Five Flags Speedway opens 2024 slate with Big Weekend starting on Friday
James Smith didn’t have to wait long to get a nickname.
On the day he was born, he received a weathered moniker from his great-grandfather: "Rawhide."
“He said I was going to have to be as tough as rawhide to survive my brother and sister,” Rawhide said of his great-grandfather.
Now, 52, Rawhide stuck, and it has been a name synonymous in short-track racing circles along the Gulf Coast since the early 1990s. Rawhide has worked his way up from helping Scott Carlson build and maintain cars 30 years ago to now being the car owner of a Snowball Derby-winning machine.
Rawhide and Pensacola transplant Derrick Griffin, fresh off an Outlaws Derby championship a few months ago, look to maintain their winning ways as Five Flags Speedway opens the 2024 schedule with the Big Weekend on Friday.
“It’s a pretty humbling sport,” said Griffin, owner and proprietor of DG Performance, which works on chassis and equipment for Modifieds. “It’s nice to have some positivity and optimism from how the Derby went. You just never know, though. Sometimes it just doesn’t go your way.”
Rawhide and Griffin will look to back up an impressive, albeit brief, résumé together tonight when the local divisions open the Big Weekend at Pensacola’s high banks. The Outlaws, Sportsmen and Pure Stocks will share tonight's stage when races begin at 8 p.m.
On Saturday, the Crown Stocks set the stage at 4:30 p.m. for the return of the ARCA Menards Series East cars and the Pensacola 150 slated for 7:30 p.m. Finally, on Sunday, the ASA STARS are back for the Pensacola 200 with the green flag set to drop at 3 p.m., following an autograph session.
For individual day and weekend ticket prices along with full, three-day admission packages, please call the track office at 850-944-8400 or visit www.5flagsspeedway.com for full details.
After years of knowing each other, Rawhide and Griffin teamed up midway through last season. The partnership has proved to be a match made in racing heaven.
“My son, Fisher, worked on racecars for Derrick, and I had seen all the success Derrick had,” Rawhide said. “He’s a heck of a wheelman and brings lot to the table.”
The pair won three out of four races to close 2023, including the biggest one of them all at the Derby. Griffin set the fast time in qualifying in all four races, setting a new track record at Mobile International Speedway – just a short drive from Rawhide’s home in the Stockton community just outside of Bay Minette, Alabama.
“We just took off,” Rawhide said of him and Griffin.
They’re both hoping to repeat last year’s success but know it won’t be an easy task against some of the best consistent competition at Five Flags. Two-time defending track champion Timothy Watson along with the likes of Conner Sutton, Bubba Winslow and Carter Taylor will look to make things difficult for Griffin.
“We’re staying open-minded, and we’ll see what we’ve got,” Rawhide said. “The competition in this class is pretty stout. It’s never a gimme. We’ve gotta work for it.”
Griffin, whose Outlaws win was his second career Derby victory (Modifieds, 2020), echoed his owner’s outlook and knows his rivals have an advantage because of the number of laps they’ve put down at the famed half-mile asphalt oval.
“I’m so busy with work that we only hit a couple races here and there,” he said. “These guys race whole season and have more time on the track. They’ll keep us honest and we’re not going to cherry pick a win. We have to work hard.”
Working hard won’t be a problem for his owner and the man they call Rawhide.
Want to go?
WHO: Outlaws, Sportsmen and Pure Stocks (today); Crown Stocks and ARCA cars (Saturday); ASA STARS (Sunday).
WHAT: Short-track racing.
WHEN: Racing begins at 8 p.m. Friday; 4:30 p.m. Saturday; 3 p.m. Sunday.
WHERE: Five Flags Speedway (7451 Pine Forest Rd).
ADMISSION: Call the track office at 850.944.8400 or visit 5flagsspeedway.com for full details on single-day tickets and full-weekend packages.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Five Flags Speedway 2024 season begins with Big Weekend on Friday
