Gateway done!
 

Re: Gateway done!
 

I would have loved to have had a shot at managing that facility into a profitable business


:-) peace

Re: Gateway done!
 

You would've failed in the most miserable possible way.

Re: Gateway done!
 

Bret,

I remember seeing you at test n tune sessions at Gateway all the time taking pictures. Why on earth couldn't Gateway run efficiently? Things like oil downs and normal 'getting cars through the lanes' never seemed to work there.

Also, any truth the new MAR north of Wentzville?

Re: Gateway done!
 

nice

Re: Gateway done!
 

The new MAR info can be found here www.marpark.net

Re: Gateway done!
 

Dick-Bret isn't slamming the OP-it is fairly common knowledge this track cannot be saved/managed due to tax liabilities that were built into its balloon payments. NO ONE could have made enough money there to survive.

Re: Gateway done!
 

So is the new MAR officially a go???

Re: Gateway done!
 

I am not so sure

Failure is not an option for me - overcoming the obstacles that will keep you from succeeding is all it takes

If the attitude of the management team was in any way similar to your remark then I understand

Peace

Re: Gateway done!
 

While a good attitude is admirable it will not solve all things, and as eluded to in other posts the situation at Gateway was one of those.

I was forced by my company to take one of those positive attitude classes once and in the middle when the facilitator was comparing Michael Jordan and a wining attitude, an old fellow (volunteer Firefighter) spoke up and said, “So you’re telling me that those Firemen in New York on September 11th just didn’t have the right attitude?” The facilitator moved on.

I mean no disrespect to your feeling, just a humble observation.

Steve

Re: Gateway done!
 

Maybe you should have run for governor of your state? Not poking you but Bret knows the St Louis situation pretty intimately.

Re: Gateway done!
 

I have read, as well as the taxes/finance issues, that there is a battle going on with the CEO and board members that don't want to be invested/participate in the motorsports industry. That would be a hard battle for a track manager to overcome.

Re: Gateway done!
 

If someone else picks up the pieces and makes it a success - what does that say?

They will have overcame the problems that the past management team could not.

Attitude, ingenuity and resourcefulness may not win out in a "life or death" struggle but it does in most other situations.


BTW -
The brave firefighters, who lost their lives on 9/11, had a positive attitude or they would not have been there. They died trying. Let’s not make this a thread about 911

Re: Gateway done!
 

So is it like the Chicago Tribune situation? The Chicago Tribune did not go into bankruptcy because folks stopped reading the newspaper, it was a tax situation with the family that owned the LA Times (which the Tribune bought with a special agreement of some sort) when they wanted out. I wonder if any of their horse properties are "subsidized" by casino type gambling.

Re: Gateway done!
 

LMAO! I don't even know who "Andy's dad" is so it's pretty stupid to take my reply as a personal affront.

If it makes you feel any better, I'll revise the original statement.

You, (or anyone else), would've failed in the most miserable possible way.

Re: Gateway done!
 

I did not take it personally at all

Some peolpe take this website way to seriously

Believe it or not we are not saving lives and we are not finding a cure for a pandemic disease

Re: Gateway done!
 

Bret, not too many years ago there were 3 tracks, gateway-peavly-wentzville, now none. What do you think happened?

Re: Gateway done!
 

Ummm....they all closed? LOL!

There have been ten tracks within forty miles of the Gateway Arch and all have closed. It's the circle of life.

I have to agree with Andy's dad; it's just the closing of a dragstrip. I had a close friend say to me, (about Gateway), "Wow! That's gotta be like watching your house get demolished!". I replied, "Nah. I've actually watched my house get demolished. This is just a dragstrip closing".

Re: Gateway done!
 

Ok, besides the ones I already named I think there was one at St Genevieve, Alton, you may be counting White Hall but I think it is farther away than that, that is all I can come up with.

Re: Gateway done!
 

Bret,
Back about 10 years ago you and Tom were on a mission to locate/cataloge all known closed tracks in the country. How did that turn out? Care to add Memphis and Gateway to your works? :~)
I agree with Andys Dad that you could manage and run a facility and show up some of these Corp. know it all's. As a former track owner/operator I have the ego and drive that says: it can be done!!
But sometimes businesses (race tracks included) are built and the finances set up with the intention of closing at some time down the road. Just one case I know about: Go back in the 70's and look at the corp that built Dallas International. I have some worthless paper that was stock in that venture. HA! Anybody want to give me face value on it?

Re: Gateway done!
 

Whalen, PM sent to you; I wasn't counting White Hall since it was sixty miles out.

Adger, it's still a work in progress but it's closer to being done than ever.

