Several warehouses have been built near the Greenville Pickens Speedway. A racecar driver who has spearheaded a movement to save the historic Greenville Pickens Speedway says she has an agreement with the owner to buy the property for $3.7 million. Tasha Porter Kummer said she is working overtime to make it happen. She has established a nonprofit to receive funds and is looking for the right partner to invest in the purchase of the 86-year-old track in Easley. “For more than three years, we have fought to make sure Greenville Pickens Speedway still had a future,” she said on her Facebook page The Real Historic Greenville Pickens Speedway. “Today, that future is within reach.” She wants to not only race there but also provide STEM education, community programs, concerts, festivals and events. Kummer, who in 2017 was the first woman to win the Limited Late Model division at the track, told Short Track Scene if she can’t raise the money the owner will bulldoze it. The effort to save the track has been an on-again, off-again fight since it closed in 2022. Supporters have packed Pickens County Planning Commission and Pickens County Council meetings to stop RealtyLink from developing the site as the company has done on the surrounding property. Various warehouses have been erected, and the company sought a zoning change to allow retail and restaurant development but was turned down. “I have had several meetings with the owner, and we have come to an agreement on the price and it just comes down to the funding,” Kummer said. “I just need an investor, a partner, a sponsor, a grant.” About 40 businesses have agreed to do pro bono work. “That’s concrete, asphalt, electrical, plumbing, anything that would need to be done, construction,” she said. Greenville Pickens was the site of the first race aired start to finish on national TV, broadcast in 1971 on ABC’s Wide World of Sports with Jim McKay doing lap by lap coverage. Greenville Pickens Speedway opened in 1940 as a half-mile-long dirt track. When racing resumed after World War II on Independence Day, fans saw two horse races and a car race promoted by Bill France Sr., who two years later founded NASCAR. The Blackwell family bought the track in 1955, the same year NASCAR began sanctioning races there. Mark Blackwell, son of the former owner, worked with driver Jackie Manley to try to lease the track from car dealer Kevin Whitaker, who listed the property in 2024 with an asking price of $5.8 million. Whitaker owned much of the land bought by RealtyLink as well. The track was paved in 1970 and hosted various Winston Cup races through the years. Richard Petty, Junior Johnson, David Pearson, Dale Earnhardt and his son Dale Jr. raced there. Many of the legendary racers’ names remain painted on the walls surrounding the track. The speedway ran on Saturday nights, drawing thousands of fans estimated between 22,000 to 35,000 seats. It was a family spot so popular people would come early just to get a parking space. A concession specialty was fried bologna sandwiches on hamburger buns. Besides being the second oldest, Greenville Pickens is different from all other tracks of its kind. It has a long straightaway and the corners are not banked, but flat, making driving harder and more interesting. Kummer told The State previously the thrill of the roaring engines, the wind whipping by was a draw as were the occasional wrecks, one of them her own. In 2022, she totaled her car in one of the last races of the season and was hospitalized for four days. Recovered, she bought a 2023 Hedgecock, her first brand new race car, and readied for a new season that was not to be. “Greenville Pickens Speedway is NOT finished,” she said.
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