Carolina Horsepower - Dorchester dragway

Just as easy to do this

DeLee Family Pride

The power of horses once allowed farmers to till the sandy soil of southeastern South Carolina, but while tractors have long since replaced the equine population, horse power is still a key part of the everyday lives of the Delee family, owners of Dorchester Dragway.

Tying the story up in a neat package is the fact that the land the eighth-mile IHRA-sanctioned track sits on was once dedicated to the growing of South Carolina’s most famous crop – tobacco.

Not only did Virgil DeLee raise tobacco, but he also raised many sons, some of whom had a love of fast cars and racing. In the early 1980s four of the DeLee brothers - Phillip, Leonard (Mike) Sr., Lawrence (Curly), and Elijah Sr. - approached their father with an unusual request.

“We told our father we wanted to build a drag strip,” said Philip DeLee. “We told him we wanted to race, but we didn’t want to do it on the streets, so he said if that was what we really wanted to do he would give us the land we needed.

“We built the track in 1984, and our plan was for it to just be a little hobby thing – something just for us to use,” DeLee said. “It didn’t take long for people to start noticing what we were doing, though, and we soon realized we would have to take the track from a hobby to a business. We started having races a year later, and it just sort of blossomed from there. Last year we celebrated our twenty-fifth year in operation.

“We knew early on we wanted the track to be sanctioned, so we got in touch with the IHRA,” Delee said. “People wanted to bracket race, but we didn’t really have much experience with that.

Thankfully we got a lot of guidance from the folks at the IHRA. At first we did well with bracket racing, but there were always pretty hefty pay-outs involved, and when we went through a few lean years we decided to do what we wanted to do in the very beginning. We started scheduling test and tune sessions and grudge races in addition to Summit SuperSeries events, and that covered everything our racers wanted out of a track.” Despite the track’s rural surroundings, civilization isn’t very far away. Dorchester Dragway is just over 30 miles from historic Charleston.

“We draw well from Charleston, but there are a number of small cities and towns in the area and they also contribute to steady racer and fan counts,” DeLee said. “We have a late crowd at our track. Late in the afternoon you think no-one is going to show up, but by the time the sun goes down the place is packed. We do our test and tune and grudge racing on Sunday afternoons and our Summit SuperSeries races once a month on Saturdays.

We also have special events and bookedin shows from time to time during the year.” The moderate climate of the Lowlands of South Carolina allows that year to last for the best part of nine months.

“We normally race from early March, depending on the weather, to the first weekend in December,” said DeLee. “This year we’re working on the track, though, so we’ll likely not start racing until April. We’re re-pouring the racing surface, fixing up the starting-line area, and replacing the fencing.” IHRA is a big part of Dorchester a fact borne out by the track’s long-time participation in the Summit SuperSeries and Team Finals programs.

“Our racers really like the Team Finals events – which we used to call the Bracket Finals,” verified DeLee. “We have never missed one. Mind you we have never won one, or even finished in the top five, but the experience is great. We have lots of determination, and it’s always fun trying to win it. Our racers like to go, so we have always participated.” Family pride has had a lot to do with the success of Dorchester Dragway for the past quarter of a century, and that has never diminished over the years. In fact, family participation is growing all the time.

“This has been a family affair right from the beginning,” DeLee said. “Members of our family ran every part of the business. I’m the Operations Manager, Elijah is the General Manager, Mike is the Gate Manager, and Lawrence is in charge of track safety and track prep. My nephews Leonard Jr. And Elijah Jr. Are special events coordinators. I have two other brothers – Roger and Daniel – who also work here, along with cousin Andrew Youngblood.

Our friend John Bowman has been with us for 15 years as well. We really love what we’re doing, and it’s great to be able to work alongside so many family members.” If there’s strength in numbers, the Delee family must certainly be one of the strongest, and the track they are so proud of must be one of the best in another family - the IHRA family - because of it.