USA Today is reporting that Joe Lubeck, the managing partner at Palm Beach International Raceway in Florida purchased the former Memphis Motorsports Park at a public auction on Tuesday. The reported purchase price was a mere $1.9-million dollars, an amazing buy considering that price includes the whole property including both the circle track and drag strip.
There are a couple of connections with PBIR, the biggest is obviously Lubeck, but the other is Jason Rittenberry. Rittenberry was the former vice president of Memphis Motorsports Park and currently serves as the president and CEO of PBIR. It will be interesting to see if Rittenberry will have a role in the reopening of the track, which has been closed for a year.
Before the public auction, rumors had been swirling that the property had been purchased by all manner of people and organizations ranging from Arabian sheiks to the railroad, who were planning on bulldozing the facility to make a switching yard.
It seems insane to say, but with “only” $1.9M tied up in buying the facility and what will probably amount to another several hundred thousand to open it back up and staff it, there isn’t a massive debt cloud hanging over the place. By no means will this revival be a cake walk, though.
The track has lost and will most likely never get the NHRA national event it once hosted, back. Always one of the smaller races on the tour, the track is in an economically depressed area that has been hit hard by the country’s financial woes over the last few years. Hell, even the land value of the place is peanuts if it sold for less than two million dollars. The circle track was supposedly the major financial drain on the facility, so it will be interesting to see if the oval will play a role or if the strip will be primary focus to start with.
We’re glad it went to someone who will at least try to keep it a racing facility. We like trains, but the world doesn’t need another switching yard. We do need us some drag strips though!
Source — USA Today — Memphis Motorsports Park sells for $1.9M
