Real estate developer Realty Link’s construction plans that would have destroyed the historic Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Easley were paused by the Pickens County Planning Commission during their meeting Monday night, January 13, 2025.

The plans are in three phases for the entire property. The Planning Commission had already approved phase one, and phase two was approved January 13. However, phase three, which would involve building upon the site of the racetrack, was put on hold.

Mark Blackwell, son of the late Tom Blackwell, former owner of the track, spoke to The Pickens County Chronicle about the importance of preserving the track, for its historical significance as well as the positive impact that keeping the track could have for the local economy.

“The track is the second oldest NASCAR track in the country,” he said. “It’s not in operation right now, of course, but it’s the second oldest NASCAR track in the country. It’s an extremely historic track. The first race ever televised live, pole to pole, on national television was from there on April 10, 1971. ABC Wide World of Sports came out and televised the first race from there, the live race, on tv.

“The Earnhardts started out there. Ralph Earnhardt, the grandfather, was one of our first track champions. Then, Dale Earnhart and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. raced out there. The Pettys raced out there, David Pearson. Pretty much, anybody who has ever been anybody in NASCAR raced out there and loves the track, and it just has very, very deep roots with the community and with NASCAR.”

Speaking of his own personal history with the Greenville-Pickens Speedway racetrack, he said, “My father, Tom Blackwell, and his brother, Pete Blackwell, bought the track in the mid-1950’s. Bill France, from NASCAR, had originally run some races out there way back in the day, in the 1940s. My Dad and his brother, Pete, bought the track in the mid-1950’s and basically ran it their whole lives. My Dad sold the track. His two brothers had passed away. My Dad sold the track, I think it was in 2003, but part of the deal was he would continue to operate it as long as he could and continue to be a part of it. And, so, he continued to run the place. He passed away in 2010, so 2009 was the last season he was involved. So, it goes back very deep with our family, Dad and Pete, and later their brother, Lewis, was involved, too. We have very deep roots with it.

“It’s such an historic track. It’s such an important track with NASCAR, in going back so far. It needs to be saved. It’s a shame for such an historic place to go out of business. Being run in the proper hands, with somebody who knows how to run it, it could be taken back to its glory days.

“We’re realistic about things, with a giant development coming in. History matters to a lot of people, but it doesn’t matter to a lot of people who have the dollar sign in mind. I do understand that. I’m not being cynical. I’m not being sarcastic. I’m just being honest. When it comes down to it, certain people don’t appreciate history, and, if you wave a dollar sign in front of them, that means more to them.

“We’re stressing the historic aspects of the track, but what we really want to hit upon — and when I say ‘we’, it’s everybody in the community who wants to save the track — what we’re trying to stress is it could very well be a great economic prosperous thing for whoever owns it and whoever runs it and also for Pickens County and the surrounding area. We really want to stress that.

“The development out there had three phases so far. The first phase went through, and they built a bunch of warehouses and buildings upon the top of what used to be the parking lot of the fairgrounds. My Dad and my uncle owned and operated the fairgrounds, too. And phase two basically takes up the land where the fairgrounds were. But, as of now, phase three would have destroyed the racetrack. If they get approval on phase three, the construction goes down probably within a year to the racetrack. And they’re going to divide it up and destroy the track. They don’t have solid plans for it, but they would be willing to build whatever down there, such as a strip of restaurants, basically a strip mall, it sounds like, and maybe some warehouses. But what we’re trying to argue is you can build a strip mall anywhere up and down (Highway) 123.  I go up and down there a lot, and there’s a lot of land. So, if somebody is dying to build another restaurant or another convenience store or what have you, there are plenty of places to do that without destroying an historic 80-year-old business that has deep roots in the community and means so much to so many people and could continue to mean so much to so many people if it was in the right hands and run properly.

“Two years ago, Jackie Manley, who used to race out there and his family worked out there for years, started a campaign to try to lease the track. It wasn’t going to run that year, and I think it had skipped about a year, maybe. And he wanted to lease it, and I found out about that, and I pitched in with him, and we started a campaign called Save our Speedway, the legendary Greenville-Pickens Speedway. We tried to raise money and interest and man and woman power to get it off the ground and lease it. We almost made it happen. It’s complicated as to why it fell through. The campaign was a success, but leasing the track was not because of some complications. When we finally raised enough money and finally raised enough resources and it looked like we were ready to go, the contract was presented to us by the owner. Jackie was the one leasing it, and his lawyer said you can’t sign this contract. It’s too restrictive. There were way too many things in the contract that didn’t make sense and didn’t add up. “So, we basically had to pull out of the campaign, but we’ve continued since then to advocate for saving the track and for preserving the track and getting it in the right hands.

“Right now, phase one and two, those areas I’m pretty sure have been completely sold and transferred from the owner that we sold it to. But the owner still owns the actual racetrack property. It’s divided off into a separate thing. And the racetrack hasn’t been touched and can’t be touched until they approve phase three. The property is up for sale for about $6 million, which is a little bit high, I’m told, but I’m also told that they would be willing to negotiate. And what we’re advocating for, and what we’re looking for, is trying to find someone or a group who would buy the track with the idea in mind of preserving it and getting it back to its original glory. It would take some fixing up, because it’s in a little bit of disrepair. But it hasn’t run in a few years, and grass tends to grow, and paint tends to flake, and things tend to fall, and things tend to get broken. But it’s not that bad.

