Hold onto your hats, kids, we have good news for you! The track formerly known as Memphis Motorsports Park, now called Memphis International Raceway is alive once again. The track shut down after former parent company Dover Motorsports did not renew races with NASCAR or the NHRA at the facility in 2009. After sitting dormant for all of 2010, there is once again tire smoke rising from the water box on the strip, and stock cars making noise on the three-quarter mile oval that also sits on the grounds.
The track was brought back to life by the same guys that own and operate Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida. Jason Rittenberry, who is the President and CEO of PBIR was the former GM of the facility in Memphis and knows the market very well. In our opinion, his hands were tied by the upper eschelons of management at Dover in the final years of the facility. The parent company has continued to bleed money and recently announced that they would close their last remaining track outside of Dover Downs in Delaware.
Memphis is a spot that holds special history for lots of BangShifters as it became the epicenter of the Hot Rod Magazine Fastest Street Car Shootout for years, later hosted the Pump Gas Drags, and was a stop on Drag Week as well. As an NHRA national event facility the track was the premier drag plant in the mid-South and always seemed to draw strong crowds, even though temperatures were often oppressive for summer races. One year it was so hot the safety safari literally hosed down the track in an effort to cool it!
It is great to see a track re-open in these days of doom and gloom news. We sincerely hope that the racers and hot rodders of the Memphis area patronize the track and keep it vibrant and healthy for years to come. Rumors aboud about big events at the track in 2012. We’ll keep our ears open!
