Drag racing entrepreneur George Howard has leased Holly Springs Motorsports Park and has planned something unheard of in the sport --- free car and driver entry to all of his bracket races at the popular northwest Mississippi eighth-mile track.

Howard, of GHR (George Howard Racing) in Birmingham, Alabama, the “father” of the Million Dollar Drag Race, to be held in October 2009 in Memphis, will gear Holly Springs to weekly bracket races and special events featuring everything from Pro Mods to big-time motorcycle races and nearly everything in between. Howard said the track will be open from Friday through Sunday every week through the 2009 season and will include test’n’tune sessions, Midnight Madness shows and heads-up and ORSCA events. The track will be NHRA-sanctioned, and will field a team at the NHRA Division 2 bracket finals.

Drag racing entrepreneur George Howard has leased Holly Springs Motorsports Park and has planned something unheard of in the sport --- free car and driver entry to all of his bracket races at the popular northwest Mississippi eighth-mile track.

Howard, of GHR (George Howard Racing) in Birmingham, Alabama, the “father” of the Million Dollar Drag Race, to be held in October 2009 in Memphis, will gear Holly Springs to weekly bracket races and special events featuring everything from Pro Mods to big-time motorcycle races and nearly everything in between. Howard said the track will be open from Friday through Sunday every week through the 2009 season and will include test’n’tune sessions, Midnight Madness shows and heads-up and ORSCA events. The track will be NHRA-sanctioned, and will field a team at the NHRA Division 2 bracket finals.

His big news, however, is the announcement of free --- that’s right, free! --- entry to all of his bracket races. Howard’s plan is this: Racers receive a free entry when they pass through Holly Spring’s gate, and it’s then that they can exercise the option to buy a “mulligan,” essentially a buy-back, for the first, second or third round. The mulligan must be bought before the start of each race, and only one mulligan can be used during the race. For Super Pro brackets, the cost is $50, and for Pro/non-electronics, it is $35. Howard will pay $1,500 to the Super Pro winner and $1,000 to the Pro winner.

“I’m doing this because I know that a lot of racers out there are having a hard time affording to race,” Howard said. “It’s my way of trying to help them out. Plus we’ll have a lot of programs geared to getting street racers off the streets and into a legal on-track racing environment."”

Long-time racers and race promoters Nathan “Bebop” and Aileen Davis will continue to own Holly Springs Motorsports Park, and they completed a complete re-do of the facility about three years ago. The track is located about 35 miles from Memphis, Tennessee. 

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