North+Carolina

﻿﻿By: Genesis
 * ﻿Charlotte Motor Speedway **

media type="custom" key="6976163" align="left" The Charlotte Motor Speedway is located in Concord, NC. It has a 1.5 mile long track and one of the largest seating capacities in the country. It can hold about 167,000 people in the grandstands and 50,000 people can set up on the infield to watch the race. Two of the biggest races take place here, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Bank of America 500.

The speedway was designed and built in 1959 by former chairman O. Bruton Smith. Smith was a native of Oakboro, N.C. He was an automobile dealer and a stock car racing promoter at Concord Motor Speedway and the Charlotte Fairgrounds. Curtis Turner, Smith's business partner, was one of stock cars racing's earliest driving stars. Turner was from Virginia. He was one of the first drivers on the NASCAR circuit in 1949.

On June 19, 1960, the first World 600 took place on the new track. After Smith had built the speedway he pursued other businesses in Illinois and Texas. Smith had worked within Ford Motor Company and became really successful. In 1984, after building 40 condos, the speedway had became the only sport facility in America to offer year-round living accommodations.

In May of 2000, a dirt track was added. The dirt track stadium can seat 14,000 fans. It hosts the Dirt Late Models, Modifields, Sprint Cars, Monster Trucks and The World of the Outlaws World Finals. Tracy Lawrence (a country music singer) had filmed his music video "If The Good Die Young" at the speedway. The speedway annually presents the nations two largest cars shows. It now has a state-of-the-art media center and a new drag strip. The ZMAX drag strip opened in 2008 to a sold out crowd of 30,000 people. Today, the Charlotte Motor Speedway still is to be the leading promoter and marketer of motor sports activities in the U.S.

 media type="custom" key="7185147" align="left" **Welcome to Northwest ** By: Eric and Victoria Northwest Cabarrus Middle School was built in September of 1980. The first principal was Mike Burleson. When our school first opened, the grade levels were only 7th and 8th. There were only 691 students! Today, we have 906 students! Our grade levels are 6th - 8th. Our school mascot is a Titan, and our colors are orange and black. Northwest is a great school to be at. Even though I've only been here for a month (my family moved from Indiana), it makes me happy to be here. The teachers are great, and so are our school activities! Seventh and eighth grade students can play school sports like basketball, football, and baseball. We have four core classes (math, science, english, and social studies) and two encore classes (gym, health, keyboarding, etc.) each day. We also have a big rock in front of our school that students can sign and decorate. If you watch our slide show, you can see pictures of the rock and photos we took of our school. **What are we Learning in Mrs. Durrence's class? ** By: Luke, Allie and Paul   We just finished studying Australia. Together, we picked out three important features of Australia we thought you would like to read about. __Sydney Opera House __ By: Luke The Sydney Opera House is one of the most famous landmarks in the world. It is shaped like the sails of a boat because Sydney is one of the largest ports in the world. It was designed by Danish architect, Jhon Utzon. It first opened in October of 1973. The first performance was "War and Peace" by Prokofiev. Each year, 2 million people visit the Opera House. The roof weighs over 15 tons and is held together by steel cable.

__<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Outback __ <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">By: Allie  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Australian Outback is a large section of Australia that is remote, wild, and arid. The Outback makes up about 70% of Australia's landmass. It's approximately 2.5 million square miles. It covers everything from desert to rocky hills. There are many kinds of species such as the emu, dingo, and kangaroo. It hosts many famous sites such as, Ayers Rock and Alice Springs. __<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Great Barrier Reef __ <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">By: Paul   <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 0px; overflow: hidden;">﻿  <span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS',Helvetica,sans-serif;">Have you heard of the Great Barrier Reef? It is near 500,000 years old. The Great Barrier Reef stretches for more than 1,200 miles along Australia's northeastern coast and can be seen from outer space. Living coral keeps the reef together so it won't be worn away by the ocean. It is also home to two animals that are close to extinction, the "sea cow" and the giant green turtle. Here is a link that shows you what life is like in the Great Barrier Reef. [|Great Barrier Reef]

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