Bid to save North Wilkesboro Speedway
The campaign has produced posters and wallpapers to support its efforts.
Campaigners are hoping to return racing to the North Wilkesboro Speedway by buying back the former NASCAR track from its current owners, Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre.
A group calling itself Save the Speedway, which wants to bring racing back to the 0.625-mile oval, closed an online petition last week after gathering 4,582 signatures backing their effort. Among those signing the petition was NASCAR star Kenny Wallace, while representatives of almost all 50 states were contained among the signatures.
Bruton Smith told The Associated Press that he and Bahre, who owns New Hampshire Speedway, have set a price of $12 million for the property.
Smith, who owns Lowe's Motor Speedway outside Charlotte and several other tracks through his Speedway Motorsports company, said he has offered to spend $1 million on improvements to the property as part of any sale. He said he also told the county he and Bahre will accept payment in tax-free bonds in lieu of cash.
"One of my managers has talked to (the county) a couple times" about the bonding idea, Smith said. "They thought it was a great idea."
The group putting their heads and wallets together to try and take up the offer is spearheaded by Robert Marsden, Mike Kuver, Steven Wilson, Jerry Sink, and Todd Knaperek.
If Save the Speedway is successful in purchasing the facility, top of the list of 'things to do' will be grandstand repairs and a complete resurfacing of the track. Local county officials have recently expressed an interest in hooking up public utilities, namely water and sewer concerns.
Major sponsors also appear very interested in reviving the historic facility. Area residents and more importantly, area business' would welcome with open arms a chance to recapture some economic improvements since the track closed in 1996.
Besides being a racing facility, other plans for the 110-acre site include area concerts, swap meets, shows of various kinds, driver education and high-performance driving schools, police and military training site along with private team testing.
Racing ceased at North Wilkesboro after the 1996 season, when the 40,000 seat facility was deemed to be too small for the expanding NASCAR crowds. The Save the Speedway a group is determined to resurrect the race track to a weekly competitive facility and says the seating would be ample for many other series.
Despite being effectively mothballed, track and its surroundings have been surprising well-kept and used on occasion by NASCAR teams for testing, most recently by Jack Roush in an effort to select next year's truck drivers.
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