CONCORD - Residents of the Roberta Farms subdivision say they sometimes wake to cars racing at Lowe's Motor Speedway several miles away.

So they weren't happy when Roush Racing in 1999 proposed a test track and headquarters a few hundred yards from their neighborhood.

"We figured if it was going to be right next door, it was going to be even worse," said George Sweet, who helped lead the opposition as president of the neighborhood association at the time.

Sweet and other opponents faced heavy odds. Roush's proposal called for a $75 million investment, bringing in more than $750,000 in annual property taxes. The city also is proud of its pro-business record.

Sweet called a neighborhood meeting, which more than 200 attended. In a 219-2 vote, they agreed to a $200 assessment per home to help fight it.

Sweet and Randy Grimes, now a council member, met with an attorney. They hired a sound consultant. They sent newsletters to neighbors about the project.

Saying they supported the project -- just not the location -- they also looked for other sites. They formed a committee to reach out to other neighborhoods and council members. And they packed several council meetings to fight the project. Sweet was among the speakers.

Sweet, a retired school administrator from near Syracuse, N.Y., hadn't been politically active before moving to Concord with his wife in 1995.

"For most of the people," Sweet said, "it was a quality-of-life issue."

The day of the vote, Roush decided to drop the project. Sweet said they didn't have the votes.

Ian Prince, Roush Racing's director of real-estate development, said the company's decision to pull the project had nothing to do with the opposition. "We pulled it for our business needs," he said.

Mayor Scott Padgett, then a council member, said the council had a "very serious concern" about the test track.

Last year, Roush Racing agreed to move its headquarters to Concord Regional Airport -- without the test track. The company doesn't have plans for a test track, Prince said.