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After a hiatus of five years, drag racing is returning to Natural Bridge.
G.W. Fitzgerald is leasing the Natural Bridge Drag Strip from the current owner, Potter Jones LLC, with plans to reopen the drag strip this weekend, Aug. 16 and 17, and to hold races every weekend through the end of October.
The schedule calls for races to be held on Saturdays. Drivers are to test and tune their cars on the drag strip on Fridays.
A special exception permit that was granted for the drag strip in 2008 remains in effect. Fitzgerald presented a report Monday to the Rockbridge County Board of Supervisors on his intention to resume racing at the drag strip. The supervisors voted 4-0 to accept the report.
Conditions attached to the special exception permit include restricting activity on the drag strip to between the hours of 12:01 p.m. and 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. Up to three special events per year, to include rain postponed races, are allowed on Sundays but those events must end by 10 p.m.
“The drag strip has been down for five years,” Fitzgerald told the supervisors. The last races held there occurred in 2019. Eight races were held that year but operations ceased because it became unfeasible with competition from the East Side Speedway in Waynesboro, he said. East Side is now closed so that the closest drag strip in operation is two-and-a-half hours away, he noted.
Much work has gone into making the Natural Bridge Drag Strip ready to resume racing this weekend, Fitzgerald reported. “We had to do a bunch of work,” he said. “This will be something good for a lot of people.”
He asked about a condition that requires all cars to have mufflers. Chris Slaydon, director of community development, said that condition remains in effect. He explained that any changes to the special exception permit would necessitate going through the approval process of amending the permit.
The office of community development needed the supervisors to review and accept Fitzgerald’s report before the zoning portion of the business licensing process could be completed.
The Natural Bridge Speedway dirt oval track has continued to operate each year and is in the midst of the 2024 season, which runs from March to October.
