MIDDLE GEORGIA RACEWAY - BYRON GA
The Middle Georgia Raceway was a raceway located in Byron, Georgia. Opened in 1966 at a cost of $500,000, the first race was the Speedy Morelock 200; in honor of the man that oversaw and influenced and building of the track. Richard Petty would claim the win. The race extended to 300 laps in 1967; and Richard Petty again came out on top. The next year, federal agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discovered a moonshine distillery in an underground bunker at turn three. The race almost didn't happen. The track owner went on trial for "owning an apparatus for the harvesting of illegal whiskey". He was acquitted of the charges. This year the race was lengthened again; This time to 500 laps. LeeRoy Yarbrough sat on the pole position and Bobby Allison won the race. 1969 saw Richard Petty back in victory lane in the Spring race while Bobby Isaac won in the Fall event. Allison and Petty each
added a win the following season while Allison would claim the final checkered hankie for the Cup series here in the 1971 race. Over the Fourth of July weekend in 1970, the second annual Atlanta International Pop Festival was held in a soybean field adjacent to the track. Jimi Hendrix, the Allman Brothers Band and over 30 other acts performed in front of an estimated crowd of 400,000 concertgoers (the town had a population of about 2,000). Seven years later, it was the location for filming of race scenes of the Richard Pryor film Greased Lightning about Wendell Scott. In 1984 the ARCA Racing Series ran at the track and the race was won by Davey Allison. Ken Ragan, father of 2-Time NASCAR Winner
David Ragan, won the final race at Middle Georgia Raceway. In 2011, Dodge contacted the current owner and asked to use the track for an advertisement. After eleven days of filming for the Dodge Durango, filming wrapped up and the commercial was eventually aired. Although the current owner had placed a fresh coat of paint over the walls, Dodge "aged" the walls and even bought a local car for $2,000 and crashed it to add realism to the scenes. In the commercial, a sign stated that it was the Brixton Motor Speedway. Here is the commercial
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