It has been kind of a crazy year for strips opening, closing, coming back from the dead, being offered up for sale, etc. We heard some not so good news from a Swedish BangShift reader yesterday when he tipped us off to the fact that one of Europe’s premier drag strips and the best track in the country of Sweden, Tierp Arena has filed for bankruptcy. The track was constructed a couple of years ago and it rivals anything you’d find at the premier drag racing facilities anywhere in the world. From huge grand stands to an amazing all concrete surface, the place is bad fast and home to many significant European drag racing records. We know guys (from the USA) who have visited the place and they all reported upon their return that it was one heck of a facility.
We’re not familiar with the local geography of the area but we’re hoping that it stays as a race track and is purchased by someone who wants to operate it as such and not turn it into some sort of housing development or apartment complex. From what we have been told, the place has been historically rainy and several big events have been lost or severely hampered due to weather. Our tipster sent us along this copied message board post from a local site that is about cars and racing. He attributed this to the man who was in charge of the construction and ultimately the management of the track. It reads:
“Well now it happened.
After three years of unpaid work and a lot of money invested, we have been forced to throw in the towel.Throughout the project we have struggled to get the final funding. But we were not able to get the bank with us to the end. This week they cancelled our granted credits.This meant that today we applied for bankruptcy.This affects businesses and individuals who supported and helped us and we feel very sad about that. We have tried as far as possible to avoid such a situation.
We want to thank all the racers and spectators you for supporting us over the years and hope that the plant lives on under new management.
Thanks for the support.”
The place is still pretty much new. Here’s to hoping a group of investors or a wealthy Swede steps up and buys the track, continues to operate it, and steers it toward profitability.
We’ll keep you posted on the story.
Here’s a link to a Swedish newspaper account of the bankruptcy filing
Being Swedish American…(a poor one) I truly hope it falls into the proper hands.
I’m also a poor Swedish American and hope that this isn’t the end for this track. (Hey wait a minute, I think I’m related to this Braktrcr guy. Hi Pops!)