Memphis Motorsports Park remains 'business as usual'
The recent announcement of the sale of Memphis Motorsports Park to Gulf Coast Entertainment has prompted speculation that the Memphis facility could eventually lose its NASCAR Nationwide and Camping World Truck series races to Alabama Motorsports Park, which is being built by Gulf Coast.
But MMP Vice President and General Manager Jason Rittenberry said he isn’t worried about that possibility, at least right now.
Construction on the Alabama facility, which includes a .7-mile oval being built near Mobile, has yet to begin and isn’t scheduled to be finished until 2011.
“We’re not worried about it today,” Rittenberry said in a telephone interview. “The time may come when we need to worry about it. They haven’t broken ground yet. I know right now, for the short term and for the forseeable near future, we’re going to continue operating races just like we have and we’ll continue running all our NASCAR events, plus all our drag race and road-course events.
“If the time comes and we need to worry about that, then we may. But right now, we’re not concerned with losing any dates or changing dates or moving venues or moving facilities. All the information we’re receiving, as of today, from the new ownership group is business as usual. I guess when the time comes – 2011, 2012, whenever that may be – when they get that facility open, then we’ll have to look at the options at that time.
“But we’re hoping even when that time comes, that we’ll just be part of a two-track family and will continue operating both.”
Gulf Coast Entertainment announced Friday it had entered into an agreement with Dover Motorsports to purchase the Memphis facility for $10 million. Dover would continue to operate MMP as part of the deal and both the Nationwide and Truck races in 2009 would be run as scheduled.
Rittenberry said he would continue to report to Dover Motorsports officials, just as he has for the last eight years. Dover also owns and operates Dover International Speedway, Gateway International Raceway and Nashville Superspeedway.
None of those tracks were included in the deal. Rittenberry said intial talks of the Memphis sale began in 2007 and were recently completed. Rittenberry and his staff were told of the sale last week and no personnel changes are planned.
“From all the information I got, that’s the way it will continue, at least for the short term,” Rittenberry said. “I will continue to report to Dover, just like I have for eight years now. It’s just that Dover will be managing the facility for someone else. Instead of our shareholders.”
Rittenberry pointed out that the new facility in Alabama doesn’t included a dragstrip, which Memphis has.
“We can’t move all of our events, even if they wanted to move every event in Memphis there, it’s just not a possibility without a dragstrip,” Rittenberry said. “Regardless of what happens in the future, I still feel there’s a viable option for Memphis to thrive and this facility to continue operating as it has for the last 10 years since Dover’s owned it.”
