Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Altamahaw, NC(September 30, 2011) — The racing business is an ever changing landscape, from the racers who come and go to the team owners who run out of money, to track owners who bow down to the pressure of making a facility work.
Racing in any facet isn’t an easy business. Racers are constantly having to improve their skills, testing has become more of must now than ever with even professional level short trackers like four-time NASCAR National Champion, Philip Morris. Racers also have to face a world of changing rules at tracks around the country, from changes to the rules with the car that the teams have to face every year to having to do double file restarts, cone restarts and whatever else is thrown at them.
To the same end, track owners and promoters, general managers or whatever they’re called these days have just as many things to face and sometimes they have way more to face than any racer. In this region there’s tracks that have had a black cloud over them for years, seemingly everyone is waiting for the other shoe to drop and the place to close. Tri-County Motor Speedway’s closing came as no surprise to no one … the facility has fought the county for years and this year with an unbearable economy, the county won the battle and the gates closed for weekly competition after just two races.
Seeing Tri-County Motor Speedway go down early in what every track owner, promoter and general manager knew would be a tough season, had to be like warning sign for what might come their way as well. In this region we’ve got a great mix of tracks all with varying levels of crowds, car counts and such. One on end of the spectrum you have Bowman Gray Stadium, a money making machine that makes other tracks in the area look like they don’t even exist. On the other end you have tracks like Wake County Speedway and Myrtle Beach Speedway, two tracks that have struggled to even keep their gates open and have left area fans and drivers wondering when they would cease to exist.
In the middle you have a host of tracks like Motor Mile and South Boston Speedway, two tracks that haven’t seemed to be as affected by the economy as others. Then you have Caraway Speedway, a historic track that’s making a comeback, Ace Speedway, a track that has been resurrected under the direction of new management and you have Hickory Motor Speedway that despite a tough season has had the steady hand of Kevin Piercy to keep the track out of the toilet.
There many other tracks at many other levels, some struggling bad and others struggling, but maintaining. So far, Tri-County has been this regions only victim, but as the season heads to an end there’s another track that could be headed in the wrong direction. This track though, will come as somewhat a surprise as they’ve had two of their best seasons under the direction of a former racer, who has led the way in this region as the best promoter around.
Friday night tracks take the biggest hits, Friday is simply the toughest day to make work in all of racing. The bottom line is in this economy it’s exceptionally tough to make it and making it on Friday night is that much tougher. Tri-County was a great example and of the tracks we listed struggling, Wake County is another Friday night track that just hasn’t been able to get things together in this economy. Ace Speedway and Kingsport Speedway has been the lone examples of how Friday night tracks can not only make it, but they can thrive.
Kingsport seems to be safe under the direction of former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racer, Robert Pressley, not because of his former status, but because he did a good job of taking the previously shut down track and turning it around. Ace Speedway has been much of the same for the last two seasons under the direction of former Modified division track champion, Brad Allen. He’s turned the place around and made it one of the tracks that everyone wants to go to as a fan and as a racer. This season it’s also been one of the tracks most affected by rain and most affected by rain outs.
Tracks have a tough situation when it comes to weather, because many people don’t understand, but they don’t take in as much money on a rainy night and if they race they lose big time and if they don’t, they still lose. Employees still get paid, racers get in free the next week and it simply creates less revenue for the track to pay it’s bills. In this economy race tracks, just like every small business is hurting for every dollar and a rain out makes it that much worse.
Ace Speedway might be the next track to fall victim to the economy as financial problems are apparently taking it’s toll on the track according to sources. Ace even though it has been one of the most successful tracks on the surface has fought the financial issues for years especially under the ownership of Abraham Woidislawsky, the current owner of the track. Since he bought the track several years ago, they’ve been through several management changes and at times left the drivers worried about checks that weren’t good and wondering whether or not they would get paid.
However, since Brad Allen took over the track at the beginning of the 2010 season, those worries have been a thing of the past. Allen has changed the direction of the track and the entire philosophy of how things are done. Not only are drivers now paid in cash, extra money has been offered for bigger races in many of the tracks divisions including a huge race for Late Model Stock Cars last November that put the track back on the map. But, Allen has also been out there working the drivers and working the crowd. Every week he gets out there and shakes the drivers hands, thanks them for coming to the track and then works the crowd to make sure the fans are happy or at least to offer a listening ear to any problems fans might have.
Allen has been the leader at Ace Speedway, that every track owner should wish for, but instead at Ace, he’s had to deal with an owner that doesn’t come to the track, doesn’t understand the problems they’ve had this season with weather and simply doesn’t get him the tools he needs to make Ace as successful as it could be. Allen has faced this adversity for the last two seasons, but according to sources it seems as if the best promoter and general manager the track has ever had might be out the door and the track may be shutting down.
Allen has recently had several rounds with the track owner over finances according to sources and it’s coming to a head as bills are past due and the track has only a couple of races left to make enough money to stay afloat. Ace Speedway having problems isn’t anything new, but since the track has been under the direction of Allen it seemed as if the issues were gone or at least taken care of, but without being the owner himself, he’s at the end of his rope.
Sources close to the situation at Ace expect Allen to make the announcement to drivers later tonight in the final regular season race of the year that he will be leaving the track barring a miracle or a new owner. We have also learned that the SouthEast Limited Late Model Series race next Saturday night, October 8th will likely be the last race of the season with the big end of year Late Model Stock Car race in November likely being cancelled.
Ace fans don’t deserved this, Brad Allen doesn’t deserve this, but we’ve all seen how things go when a track here in this region of the south has an absent owner, who is from the North. Tri-County is a great example of that and Ace looks to become the latest example of how that scenario just doesn’t work. It’s an unfortunate turn of events, but Brad Allen and the fans, racers and supporters of Ace Speedway can hang there head high as the last two seasons have been what other tracks dream about.
Hopefully before tonights race, the owner will step up and make things right in Altamahaw or maybe there’s someone ready to step in and buy the track and let Allen take it to the level we’ve already seen that he can and this without much financial help from the owner. If somehow, Allen slips through the cracks at Ace it will be the worst thing to happen to the track in a long time as there’s not many promoters/general managers that could step in there and do half as good as he has.
And, hopefully October 8, 2011 doesn’t also signify the end of Ace Speedway …. there’s nothing worse than a closed race track, just ask the racers around Southern National Speedway. Hopefully things will change soon and everyone will know that miracles can still happen.
