ISC: No plans to move Martinsville, California races

By Bob Pockrass
Thursday, April 06, 2006
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JAMES RAPP / NASCAR SCENE

FORT WORTH, Texas -- International Speedway Corp. Chief Operating Officer John Saunders says the company has no plans to move any of its NASCAR Nextel Cup races from Martinsville Speedway and California Speedway.

Answering questions during a conference call with financial analysts to discuss the company's first-quarter financial results, Saunders today said that overall weekend attendance was down at California for February, but ISC remains bullish on the Los Angeles market. He said that the move of a race from North Carolina Speedway at Rockingham for a second California event beginning in 2004 has resulted in increased ticket sales and sponsorship revenues but has not met the company's expectations.

"While the Southwest is an underdeveloped region for NASCAR racing, we believe it is strategically important to have two major Cup weekends in the nation's second-largest media market," Saunders said. "As part of our long-term growth efforts. We are changing ticket pricing and packaging strategies, as well as adding amenities designed to enhance the fan experience.

"We remain confident in the long-term success of the California Speedway."

Martinsville is typically the subject of rumors about tracks that might lose a race because it has only 64,000 grandstand seats, about 5,000 more than Darlington, which has one race. All other ISC tracks that have two races have at least 75,000 seats, except the Watkins Glen road course. Martinsville is also located in Virginia, not far from Richmond International Raceway and Bristol Motor Speedway

"We have stated previously that realignment, which is a NASCAR initiative, is something that we're very interested in and that we would look in time to markets that are saturated, smaller markets and where we have opportunities to go to larger, underserved markets," Saunders said. "But having said all of that, there are no plans sitting here today to do anything with Martinsville's schedule in 2006, 2007 and no plans beyond that at this point"

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