Smith, Griffin Look to Build off 2023’s Success as the Big Weekend Opens 2024 at Five Flags

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,” Smith 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 night.

“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, resume together Friday night when the local divisions open the Big Weekend at Pensacola’s high banks. The Faith Chapel Outlaws, the Dock on Pensacola Beach Sportsmen and the Lloyd’s Glass Pure Stocks will share the Friday night stage when races begin at 8 p.m.

On Saturday, the Story and Bleich Crown Stocks set the stage at 4:30 for the return of the ARCA Menards Series East cars and the Pensacola 150 slated for 7:30. 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 heckuva 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.

“We just took off,” Rawhide said of he 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.

-Story by: Chuck Corder, Five Flags Speedway
-Photo credit: Will Bellamy, Racing America