Change is coming to the Coastal Plains Raceway Park complex in Jacksonville, North Carolina.
Veteran racer Anthony Goodyear and his wife, Tonya Goodyear, are taking over the 4/10-mile oval track which will be renamed Goodyear All American Speedway. The husband and wife duo, which has been running the infield restaurant and bar at Carteret County Speedway for the better part of the last year, is working to help make upgrades to the facility and plan upcoming events.
“We want to be one of the nicest short track venues and entertainment complexes in North Carolina,” Anthony Goodyear told Short Track Scene on Sunday. “I’d like to try to make Goodyear All American Speedway like Dominion, Franklin County, and Hickory, be up there with the guys who are already doing it and are stable and moving forward after coming back from COVID.
“We’re doing a full facelift,” Goodyear continued. “All the buildings are being painted, bathrooms will be updated, suites and other buildings will be remodeled and updated, and we’ll do our best with concessions, have a good menu, make it family-oriented, and try to cater to the military town.”
Goodyear has his sights set on the future with hopes of attracting regional touring series such as the Carolina Pro Late Model Series, which raced at nearby Carteret County Speedway on Saturday night, and the Solid Rock Carriers CARS Tour.
“We only have a few more races this season, so we need to put some decent races together,” Goodyear explained. “Once we get a little more stable, hopefully, finances will allow us to do what we want to do. CARS Tour is one. I’ve already talked to Keith [Graham] about Carolina Pro Late Models and Modifieds. I’ve talked to some of my buddies who race Super Late Models about an all-star race, I’d like to put one together before the end of the season. Maybe we can get the [CARS Tour] Lucas Oil Touring 12 in an all-star race along with past champions from other tracks and stuff like that.”
Along with races, Goodyear plans to have car shows and hopes to have concerts and other events at the track. As for the racing, he already has plans to implement more affordable classes of racing, such as a strictly stock V8 class, among other things.
Anthony Goodyear, who was born in Philadelphia and raised in Ft. Lauderdale, began racing in the 1990s at the now-defunct Hialeah Speedway and competed at other racetracks across the southern half of the peninsula. He moved to North Carolina in 2002 and ended up in Morehead City in 2017. A few years later, he ended up working on a job at Carteret County Speedway for his primary business, Atlantic Turfscapes, and his passion for racing was reignited.
“I tried to stay away from the racetrack because I knew what would happen if I went back,” Goodyear recalled. “I ended up going to the track and put some turf in and ended up buying a truck in racing and leasing the infield restaurant. Between running the infield restaurant and racing in the truck, I made a ton of friends and relationships, and memories that have all turned into having a bunch of family in the racing family. The opportunity came up with Coastal Plains Raceway and it sounded like a good thing to do, an opportunity I couldn’t turn down.”
Once the Goodyears take over the track and began making improvements, the racing season at the track that will soon be called Goodyear All American Speedway will be put on hold temporarily – although the track has not held an event since May 8th as multiple races have been canceled due to weather.
The next scheduled race at the track is set for this weekend, though a since-deleted post on the Coastal Plains Raceway Park’s oval track Facebook page announced the race’s cancelation as a result of the transition.
This story originally appeared in Short Track Scene and the Jacksonville Daily News.
