[Alan Roehrich]

A similar situation has been facing the historic old Nashville Speedway for years, ever since the current mayor took office. He has almost certainly got some sort of sweet heart deal lined up with some development company that wants the property that includes the track and the state fairgrounds. Darrell Waltrip and Sterling Marlin have been leading the fight against this jerk for years.

The only saving grace right now may be the fact that the new Nashville SuperSpeedway (part of Dover Downs Development, just like St. Louis and Memphis)went under this year. Sadly, that means there's a huge piece of property lying fallow near here with the potential to be a good motorsports facility. The big reason there is not a national event quality 1/4 mile drag strip there is because of dealings with the city of Nashville and the fair board that ran the old speedway.

Things like this happen everywhere, because we don't pay attention and we don't support the local tracks. We lost Riverside years ago, it was a great track, although not national event quality, it hosted IHRA races. The guy who held the lease just stopped opening the track, and would not sell or sub out the lease. We'll pass what's left of that track Sunday, when we drive near 200 miles to race at Jackson, to support their combo program. You can still see Riverside from I-40, if you know where to look, the strip is still there, and the poles with lights. Even if the track were salvageable, and it isn't, 2-3 subdivisions are there now, they'd never stand for a drag strip opening back up.

Don't forget your local tracks, support them whenever possible. We may find one day that they would be the only place we would have to race, if we hadn't let them die. It will be too late then.