Carteret County Speedway Celebrates 10th Anniversary Year!

Carteret Speedway Gears up to Celebrate 10 Year's of Racing at Season Opener on Saturday, April 5th!

Chargers Headline JumpStart Season Opener on April 5

PELETIER, NC – April’s season opening race at Bobby Watson’s Carteret Speedway will mark the start of the 10th season of racing at America’s Nicest Short Track.

After over a decade of construction led by track visionary, the late Bobby Watson, the inaugural race at the 4/10-mile track was held on September 6, 2015.  Swansboro’s Brandon Clements took the first checkered flag while Clay Jones was victorious in the Late Model portion of the inaugural event.

Since then, Carteret has become Coastal North Carolina’s longest operating asphalt short track and has hosted some of the biggest events – including the SMART Modified Tour, which returns to Carteret on Labor Day Weekend. It has also become a full fledged entertainment venue hosting Monster Truck shows, the Croatan Buck 50 (with over 800 bicyclists participating each year), concerts, car & truck shows and the beautiful Christmas Holiday Laser Show!

Over the past 10 years, the track has become brighter and more colorful, but the colors that matter the most to competitors are black and white.  That will ring true when the 10th anniversary season gets underway on Saturday, April 5 with eight divisions of racing in action.

The Charger division, which runs Late Model Stock Car chassis and motors with alterations to the rulebook aimed at affordability, will headline the racing in 2025.  The April 5 opener will be the second round of the Six Pack Charger Series partnership with Southern National Motorsports Park.

The Bomber division is also returning in 2025 and is expected to boast some of the largest fields throughout the season.  The Bomber division is aimed at making racing affordable again while enticing new drivers to enter.

The Jr Mini Cup division will showcase several graduates of the Summer Kids Race Camp! The Kid’s Race Camp is a 4 day camp offered four times in the summer where kids learn all about racing. The camp also gives kids a chance to drive on the track in a racing go-kart under the supervision of the instructors. 

Mini Stocks, Legend Cars, Bandoleros, U-CARs and Street Stocks will also be in action as part of the JumpStart 2025 Season Opener.

Bobby Watson’s Carteret Speedway originally operated as a Karting track during the later part of the 20th century and had attracted big names during that era.   Watson, however, had a dream of something bigger, and that dream became a reality in 2015 with stock car racing coming to Carteret County.

Throughout the last decade, Carteret has seen some of the biggest names in racing compete at the track, including NASCAR Hall of Famer and champion Bobby Labonte, former Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman, NASCAR Cup Series driver Josh Berry, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitor Layne Riggs, and many more.  Labonte, Berry and Riggs all have a place on the track’s wall, which denotes the names of every Late Model and SMART Modified Tour winner at the track since 2015. Other Celebrities include Rusty Wallace, Harry Gant, Bobby & Donnie Allison, Brad Keslowski, Humpy Wheeler, Jr Johnson, Larry McReynolds & Richard Petty’s grandson, Thad Moffit.

There are plenty of stories that the track has to tell from the past decade, and more on the horizon during the 10th season of racing.

A complete schedule of races, as well as general information about Bobby Watson’s Carteret Speedway can be found at carteretspeedway.com.  

Article by Andy Marquis with contributions from Tracie Wade-Cronkhite