On the eve of his latest venture, veteran drag racing promoter George Howard of Million-Dollar Bracket Race fame is feeling excited, but tired.

He’d just arrived at Orangeburg (SC) Dragway after a long week of driving across three states for this weekend’s (June 4-6) Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com South Carolina Spectacular, the first of six races for the new Coca-Cola Outlaw Doorslammer Series (ODS) presented by Hooter’s, established and co-promoted by Howard and longtime drag racing school operator Roy Hill.

“I’m definitely encouraged by the early response (to ODS), but in today’s time you never know what you’re going to get until it happens,” says Howard, who also held a stake in the popular ORSCA series several years ago.

“This is not new to me, but it’s still really exciting. There are already a few rigs lined up to get in the track and the spectators are keeping the phones ringing off the hook. I’m looking forward to this.”

On the eve of his latest venture, veteran drag racing promoter George Howard of Million-Dollar Bracket Race fame is feeling excited, but tired.

He’d just arrived at Orangeburg (SC) Dragway after a long week of driving across three states for this weekend’s (June 4-6) Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com South Carolina Spectacular, the first of six races for the new Coca-Cola Outlaw Doorslammer Series (ODS) presented by Hooter’s, established and co-promoted by Howard and longtime drag racing school operator Roy Hill.

“I’m definitely encouraged by the early response (to ODS), but in today’s time you never know what you’re going to get until it happens,” says Howard, who also held a stake in the popular ORSCA series several years ago.

“This is not new to me, but it’s still really exciting. There are already a few rigs lined up to get in the track and the spectators are keeping the phones ringing off the hook. I’m looking forward to this.”

The anticipation has been building even longer than planned after the inaugural ODS event was rained out last month at Holly Springs Motorsports Park in Mississippi, a track Howard leased in 2009 from Nathan “Bebop” Davis.

That arrangement recently ended, however, as Howard turned the keys back over to Davis, citing health concerns as he heads toward a 60th birthday next month.

“I’ve got Type 2 diabetes and my doctor told me, ‘If you don’t give something up, you’re going to give everything up,’ you know what I mean? But I’m still active and want to do things; I just don’t want to kill myself doing them. I physically can’t keep up with everything any more. Here’s the bottom line, I can’t do everything I spoke for,” Howard freely admits.

He also wants to spend more time with his family, including new wife, Sherry, his daughters and an 82-year-old mother. “Sometimes I’d go two, three weeks at a time and not get to see her and that’s not right,” he says.

Despite giving up the Holly Springs track, Howard will remain on speed dial for Davis and track manager Terry “Jabbo” Forsyth in an advisory role.

“I sat down a month ago with Bebop and talked about him taking the track back and he said, ‘Not a problem,’ and I gave him some equipment I had there and he honored all my sponsorships and rain outs, just like I did for him when I took over last year,” Howard explains.

“Me leaving there has absolutely nothing to do with financial things,” he stresses. “It’s just that I’ve run out of time, run out of gas is what I’ve done. Seven days a week, I’ve been doing it for years and quite honestly, I’m tired.”

So for now, Howard will refocus his energy on running his life-long core business, North Alabama Leasing, a tractor-trailer dealership in Cullman, Alabama, and the Outlaw Doorslammer Series with Hill.

“I don’t want to get out of the racing business, which is why I wanted to do this heads-up series with Roy (Hill),” he says. “I can do this once a month or so and have more time for other things. At this point in life I’m looking more for quality than quantity.”