Emerald Coast Dragway would like to welcome and introduce Zero In Racing as our new left lane sponsor for the 2021 racing season! Zero in Racing as well as its sister company All American Tuning & Fab are a locally owned and operated business in the performance automotive industry. They offer wheels/tires, a wide variety of fuel and nitrous and of course the tools and expertise to help you get it all going on race day.

As you may have noticed, our left lane sponsor board fell victim to Hurricane Sally (see pic below), requiring almost an entire rebuild of the back-lit sign board as it was punctured by the fence and damaged, thankfully a local business owner Mark Odom with Zero In Racing and All American Tuning & Fab reached out to us and said he wanted his name up on that board. Done deal!  Look for Mark and his crew to be out at ECD as a vendor at some of our larger races and likely in the staging lanes on test & tune!

Zero In Racing / All-American Tuning & Fab

777 Hutchinson Road, Chipley FL 32428

(850) 676-1070

WEBSITE

FACEBOOK

Having signed on with ECD November 2017 in a 5 year agreement, that puts the end of my teams commitment at November 2022. That may seem far away and insignificant but something that hit me the other day was that the 2021 schedule we’re finalizing now will be the last full annual schedule I may potentially put together.

When presented with the opportunity to run ECD, we took on the task with what’s best for ECD at heart. Knowing full well it may cost to get the place turned around but in the end should be all worth it. There was rain, long hours on the mower, settling disputes, creating disputes for that matter (and did I mention rain?) but there was also the look of joy on our patrons faces as they enjoyed every aspect of the facility and it instantly made it all worth it, even when we were broke.

The reason I bring all this up is that I want ECD to remain in faithful and capable hands whether we continue to carry the torch or if we are indeed ready to hand it over come November 2022.  Our minds are not made up and don’t have to be yet but my feelings as of now is that; I wonder how much more functional I could be if I devoted 100% of my work hours towards my main business at the diesel shop – and what if there’s someone waiting in the shadows to take this track to the next level and all they need is for me to get out of the way?

There are several option ahead in the near future for us ranging from one purchasing the property, renewing our lease, handing over the torch to the new regime or lastly and least wanted… the gates closing behind us come November 2022 with no one to keep the track hot. The ladder happened to me in 2011 when ECD closed the first time, it’s sad but I know exactly where I was at and what time it was when I got the word they closed the track, PTSD or sure!

Hypothetically speaking if we were to hand it over, I think a transition of 12-18 months would be extremely beneficial for the next party (and the health of the facility) as there is so much to be learned throughout the season and customer/promoter/vendor/sponsor continuity is invaluable. Worst case scenario would be for the gates to close and all of the momentum we’ve got this far to unwind and erase all the efforts we’ve put forth. No one wants to see the facility go back to the way it was 2011 to late 2016, covered in weeds and pitiful.

I’ll close with this, in the event our intentions are to walk away in little over a year and a half , our operational business entity (Race ECD, LLC) could be available to a qualified individual or group capable and willing to look after the track and absorb a turn key (finally successful) business.  This would include a nearly full schedule, agreements, the business documents and all accounts in good standing signed over in full, training, team/talent and of course the keys to the front gate. You would have to secure your own equipment or we’d be happy to make you a sweet deal on our complete fleet. Whether or not this new regime purchases or leases the facility is between them and the folks in Orlando, I just went to hand them the keys to the city and the means for keeping the lights on. We might buy it, we might renew our lease, we might walk away, let’s see what 2021 has in store for us and go from there.  If you’re out there and interested, let’s talk.

