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of the walls and getting everything out of the ground that’ s been there for 35 years. I’ m excited about that improvement.
All the concrete walls are done in the gravel trap. The poles are set. It’ s a new longer and wider gravel trap over what we did have. Larry Crispe is going to get the nets here and installed. We still have some debris fencing to build around it. But we’ ll have all those well before the national though.
At the turnoff, we are widening that about 12 foot to help with the turn radius and stacking on the sides.
The rest is more cosmetic. This is year one. We’ re trying to be careful on what all we do, and find out after year one, what’ s the priority after that. But there’ s only so much we can get done in the amount of time that we’ ve had. This winter has been hateful with the weather we’ ve had in February and late January.
JP: We kind of got thrown to the wolves in the offseason because it was early December when everything got figured out. We were already behind the eight-ball trying to do things. We’ ve got a major paving project that we’ re doing to support the nitro teams. We’ re looking to pave somewhere between seven and nine acres of property. That’ s
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a major overcoming. We’ ve got to get engineering drawings up. You’ ve got to get permits from the drainage things, and then you’ ve just got to line things up to get it done. And then we’ ve got to hope in the spring, come April, that we get the asphalt in a respectable time so we can get the paving done. But that’ s our biggest project, as far as what we need to do to host the national event.
DVH: Well, we’ ve owned the track for three and a half years, and there hasn’ t been a day that’ s gone by that we haven’ t done some type of renovation, all in an effort to make the facility capable of supporting larger events. And even the smaller events need to have nice
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bathrooms and need to have this, that, and the other. But the list is unbelievable.
The first thing that was done when we took over is there was some COVID grant money through a motorsports fund that had come from the state that enabled a brandnew concrete surface and a new timing system. We stepped into a lucky situation there that we were part of the submittal process, but it was approved prior to us taking over ownership. So that was also a big part of us being able to do it – the new concrete surface and new Accutime Timing System.
Then it was just constant renovations of RV spots, bathrooms, new
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concessions, a new bar, we acquired an alcohol license, renovated the tower, new roof, brand-new suite, new entranceway, new entrance building, some of the pit roads were redone. We added a bunch of lighting out in the parking area, redid a bunch of the track lighting, new striping of the lanes, striping of the parking lot, a bunch of new equipment. Nonstop renovation. There isn’ t a part of this facility that hasn’ t been touched and upgraded. A lot of stuff you don’ t see such as wiring, plumbing. They’ re out there working on stuff today. Speakers and PA system, it’ s all new. All the stuff that you’ d find at a track, literally every single part of it has been touched.
What do you hope this event accomplishes for your track, your fans, racers, community? RT: Aside from the economic impact that makes a huge difference to our local economy in Adel, Cecil, and Valdosta, we’ ve sold just in Lowndes County alone over 750 rooms. The fact that we’ re able to give back to our community by bringing these guests in from all over the world, but then also bring this type of excitement to our local fan base and bring this type of race to their backyard, you can’ t put a
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MODIFICATIONS TO THE SHUTDOWN AREA, AS PICTURED ABOVE AT MIR, WERE A COMMONALITY AMONG THE FOUR TRACKS HOSTING NEW NHRA NATIONAL EVENTS THIS SEASON DUE TO REQUIREMENTS FOR TOP FUEL AND FUNNY CAR RACING. |