Greenville-Pickens Speedway future in limbo. How there could be one more season of racing.

As a 13-year-old in 1979, Mark Blackwell can remember throwing ping pong balls filled with money out of a helicopter hovering above the infield of Greenville-Pickens Speedway.

Now 57, he remembers watering the dirt track before it was paved with asphalt in the late 1960s. He recalls thrill shows featuring motorcycle jumps and a daredevil who blew himself up with dynamite — an illusion to the 35,000 onlookers that the speedway could fit.

Blackwell watched his father, Tom, and uncle, Pete, own and manage the Greenville-Pickens Speedway at 3800 Calhoun Memorial Highway, a legendary NASCAR-sanctioned racetrack, for nearly 60 years.

Because of those fond memories, Blackwell is endorsing the $103,000 crowdsourcing and sponsorship efforts led by Jackie Manley, an amateur racecar driver who drove the raceway from 2008 to 2015. His goal is to keep the circuit open for at least one last season of races and to continue donorship to the Shriners Hospital for Children.

"It's an uphill battle and a longshot," Blackwell said. "If Jackie can get a season going, maybe they would preserve the track and keep racing going. We're hoping if enough community comes together on (a potential) opening night, it shows that there's huge community support about this track."

If the total donation goal of $103,000 is not met by mid-April, an official NASCAR-sanctioned race season would not take place for the first time in the 65-plus year history of Greenville-Pickens' half-mile long, asphalt oval.

Over that time, the speedway has held weekly stock car racing events such as the Greenville and Pickens 200 series, which featured at least seven current members of NASCAR's Hall of Fame.

The Upper Carolina State Fair, an annual Christmas lights show and more events could also vanish at the hands of inevitable change and growth.

"It would be like losing a member of the family if they tore the racetrack down," Blackwell said. "This isn't about money. It's for passion, history and the sake of racing in Greenville and Pickens."

It would also potentially end The Shriners Race — a 100-lap contest at end of the season, where all proceeds from the event are donated to the Shriners Hospital for Children in Greenville.

Since the inaugural Shriners Race in the early 1970s, the Blackwell family, alongside the Greenville-Pickens Speedway, have amassed more than $1 million in donations to the hospital, according to Sherwood Kaiser, Board of Governors member with Shriners Children's Hospital.

"Drivers come in from Virginia, Georgia, Tennessee and the two Carolinas, as it draws cars because it's a fundraising event," Kaiser said, adding that many of the drivers who would win the race would give the total grand prize back to Shriners Children's Hospital.

Kaiser also knows the Blackwell family well, as he had a relationship with former owners Pete and Tom Blackwell, prior to Pete's death in 2010.

"Everyone who knows the history of the track, knows our family," said Mark Blackwell.