ROCKINGHAM — There are doubts about the return of one of Rockingham Dragway’s biggest events because the event organizers say they lost money because of a nearby landowner with long-term property ties.
Brett Schmitt, vice president of operations for BTS Productions, told Dragway co-owner Dan VanHorn in an email that he liked the “Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings” event that took place at the Rock this past weekend.
Schmitt quickly added, though, that “something that happened” that was “a bit of a disappointment.”
Around 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Schmitt said, a cardboard sign offering $10 parking was put up on the property across L.G. Dewitt Road. People were “flagging in spectators” to get cheaper and faster parking, he said.
County GIS records show that Vance Land owns that land. Vance Land is the father of Bryan Land, who is the head of the county.
Schmitt said that the cheaper parking “undercut our two lots and confused fans.”
Schmitt said, “We planned the event around where people would park and enter.” He also said that people who came to the event were confused by the large number of parking lots and complained that the door was too far from the parking lots.
For the event, there were two parking lots set up. The front lot of the Dragway, which faces U.S. 1, had $40 premium parking, and the back lot, which faces McDonald Church Road and is leased by the Dragway from the Land family, had $20 public parking.
Aerial pictures taken during the event show that there were still plenty of parking spots, so there was no need for extra parking.
Schmitt said it was clear what was wrong: “they stole our sales.”
When Schmitt talked about the event in 2022, which drew about 18,000 people, he said, “Two years ago we didn’t have this problem.”
The Street Outlaws race this year drew between 8,000 and 10,000 people, which was the most people who came to the Rock this year.
Schmitt told VanHorn, “I’m sure we could have worked something out if they had even asked us or you about partnering.”
Bryan Land, who was talking about his family business and not his job as a government official, said that his family, starting with his grandpa, has been parking cars on the property for races for almost 60 years, since the first one in 1965. This includes the 2022 Street Outlaws event.
Schmitt came to the conclusion that he didn’t know if Street Outlaws would be back in 2025.
“Dates have been put on hold for next year,” Schmitt said, “I hope we can figure something out because I don’t think we can go into another event knowing that the next door business will steal a lot of our customers.”
When asked about the promoter’s worries, Land said, “I hope you’re not implying that my family parking 83 cars on their own private property hurt the overall attendance and outcome of the most recent event.”
“From what we saw, the most recent event was probably three to four times as busy as the most recent one,” Land said.
“I’m embarrassed and disappointed that Bryan Land’s parking and RV lot was activated without planning,” VanHorn said. He also said that he tried to calm things down with Street Outlaws management, but “clearly they are not satisfied with just an apology.”
“What’s even worse is that this not only ruined our event this year, but it might also keep it from happening next year,” VanHorn said. “I hope we can all work together to keep Street Outlaws at The Rock. It would be good for everyone in our community.”
Steve Earwood sold the famous race strip to VanHorn and Al Gennarelli in November 2022. In the two years since then, they have made many improvements to the property.
“The $20,000 a year rent payment to Land for the back parking area is hard to swallow,” VanHorn said. “But to have the same owner compete with us for parking is, to say the least, shocking.”
Land said that the long-term lease that was given to the current owners by the former owners is “a very track-friendly agreement.”
Land said, “I work very hard every day to promote all of Richmond County and what we have to offer. To the point where I would not use my personal time, resources, or family members’ resources, including my grandfather’s reputation, for anything that would be against that.”
VanHorn said, “This is still very new, so how we move forward will be talked about internally this week.”