Sincerely,

Ryan Milliken

Track Operetor

Race ECD, LLC

Ryan@raceecd.com

It’s turning out to be a very busy weekend at ECD with the Southeast Gassers Association joining us to wrap up their 2020 Championship Points Series with us here in the sunshine state as their final stop.  Friday night will be testing for the SEGA cars, while open to the public to spectate the race surface is for SEGA cars only. Saturday gate open bright and early at 8AM with class qualifying starting at 1PM.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out the SEGA series yet, you should! It’s real gassers doing real gasser racing, they’re all clutch kicking manual transmission cars on gas and adhere to strict era specific rules.  This weekend we’ll have Superstock, C/GAS, B/GAS and A/GAS cars qualifying for their spot on a ladder and racing in a single elimination format until a race winners and season champion is crowned in each category!

If you’re looking for a place to test your hot rod, come see us Sunday, our regularly scheduled Sunday Funday is going on as planned with gates opening at 12PM, track hot 1PM-6PM.

SEGA event pricing is as follows, Friday night is only $10, Saturday (race day) is $20, if you’re showing up Friday and want a race weekend pass it’ll be $30 total and one wristband instead of two separate ones.  Sunday pricing is separate of the SEGA event and our normal price of $15/person and $10 for a test & tune tech card.

Lots of work into the 2021 ECD race day calendar yesterday but here are some key points as well as a roughed in list at the bottom to reference (very much subject to change as we get things situated).

2021 @ ECD:

JAN 2

JAN 9 – Bracket & Index Bash

JAN 16 – Grand Hustle vs Moe Jeezy

JAN 23 – King of the Coast ET (2 day)

JAN 30

FEB 6 – Summit ET Series Season Opener

FEB 13 – Klutch Kickers Drift Funday (2 day)

FEB 20 – SOCO 28/275

FEB 27 – RaceChips USA AutoCross

MAR 6

MAR 13 – Klutch Kickers Drift Comp (3 day)

MAR 20 – Southeast Gassers Season Opener

MAR 27 – Summit ET Series RD2

APR 3 – Klutch Kickers Drift Funday

APR 10 – Summit ET Series RD3 & SNRA Pro Mods

APR 17 – Grand Hustle Concert Race

APR 24 – Klutch Kickers Drift Comp (3 day) ?

MAY 1

MAY 8– Klutch Kickers Drift Funday

MAY 15 Summit ET Series RD4

MAY 22 – RaceChips USA AutoCross

MAY 29 – Grand Hustle “End of Discussion” OR SOCO 28/275

JUN 5

JUN 12 – Klutch Kickers Drift Comp (3 day) ?

JUN 19 – Grand Hustle Street Outlaws

JUN 26 – Klutch Kickers Drift Funday

JUL 3 – Summit ET Series RD5 & SNRA Pro Mods

JUL 10

JUL 17

JUL 24

JUL 31– Klutch Kickers Drift Funday

AUG 7 – Back 2 School Jr’s IV

AUG 14 – RaceChips USA AutoCross

AUG 21– Klutch Kickers Drift Comp (3 day)

AUG 28 – Summit ET Series RD6

SEP 4– Klutch Kickers Drift Funday

SEP 11

SEP 18 – Outlaw Diesel Super Series

SEP 25 – Summit ET Series RD7 FINALS & SNRA Pro Mods

OCT 2 – SOCO 28/275

OCT 9 – Klutch Kickers Drift Comp (3 day) ?

OCT 16

OCT 23– Klutch Kickers Drift Funday

OCT 30

NOV6

NOV13

NOV20 – RaceChips USA AutoCross

NOV27 – Paul Walker 8

DEC4– Klutch Kickers Drift Funday (2 day)

DEC11

DEC18

DEC 25 *CLOSED FOR CHRISTMAS*

JAN 1

We will not be racing our ECD Heads Up Series Finals on November 14th and champions will be crowned based on current points standings. This is not a decision that was taken lightly and was discussed at length with our team prior to making the final decision trying to weigh all possible options and outcomes.

The decision boiled down to November 14th was a bad date for us to drop this on as it’s the same weekend as two very well established races within 6 hours of us on either direction racing the same types of cars. As a track that does not draw much as far as spectator count but relies on it’s car count to bring people through the gate, competing with those races was a financial risk we were unwilling to accept.