“Jackie’s family worked out there. When I was a little kid, his grandfather worked out there, his father worked out there, and then he worked out there, and he also raced out there, so his family goes back with the upkeep of the property, the maintenance, and the grass cutting and running the crews that clean up, and repairs. I remember when I was a little kid going out there with my Dad and uncle who ran it. The Manley family has been out there, too. If anybody knows how to keep it up, it’s Jackie, and we’d be willing to lease it again or we’d be willing to give it a shot to lease it again, and we’d be willing to do anything we can to find anybody to lease it, whether it’s us or whether it’s anybody, it would be great. Our goal is to have it back in operation no matter what it takes.

“The history we could talk about all night long, and that’s important, personal family history and NASCAR history and Pickens County history, but what we want to focus on is if somebody could get that track back up and running — which would take some work, but somebody who cares would put the work in it, and we would, too —  it could be very, very profitable. It could be a very profitable thing for Pickens County and the surrounding area.

“Phase three got shot down, but it just got kicked down the road. They’ll come back with another proposal and try to do it again sometime probably within the next year, maybe. We don’t know a timeline. But they’ll come back and try to propose that thing again. What we’re hoping is someone can buy it and get it up and running before they decide to tear it up and build restaurants there.

“It could be just as profitable to have that racetrack running as it could be whatever you put there. Also, they were proposing — and this is nice, don’t get me wrong if I sound negative about it — but they’re proposing putting up sort of a tribute to the racetrack if they did build restaurants or some sort of mini mall there, or some kind of mall there. They would put up a tribute, which would be checkered flags and stuff about the racetrack, some history of the racetrack, maybe monuments to its track champions and stuff like that. That’s all well and good, but the tribute to the history of the track is the fact that the track is still sitting there. The best tribute to what a historical track it would be is to revive the track, not put a checkered flag in the driveway of a mini mall. If it does happen, we would be happy to have a tribute there, but we’re trying to stop it from happening.

“At the end of the day, what we want is to figure out a way that that track can be preserved and get it back up on its feet, even if it was for a few years, even if they delayed it for a few years, just to prove that it could be a massive thing, that it could be a big operation. Lots of things can be held out there. We’ve had all kinds of events over the years, and that hasn’t been taken advantage of.

“I think people remember the more recent history of the track when it wasn’t run properly. For example, from what I hear, the last couple of years, they didn’t even have concession stands open up out there, which is ridiculous. It’s almost unfathomable. It’s hard to believe, that people would go out there on a Saturday night, and no concession stands were open.

“Back in the heyday of it all, it was a family affair. Families went out, and you parked your truck there early in the day and got a spot, or you put your chair out and got a spot, and it was just an all-day celebration, and great concessions and entertainment and everything else. And, then, things kept getting stripped away, and, due to poor management or whatever you want to call it, it just kind of fell apart, and people lost interest. And nowadays there are a lot more things to do. But if you run a quality show, people are going to come to it.

“And we had all these plans of not only bringing it back to its glory days but also bringing it into the modern era. In addition to the concession stands, we’d have food trucks and things like that, that weren’t around back in the day. In other words, turn it into a big family Saturday night celebration like it used to be. Whoever managed to take it over, whoever managed to get it, whether they buy it and lease it out to somebody, or whether somebody could buy it that wants to run it, it would be an amazing thing for them and for Pickens County. And, so, that’s kind of, in a nutshell, where we’re at right now.

“At first, when we heard about the industrial development, we were like, ‘We’ve got to stop this.’ But, now, the reality of it is it’s going. But the industrial development can coexist with the racetrack, as far as we’re concerned. We know it can. It can coexist, and it would be a great economic thing for the county, and it would also be the county showing interest in its own history and preserving that history. That’s basically where we are.

“The community support is very important to us. Jackie and I ran that campaign very actively two years ago, and, since the leasing part of it fell through, that was beyond our control, any time they have one of these meetings, we try to attend, and we try to continue to spread the word. And there are a lot of people out that are on our side, a lot of fans from in the past and newer fans of the track and fans of history and fans of NASCAR. There are a lot of people out there who are pulling for us and who are willing to pitch in and to help, but, to be quite frank, nobody has an extra $6 million to throw into it. And we’re hoping someone, ideally it would be someone from NASCAR or the racing community, would step up and save the track, as has happened in the past with other people, other tracks.

“We don’t want it to waste away and then be destroyed. It’s this big economic possibility setting there. And let’s celebrate history and let people make money and let Pickens County make money. When you have proper events there, people come in from all over. It’s a boon. It’s a great thing for the restaurants and the local motels and the taxes and everything else. It would be a great economic benefit thing for Pickens County and also show that Pickens County cares about its history.”