One of the more uplifting stories of the last two years has been the resurrection of North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina, unfortunately, the bottom just fell out of the “uplifting part”. Closed in 1996 when the track was sold to Bruton Smith and Bob Bahre (who formerly owned New Hampshire International Speedway) and the two promptly relocated the race dates to their respective tracks and closed the historic facility without so much as a second thought.
The place languished from 1996 to 2010 when a group called Speedway Associates gained control of the facility and managed to get it back into functional order and actually host races. They ran several events in 2010 and were planning on a full schedule in 2011 with a couple of major events that would really start to put the track back on the map. Those events will not take place and the oval will again sit dormant and silent, unless someone swoops in from the sky to once again attempt to operate North Wilkesboro Speedway.
The reason cited is pretty basic, Speedway Associates ran out of money. The track operators claim that their event schedule will produce good revenue and profit this year, but it takes cash to actually run an event ot realize that profit, and they apparently have none.
This second death may be more painful than the first, because there was lots of hope amongst the local community that the speedway would once again become a major part of their lives.
