Artist: Paul O'Mara

Project: “Dirt Track Sundays”

Description: Where I live in Northwest Georgia, fellowship is a term for a social gathering tied to shared beliefs that mostly have to do with religion, but you don’t say that. That describes the Rome International Speedway.

Before 2020, on Sunday evenings, from May through August, I heard the growl of stock cars from my house. I live five miles from the track. The signs on the four-lane popped up a few days before race night in case the date slipped your mind. One year, I took that windy drive down Chulio Road to see what it was all about.

The speedway is a red clay oval proudly proclaimed as the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile Clay Track.” Facts about the speedway are elusive but it’s safe to say that by the looks of the place, it’s been around for a while. Fifty years, some guess. When I worked at the local newspaper in the 1980s, it was operated by Mickey and Martha Swims. Mickey and his family ran the track, as well as the Dixie Speedway over in Canton, GA.

During prohibition, bootleggers hired drivers who modified their cars to outrun the law. Moonshiners eventually began racing against each other, cutting out tracks in corn fields or finding quiet mountain roads to compete.

That tradition plays out in dirt track stadiums now. Drivers invest thousands of dollars into their cars, tires, replacement parts, and trailers to compete. The winning prize is cash, but never enough to cover the costs. Like the moonshine drivers before them, it’s all about racing, family, and tradition—fellowship.

In 2023, the pandemic and health concerns for the racetrack-owning Swims family halted racing at Rome International Speedway for three years. Maybe it was last month, but I thought I heard that familiar growl. It was Sunday night, the sound was coming from the south. The track was back in action.

In August 2024, Floyd County rejected a request from the owners to rezone the property.

In 2025, social media pages for the Rome International Speedway have been inactive for a year.