LUCAMA, NC – After a successful week-long opening act, Southern National Motorsports Park is only beginning its 2025 season, with seven feature races coming up on Saturday night, March 29 in The Sign Shop 215.
The unorthodox Speed Week concept, which began in 2024, proved to be popular with racers with double-digit Legend Car and Late Model fields all throughout the week.
“It’s something different,” track owner Michael Diaz said after the final Speed Week race on March 15. “It was a success in my eyes, so we’re going to keep it going. Hopefully, next year, it grows and becomes bigger. It’s something different and I think that’s what the racers want. The weekly racing aspect of things, with all the tours that are out there and everything else like that, they’re actually killing weekly shor tracks and I think that stuff like this is what’s got to be done and I’m the one that’s going to take the risk, and it was a big risk.”
For the Diaz family, operating Southern National is a family affair.
Mason Diaz (center-left) conducts a drivers meeting alongside his father, Michael (right).
Diaz’s son, Mason, ran pit road throughout the week and did so efficiently and professionally while his daughter, Trinity, handles much of the social media as well as several other administrative tasks. However, Diaz credits his staff just as much as his family.
“I can’t take all the credit,” Diaz explained. “I have an outstanding staff with everybody here. Mason runs the inside, Trinity runs the outside, then I got Christine, Stephanie, Bobby, Joe, and Caroline, and everybody else. With Brian [Vause] and Steve and Jacqulyn [Zacharias] and everybody from Florence and their kids, Leanne, Morgan and Owen, just the whole entire thing. It’s really cool. We’ve got a good thing going here and it’s really family oriented and family run so it’s fun and I enjoyed it.”
Trinity Diaz (left) and Janet Diaz (right)
Now, Southern National is looking ahead to the regular season, which runs through mid-June when track champions are crowned.
“I think it’s going to be good,” Diaz stated. “We’ll get the locals going, we’ll get the Charger going, we’ll get guys going in the right direction, and I think it will be fun. It’s a short season. June 14th is going to be here before we know it. It’s going to be fun, we’re going to enjoy it.”
Late Model Stock Cars, Chargers, Mini Stocks, Legends, Bandoleros, Any Cars and the Virginia Mini Cup Racing Association will all be in action at the 4/10-mile track on March 29 as the regular season kicks into full swing. Late Models, Chargers, Mini Stocks, Legend Cars, and Bandoleros are part of every regular season race at Southern National.
This year, Southern National Motorsports Park is running under the Ultra Racing Association (URA) banner, a sanctioning body started up by Diaz and Steve Zacharias from Florence Motor Speedway.
After the regular season concludes on June 14, Southern National will host various events, including car shows, drifting, autocross and more during the summer. On September 6, racing will resume with the Road to the Classic featuring the I-95 Showdown.
Southern National will also host races on October 4 and October 25 prior to the 25th renewal of the Thanksgiving Classic which runs from Friday, November 28 to Sunday, November 30. Local driver Parker Eatmon won the Classic in 2024.
Pit gates will open at 10:00am on Saturday, March 29, while grandstands will open at 1:30pm. The green flag for The Sign Shop 215 will wave at 3:00pm. Tickets are available online and at the gate, and the race will be broadcast on Ultra Broadcasting.
