outside of the track.”
Racers have to look at a number of factors when deciding where they will compete. Obviously, payout is one of those things as well as travel time, rules, and opportunities for success. Lowe believes he will be making multiple trips to Spring City, TN after this shutdown resulting from the coronavirus outbreak are pulled back and racing activity resumes.
One interesting aspect of the scheduling at Mountain View Raceway is how the weekly shows will be staggered. Classes will be broken into two groups with each group racing one week then taking the next week off.
Group 1 will consist of 604(Crate) Late Models, Open Wheel, B-Hobby(or Modified Street), Mod Lites, and Dwarfs while Group 2 will include (Limited) Late Models, Sportsman, Four Cylinders, Thunder, and Front Wheel Drives.
“We’re going to try to support them as much as we can,” he said. “The big thing is that they are paying good and they have a good set of rules. And I like that they are running our class every other week to give us a week to go other places. The biggest thing is that I hope they follow their rule book and are strict, especially on rough driving because everything is going to happen so quick and everyone is going to have to give each other room.”
Lowe closed the interview with a comment that any track owner, fan, or competitor would like hearing about a racing facility.
“When people show up they are going to think it is awesome just to be there. It will make people better race car drivers by racing there.”
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