West Virginia Drag Strip Gets New Lease on Life – Former Twin Branch / Almost Heaven Motorsports Park to Re-Open This Year as 304 Motorsports Park
After ten years, a soft opening in 2022, and being shuttered for almost two years, a drag strip in West Virginia will get a second chance.
After sitting for nearly nine years after surface completion, this West Virginia drag strip could see passes again this year!
And a former International Hot Rod Association (IHRA) Mountain Motor Pro Stock champion family will lead the charge to put action on the track once again.
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The former Almost Heaven Motorsports Park (also known as Twin Branch Motorsports Complex and Twin Branch Motorsports Park) first came into the drag racing news circulation a few years ago, after getting the initial track completed in 2015-2016 according to news sources.
Built on former coal mine land, the eighth-mile concrete track and walls were laid out and completed, as well as some additional parts, but the facility wasn’t 100-percent complete.
Years of red tape with the local government halted the opportunity to host a race, but in late 2022 promoter and track operator Pete Scalzo was able to get a first event held, a no prep-style event with a sizable turnout.
An S-10 pick-up launches off the line during Twin Branch’s soft opening in the fall of 2022.
Plans for the track’s completion, as well as a solid 2023 were rumored, and based on the initial event, considered possibilities.
But then Scalzo had to relinquish his lease on the property, so the nearly finished track sat dormant, as the county didn’t want to operate it.
Calls for a new lease holder to step in and operate the facility were made, but the track sat quietly for the entirety of 2023 and the first half of 2024. But now, word was come down the property has been sold to the Kirk family, and will be renamed 304 Motorsports Park.
The only time the racer entrance had participants pass through was late 2022; could the second time be this year?
Led by two-time IHRA champion Doug Kirk, the facility has entered into a multi-year sanction agreement with the World Drag Racing Alliance (WDRA), and plans to complete the track with the proper surrounding areas and features will take place.
The Kirk family plans to gets the track to a point for a new soft opening in 2024, which would mark the third track the WDRA has sanctioned to re-open this season.
Written by Derek Putnam. Photos courtesy of Twin Branch Motorsports Park.
If you have thoughts / feedback / ideas, please e-mail us at derek@sickthemagazine.com