November 2008
The site for this track was in a forest just west of Cheraw, about an hours drive south of Charlotte. An industrial town full of old colonial red brick buildings, Cheraw's main industry of cotton mills dried up many moons ago. Its safe to say that not much happens in Cheraw. Not unless your a fan of the mall, or fast food halls, or being mugged in a laundrette late one night by a man who smelt like an old shoe.... it was a strange place. I didn't care for it much, and yet the landscape I came to work was perhaps one of the nicest pieces of ground I've ever had the opportunity to work on.
Having left the highway some miles earlier and travelled down several miles of dirt track, it would have been easy to miss the clearing in the trees had I not been given such specific directions. two large areas of heath surrounded by forest, and nothing but pure virgin white sand underneath.
Given the remoteness of the site and the soft ground I was working with, there were almost no restrictions to the job at all. The entire track was constructed with just a D5 bulldozer and 8 days labour. When working in sand the material pushes very quickly into position. Any shrubs or small trees tend to have shallow roots and are easily moved. Once working in the sand underneath, the finish left by the blade is perfectly smooth. When the job was finished and the entire area had been landscaped, the difference was so huge it was almost impossible to remember what it looked like in the beginning. The track in Cheraw was certainly one of the nicest tracks I have ever built. |
