Brad Allen Becomes New General Manager at Southern National

Winston Salem, NC(January 16, 2013) — Well the writing was on the wall for some time, we just didn’t know where he would go. Brad Allen, the former general manager at Ace Speedway and the hottest commodity on the GM scene, will have a new home in 2013. That new home will be nearly 112 miles East at Southern National Motorsports Park.

We have all seen the trials and tribulations at Ace over the years since Philadelphia businessman Abraham Woidislawsky took over ownership of the track in 2006. After a revolving door of GM’s in the first four years, former racer Brad Allen took over the reins in 2010 with a “racer” approach and skyrocketed the track to the top of the region in a very short time after it had fallen to nearly fatal depths. But after pitfalls of trying to deal with an absent owner, Allen sent his resignation out in December, only to be contracted by the track again three days later for another month to help with the “transition” process and to ultimately work out a deal to stay at his home. But it just couldn’t be worked out.

“I tried all I could, my time here was up,” Allen said earlier today. “I gave everything I could give for the past three years. I went into this thing not knowing much but I wanted Ace to be the best track on the East Coast. That was my goal. But it got to a point where we were spinning our wheels. I made a list of conditions that needed to be addressed this off-season and those were not met. One of those conditions being that ownership change or having another partner come into the fold. We had some bites but nothing came to fruition. And, just having regular maintenance that hadn’t been performed at all in three years”.

One thing Allen is looking forward to at Southern National is the security of a race track that is growing and trying to become the premiere track on the East Coast as well as not having to look over every aspect of the place as he did at Ace. SNMP was the logical choice.

“I will finally get to do what a GM really does,” Allen expressed. “I will be head of the ship but I have a full staff already in place. Instead of tending to make sure the beer stand is stocked, or the drink and concessions are full, I can tend to what needs to be done from the General Manager aspect. I have Mike Bushee heading up the tech things so I won’t have to run back and forth and make decisions, he has that covered. With the direction that owners Jerry Brown and Mike Diaz have the track aiming towards, I’m excited as we take this whole thing to a new level. No more worrying what next week will bring, no more going from one rule book of a sanctioning body to the next, everything is by NASCAR rules and they have a great plan in place already.”

The biggest deciding factor for Allen’s move was the direction of Ace.

“I just didn’t know what Mr. Woidislawsky wants to do with the track, what direction he wants it to go, why he has it and what he intends to do with it,” Allen said. “At Southern National, I know what they want to do. It was my same vision at Ace, to have the greatest track in the country. They are there every week. That in itself is something I’ve not had in my previous endeavor. I now have people around me that know the business, they know what their track needs and I can bounce ideas off of them.

“Before it was all on me, I had to make important decisions at the moment, some of them good, some of them bad, but now we have a very experienced staff around me that can handle the track decisions in their respected areas. I want the track to grow and they have the same idea. We already have a schedule, numerous touring series and I want to do even more. I’d like to continue with David Sell in the ‘Mischa Sell Memorial Race’ for instance, the offer is out there to do that. We want this track to grow by leaps and bounds, it’s already at the pinnacle but we can always go further, that’s my goal here.”

Although he will be gone from his home track, Allen promises to help out his old place as much as he’s capable and wants to see the track do well. According to Woidislawsky, they have someone in place to take over the vacant GM position and they will be racing in 2013. Much more info than that is being tight lipped at this point. The upcoming rules meeting has been canceled which only makes sense in Allen’s explanation.

“I was going to have the rules meeting but with me not being there, I can’t just make rules and go out the door and leave that on someone else,” Allen explained. “I’ll be at the banquet but I can’t make any more decisions for them on what will happen as I won’t be the one to enforce them. It wouldn’t be fair to the next person. As for now, the only thing I can say is the 2012 rule book will be in effect. I want the place to prosper, it’s my home track. I will help out any way that doesn’t take away from my new venture, I would like to see all tracks prosper, It’s healthy for all racing all the way around.”

In the end it all came down to being logical. Allen had turned a sinking ship into a luxury cruiser at Ace, only to have entire seasons of work come to the bottom various times by single decisions not of his doing. Allen said it best earlier when he said, “It’s my track to run but it’s not my track”. The man can only do so much. In this new venture at SNMP with the backing of Mr. Brown and Mr. Diaz, Allen is excited to get going and looks forward to the new challenges of running a ‘pinnacle’ race track in the NASCAR weekly series. Just by my thinking though, after what he has done in the past three years, this will be a breath of fresh air for him and the people around him. I look for SNMP to have a huge 2013 season and into the future.