As for Gateway, anybody who can come up with a way to make money with $4.3M in taxes in place each year before the gates ever open is more than welcome to buy the place and give it a shot.

Re: Gateway done!
 

The way to make money is to buy the place at auction and get the taxes reduced based on what you paid for it. The best run racetracks that I see are owner operated tracks with little or no debt. When large corporations get in the race track business their expectations of return are generally not met. How many drag strips in the country could service 20 or 30 million in debt and make a profit?

Re: Gateway done!
 

To be honest with you guys and gals. The place went to hell as soon as they built the new facility. The old track always had better personality, and it always hooked harder!! I could go down the old track with my eyes closed, many times we did. (no lights from 800 ft. on down on many Sat. nights).

Bret, Someone needs to call the SCCA to bale out the Swamp again!!!

Re: Gateway done!
 

Bret - what are you thoughts on the new MAR? Do you think it's really going to happen?

Re: Gateway done!
 

[QUOTE=k.pascoe;220219]To be honest with you guys and gals. The place went to hell as soon as they built the new facility. The old track always had better personality, and it always hooked harder!! I could go down the old track with my eyes closed, many times we did. (no lights from 800 ft. on down on many Sat. nights).

I always felt that way too.

Re: Gateway done!
 

That didn't work very well the last time they tried it.

69camz28, I have no idea.

Re: Gateway done!
 

Not necessarily related but I remember when they decided to destroy a perfectly good well run multi-purpose facility here in Southern California.

Ontario Motor Speedway- Opened in 1970 and was regarded as one of the finest motorsports facilities of the period. It was torn down only a decade later, however, because the property was needed for commercial developement.

So - just like that gone in 60 seconds.

The ironic part is - twenty years later they built a new multi-purpose racing facility virtually within ear shot called California Speedway (Fontana)

Go figure

Re: Gateway done!
 

There was a track at Pacific ,Mo. and one at Nashville, Il back in the mid 60's. I think Pacific was AHRA and Nashville NHRA. I know Wayne 'tiny' Minert(spelling?) owned the track at Nashville.

Re: Gateway done!
 

I live just a few miles east of where the nashville track was and go by it often
When you drive by where the track was and look into the field you can see exactly where it was as the crops still dont grow too well even after all the years that have past.

Re: Gateway done!
 

Rob, My folks were from Fayette County and Dad always talked about Alton and Lawrenceville. He has a lot of good memories from then.

Steve Jackson

Re: Gateway done!
 

[QUOTE=Bret Kepner;220263]That didn't work very well the last time they tried it.

Um Bret,

SCCA- Rich gear-heads with cars that make left and rights turns - Drag strip open.

Dover Downs inc.- Bean counters, stock holders - Drag strip closed.

Re: Gateway done!
 

Mercer, both Pacific and Nashville were owned by Meinert and both were AHRA.

Petrie, the track at Nashville still exists, (I've been there several times), but can't be seen from the road.

Pascoe, the last time the SCCA was involved at SLIR/GIR in 1987, the place went bankrupt and remained closed for nine months into 1988.

Re: Gateway done!
 

Bret I'm getting older, so my glory days are getting fuzzy,
Who did Mr. Pook purchase the track from?
Wasn't the SCCA invovled some how during the early 90's IHRA to NHRA ?
The track manager before Pook "bought" the Swamp was a SCCA guy, was he not?

Re: Gateway done!
 

I guess I should clarify you can see where it was. There is a big pile of rock there now and its owned by Drestie Farms. They have torn it up and are farming it now. I have a road call scheduled for tomorrow morning and I can I will stop by and take some pictures.

Re: Gateway done!
 

Nashville was NHRA in 63 and 64

Re: Gateway done!
 

No, you can't. The track is more than a quarter-mile north of Route 15 and both lanes are still intact.

Mercer is absolutely correct; Meinert originally got an NHRA saction and then went to AHRA. He closed Nashville when he buiult and opened Pacific.

Re: Gateway done!
 

Nashville starting line , summer of 64, my 64 comet g/sa.
No frills!

Re: Gateway done!
 

Awesome shot, Michael! It still looks exactly the same except the treeline in the background, (NW of the starting line), has grown substantially in fifty years!

Re: Gateway done!
 

If the track was north of 15, was it east or west of Nashville? If you get on one of those local/live sites you should be able to see an 1/8 mile of track and shutdown from those satellite views. If you look up Wentzville, last year, and you could still make out the track in the construction that was going on.

Steve

Re: Gateway done!
 

The track is plainly visible on any satellite imagery east of Nashville.