Gateway

[Alan Roehrich]

Gateway has announced they will not be hosting any NASCAR races there next year, and the group that owns the track, Dover Motorsports inc., has announced a possible sale of the track as one reason. Wouldn't be a big surprise if they announce that they won't host NHRA there next year.


http://nationwide.nascar.com/nationw...ay.races.2011/

[Alan Roehrich]

Gateway says their 2011 NHRA national event is still on. They say the event is profitable.

http://www.competitionplus.com/index...ll-on-schedule

They do mention the national event, but make no mention of any division race.

[Adger Smith]

Isn't that the group that closed the Memphis Motosports complex?

[John Kelley]

Originally Posted by Adger Smith

Isn't that the group that closed the Memphis Motosports complex?

It sure is the same outfit ! :-(

[Alan Roehrich]

Yes, it is. It is also the group that owns Nashville Superspeedway. When they closed Memphis, after NHRA moved the event back to August, they moved part of the NASCAR races to Nashville, and the rest to Gateway.

The guy who owns the majority of the company that owns Dover Motorsports Inc., Dover Downs Development Inc., has been trying to force the company out of race track ownership for the last half dozen years or more.

I'm waiting for the Nashville track to go belly up, they've never finished the drag strip, and there is no local weekly circle track program, either.

[Geerhead55]

Damned corporate SOBs,,,,which track will they close next?
Long live Memphis,,,only went there once,but was impressed by the place.
Danny Durham

[Rob Petrie E395]

I cant remember the names but the guy who wants all the tracks sold off runs a investment company and is NOT the majority share holder he does own and manage quite a few shares but he does not have controll of enough shares to dictate what path the company will take on his own. The majority shareholer runs a premier business school. Basically from what I have been told is the majority share holder owns enoughf to controll the company. The other guy wants to play Larry the liquidator make a little bit and get out but he does not and never will have control of the shares necessary to do so. So he pisses and moans about it all the time in memos and letters to the board. Hopefully Bret Kepner will see this thread and post all the details. Untill this year I had raced at Gateway in their point series for several years and really liked the place but I am afraid things might be heading the same direction as Memphis. Right now things are kind of bad for racing of all types at all levels. Might be a good time to say a little prayer for Gateway before another one bites the dust.

[Greg Hill]

This is just one more example of how corporate ownership of race tracks doesn't work. Compare Memphis which was closed to Bowling Green which is probably one of the most profitable race tracks in the country. Owner operators are the key to making these tracks successful. They spend their own money and have a vested interest in growing their business. At Bowling Green there is something going on all the time. Dallas and Clay realize that the more events they have the more money they make. At Memphis there was no regular program, they came to depend on test and tune Thursday night where they didn't have to do track prep or much of anything else except collect the $15 per car charge at the gate.

Race tracks can be successful if they are managed right and promoted. You would think St Louis which is a large market area without much if any competition should be profitable.

[W J]

Early week news reports here in the Boston area said that new track owner Bruton Smith is threatening to take away 1 of the 2 New Hampshire Speedway's Nascar Sprint Cup race dates away for the 2011 season.....New Hampshire is one of the few Nascar tracks still filling the grandstands for a cup race. The word is that this is all over a beef w/local law enforcement over costs during race weekends....Looks like the Bruton $$ squeeze is on up there as well.... WJ

[Alan Roehrich]

Rob may have better information than I do, I don't know for sure. My understanding, from several articles, and from some of the contractors who built the Nashville Superspeedway, is that Dover Downs Development owns the subsidiary, Dover Motorsports. One of the major shareholders of the parent company, who, by himself cannot force decisions, but wields a great deal of power, wants the motorsports (track owning) part of the business gone. He cannot force that issue entirely by himself, but he can make things very difficult for the motorsports business.

If you think about it, a guy in that position who wanted rid of the tracks could make it nearly impossible to keep a track truly profitable, especially if the track was in a difficult market and/or situation. Hence it was possible to shutter Memphis, even if it didn't sell. It's not hard to see that the same thing could be ahead for Gateway, and probably Nashville.

They've never finished any of the other parts of the Nashville complex, the preliminary work is there for a drag strip, and other circle tracks. The old Nashville track downtown is in the process of being shut down, if it isn't already closed. The original plan had the superspeedway picking up the weekly local program, but they didn't close the old track. There has been no mention of the superspeedway getting the weekly local program going.

So I think any Dover Motorsports track that isn't thriving is in serious jeopardy, even more than another track in the same economic position would be.