Hence Pollard – Sonny Pollard, the current owner and promoter at Senoia, vividly recalls a time when he wasn’t yet 10 years old, riding home with his father Hence Pollard and a family friend from the races at Coweta Raceway. “We were coming home that night and my daddy said he was going to build a racetrack,” Pollard said. “I didn’t know what to think.” But Hence Pollard, who made his living sawing timber and farming and was a successful drag racer at the old drag strip near Fairburn, pursued his stock-car dream. He and a local grading contractor, David Bishop, went to work and built a 3/8-mile dirt oval on the Pollard farm.

They opened the track in 1969, and the Pollard family ran the track until Hence Pollard’s death in 1981 at the age of 53. Did Hence Pollard, a successful businessman, build Senoia Raceway to make money?” Sonny Pollard can answer that: “No, no, no, no,” he said. “Racing was his passion.” Unlike many promoters, Pollard left the business of running the pits to the people he hired. He watched the races from a fan’s perspective – from a picnic table overlooking the track. 

 Pollard did step in when he needed to keep his racers happy. Once, a driver down on his luck told Pollard after yet another crash that he wouldn’t be able to make the next Saturday night’s show. “How much will it cost to fix your car?” Pollard asked. The driver responded that $75 would cover it. Pollard pulled $80 from his wallet, handed it to the driver and told him he’d see him the next week. And he did. Once Georgia Racing Hall of Fame driver Mike Head missed a race because he couldn’t afford the repair bill on his engine. Pollard found out, summoned Head to his home and gave Head the money he needed to get his engine back. Head was loyal to Senoia Raceway for as long as the Pollards owned it.