By Kline Whitley | DragCoverage | November 3, 2026
A couple of weeks ago, racers in Julian, North Carolina, were wondering if they’d ever make another pass at Piedmont Dragway. Now they’ve got a date to pencil in. The group bringing Piedmont back is aiming for April 27 for the first Big Dog race of 2027. There’s a lot of work between now and then, but they’ve already signed a deal for 1,000 feet of new concrete.
If your home track is one of the other 11 properties on Tranzon’s auction page, you’d probably take a tentative race date right about now. Instead, the date you’ve got circled is Tuesday, November 17. That’s when sealed bids are due on the remaining properties Darryl Cuttell put up for sale as he exits the racing business.
With two weeks to go, I got a Tranzon media representative on the phone. I wanted to know how Piedmont came off the board early, whether anything else had sold, and how much it matters to the seller that these places keep running as racetracks.
How did Piedmont get a deal before November 17?
The representative’s answer was pretty simple. Somebody made an offer the seller was willing to accept.
Tranzon’s process allows a buyer to negotiate a purchase ahead of the sealed-bid deadline. That’s what happened at Piedmont. Greg Loflin and Terry Ferrell are the announced buyers, and Tranzon currently lists the property as under contract. We don’t know the price. What we do know is what the buyers intend to do with it. Loflin sat down with Bob Harris and Rick Moore on October 23 and laid out the plan to put race cars back on the property, right down to how wide they want to pour the new surface. Fifty-two feet, for those wondering.
So I asked the obvious follow-up. Had any other properties sold without an announcement? The representative said all he could tell me was that nothing else was a done deal at the time we spoke. As of November 3, Tranzon still lists the other 11 individually, with bids due at 5 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Eastern, on November 17. Even then, we may have some waiting to do. Tranzon can invite selected bidders into another round online after the sealed bids are in.
Does the seller want them to stay racetracks?
This was the question I most wanted to ask. Racers have heard the talk about data centers and solar farms. And if you’ve looked at the listings, you can understand some of the anxiety. Tranzon describes National Trail Raceway in Ohio as an operating motorsports facility. The Memphis property, meanwhile, is advertised up front as a development opportunity. Both are on the same auction page.
The representative told me that, in his understanding, Cuttell has no ill will toward the racing community and would like to see the properties remain tracks. He also made clear he couldn’t guarantee that outcome. A buyer who wants to keep racing still has to make a competitive offer.
I think that’s a fair answer. I’d love to see these places stay open, or reopen where they’ve gone quiet. I also wouldn’t expect the owner to take just any number because somebody promises to run a dragstrip. What Piedmont gives us is an actual decision to judge. When people who wanted to race there put an acceptable offer on the table, the seller took it. That ought to carry some weight the next time somebody tells you every one of these places was destined to become a data center.
I also asked how many of the properties were free and clear when it came to title, back taxes and liens. His words were “the grand majority.” He didn’t identify individual properties in that answer, so I wouldn’t attach it to any particular track.
In Commerce, the county wants its dragstrip back
Atlanta Dragway is one of the places where the buyer’s plans are only part of the story. When DragCoverage spoke with Banks County Commission Chairman Taylor Griffith in October, he told us the county wants racing back and would work with a buyer trying to make that happen. Commissioners have already taken a vote that matters. In February, they unanimously approved a conditional return to racing at the facility, which closed in 2021. One of the conditions came out of a conversation with the church across the street. Sunday racing has to wait until noon.
Griffith also explained why a buyer eyeing those roughly 343 acres off I-85 for a water-intensive development would face real resistance. He said Banks County was already using more than 90 percent of its permitted reservoir withdrawal of about a million gallons a day. That limit falls under Georgia’s Environmental Protection Division. A winning bid doesn’t give the county another gallon to offer. Other uses are still possible, but the chairman was clear about both the limits of the water system and the county’s willingness to help someone bring the dragstrip back.
That’s where things stand with two weeks to go. In Commerce, there’s a county willing to work with a track operator. In Julian, there are buyers willing to hire a concrete crew. For the racers waiting on word about Milan, Empire, GALOT, or any of the others, I know that still leaves the one question you care about most. Will I get to race at my track next year?
We’ll keep following each property as there’s something to report. In the meantime, I keep coming back to that April date at Piedmont. A few weeks ago, nobody knew if there would ever be another Big Dog race there. Now somebody has to get the concrete poured in time for one. As a racer, that gives me hope.
