Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]

Hudson, NC(April 13, 2011) — Some weeks in local short track racing very little breaking news happens during the season and sometimes it rolls.

This week is one of those weeks and as a race fan myself, the big news of this week in our racing region isn’t something we enjoy talking about. It was announced via the tracks website today that Tri-County Motor Speedway has ceased operation of their NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action as of today. However, General Manager, Dominick Casola insists that the track isn’t closing, but rather will continue to have events.

“We’re not closing,” said Casola when reached by phone today. “We’re just halting the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Friday night schedule.”

Casola was pointed in his comments as to why they have been forced to make this decision and put a halt to a season that looked promising.

“Our legal battle with Caldwell County put us at a detriment here with this facility,” explained Casola. “We’re only able to have cars on the track here two days a week and have to choose between Thursday, Friday and Saturday. We can’t test on the weekdays like pretty much every other short track does to generate revenue. We’re extremely limited as to what we can do.”

Casola said that the legal battle wasn’t ending by no means and that they weren’t going to back down, but just the scale back their plans and continue to fight the county to get things back up and rolling again.

“We never considered doing this at all, but the losses have been so great that we can’t continue to do things like they are now. I tried my very best to promote this track and to help make this place the best it could be. It’s hard when race tracks already face enough challenges and Caldwell County makes our job even harder.”

“Caldwell County is trying to chase us out when we’re a finanical boost for the county and the community, we’re practically the only attraction in Hudson. We provide jobs, help bring finances to the local businesses, the motels, grocery stores, gas stations and they want us shut down. It just doesn’t make sense, but I believe in the end we’ll beat them.”

Casola says that as soon as the legal battle is over and they’ve won, the track will immediately return to racing full-time.

“The racers, the race fans, no one deserves this to happen,” continued Casola. “We want to be running this and every Friday night, but we can’t do it the way that things are now. It was a financial decision and if we had been able to open during the week for testing and race when we want or need to, we could make this work.”

Casola is right for the local community of racers and race fans this is devastating news, it’s exactly what every in this industry has been fearing not just about Tri-County Motor Speedway, but the entire racing community.

“It’s not good for racing in general,” said UARA-STARS Series President, Kerry Bodenhamer. “Deals like this really devastate short track racing. In the first two months of racing season we’ve had Southside Speedway shut down for the season and now Tri-County all, but shuts down. It’s not good for any of us in the industry.”

Bodenhamer and his UARA-STARS Series has a stake in what happens with short tracks in the region with Tri-County Motor Speedway in particular at it’s part of the series schedule. He explains to us that the news is still a little fresh for him and doesn’t know what it means for his series.

“The track there has had a lot of problems through the years with the county, car counts, changes in management and other stuff. For us, this isn’t the kind of news we want to hear about any race track and as of right now we’re still planning to hold our race there this season, but I haven’t talked to the Casola family, so I will have to do that first.”

Bodenhamer knows first hand what it is like to lose a racetrack as he is from the greater Asheville, NC area where they lost their facility back in the 1990’s.

“I can tell you for sure that once you lose a racetrack, it’s gone. Once a racetrack closes, it’s out and it isn’t coming back. When Asheville closed there was all kinds of talk about building another one, but it’s not going to happen. I would hate to see that happen at Tri-County and maybe this is only a temporary situation and won’t be the closing of another track.”

Bodenhamer also hopes this isn’t something we’ll see more of this season.

“There’s a lot of tracks that are stuggling,” explained Bodenhamer. “Short tracks are just like small businesses and there’s not a small business owner anywhere who isn’t struggling right now with the economy the way it is. I just hope we don’t see more tracks close before the year is over. It’s a tough business right now.”

At Tri-County Motor Speedway, Casola says that he and his family are committed to the track, the racers, the fans and the community and won’t be shutting the track down.

“We’re committed to the track, our competitors, fans and sponsors. We want to race here every week, but right now we have to focus on fighting the county. It’s in a court of law right now and you never know how long that will take, but we’re fighting them to stay open.”

Local racers, fans and supporters of the track can help according to Casola by calling their the county commisioners and let them know that you want to see the track continue to operate.

“We can’t operate under the restrictions that the county has placed on us,” explained Casola. “The fans and racers have been loyal to us and my phone has rung a bunch of times today. The support is still here and I encourage everyone to call the county and let their voices be heard. This is a feeder to the Cup, Nationwide and Truck series and if short track racing goes away, so will big time racing.”

Casola said that plans are still a go for the UARA-STARS Series race, the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified race, the July 1st Late Model Stock Car race and other special events are in the works, but for now the Friday night NASCAR sanctioned races are halted.  He said to keep an eye on www.tricountymotorspeedway.com for additional changes or schedule additions.

For Tri-County Motor Speedway hopefully this is a temporary bump in the road, where the county left them with no choice, but to suspend Friday night short track racing at a great facility. This regions short track racing community can’t afford to lose another racetrack and I hope that this helps encourage race fans to get back out to their local track and help keep them ALL open.