THSCC Forums

A personal report, albeit a few weeks old:

About two years ago, having heard rumors of an alleged race track planned for the area north of East Spencer, bordered by I-85 and Old US Routes 70 and 29, that was to occupy the site and land of a recently shut down textile plant, I decided it was worth a look see... so I drove down from my Parents retirement home to check out the lay of the land...

I consulted a map of the local area and the info provided on the High Rock Raceway web site... this was back when the proposed track layout was one of Alan Wilson's concoctions... IOW it sucked... least wise IMO...

After making a 'lap' around the area of the site I came to the abandoned mill... pulled into the large empty parking lot... excepting an SUV parked near the structures... I was taking pictures and cruising around the lot when the SUV approached me and it was obvious the driver was curious as to intent...

It was Frank McGuire, the minority owner and real estate consultant.. I assured him I was harmless and was only interested as a racer and erstwhile track designer... we struck up a conversation... he basically filled me in on the story how the project came about... admitted neither he nor Risdon, who had purchased the mill and shorty thereafter shut it down, as happens to mills these days (without paying the employees their last two weeks pay FWiW...)... and that they had no clue about racing and race tracks, but a dream of creating a 'golf course' type facility w/ a race course as the center piece...

I left thinking 'Yeah... right... I heard that before....' Later on I followed the progress of the saga Risdon and McGuire where embarked on with numerous local political issues impeding their progress, but also had lots of support for anything to bring commerce to the area... it drug on and on over the next year or so, seemingly in limbo, but I saw a glimmer of hope, partially because of the numerous tracks that had been actually built over the past 10-15 years...

Sorta lost track... only an occasional 'pulse check'... then the forum picked it up and by that time real progress was being made as intermittent updates began to appear... a few months ago IIRC a more or less final plan was presented, fortunately sans Mr. Wilson's input as the original layout was a POS IMO... they then announced that construction had begun... well hot dang!

So July 1, on me way to Lowes (nee CMS) for a PCA DE which didn't start until 10am I thought I'd take another lap to see what progress had been made, expecting some prominent changes in the landscape to be visible from I-85... nope... well, it had to be visible from the ol mill site... so I headed that way expecting to see some major signs of activity to the east of US Routes 70 & 29... nothing... I then came to a mill, but hardly recognized it as it appeared too small from my memory and somehow things just didn't look right... I almost drove by thinking it was a different mill, but realized it had to be as it was the only one before the river... I turned around and pulled onto shoulder and all I see is a small logging type 'road' headed up and over a hill across from the mill, with what looked like a logging operation more than anything else from that vantage point... then I realized what it was about the mill that wasn't quite right... the majority of the mill's parking lot was filled with stumps and clearing debris, obviously from over the hill in the area of the site... frankly I expected more... the 'logging road' was closed with a cable and I didn't have the time or inclination to hike that far to see a trashed landscape, and had to get on down to Lowes (nee CMS) by then...

I then find out that even though they had obviously started 'construction' they had not yet received the blessings of the PTBs yet... so, for now, what we got is some cleared land and a parking lot full of debris...

'And that's the name of that tune'... for now... we can hope...

Steve 'who only believes tracks really exist when he pulls outta their pit road' Coleman

Sounds like they've done some logging and cleared some land- not exactly "construction" IMHO.


Just got this email (below) from Coco's TrackSchedule.com mailing list:

(I sure hope they're not in a pissing contest with VIR- I'm pretty sure this area can support 2 tracks like VIR and High Rock....)

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Sun, Jul 29, 2007
Special to the Salisbury Post

Raceway back on Spencer agenda
by Dave Risdon


SPENCER - We are happy to report that the Spencer Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA) is scheduled for to hear and vote upon High Rock Raceway's request for a conditional use permit to operate a Country Club Racetrack at its 200 acre property located at 2555 Highway 29 North in the Town of Spencer.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. [Thursday, August 2] in the Spencer Municipal Building board room.

We would like to invite all of our supporters to attend this meeting and demonstrate to the town of Spencer and the Zoning Board of Adjustment their overwhelming enthusiasm for High Rock Raceway. Your attendance at this meeting is important because we do anticipate opposition from Ann Brownlee and the Trading Ford Historic District Preservation Association and their lawyer, Darrell Fruth of the Greensboro law firm of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon, Humphrey & Leonard LLP.

Not a battlefield

Ms. Brownlee and her lawyer have made objections at prior Zoning Board of Adjustment hearings pertaining to High Rock regarding the details of our conditional use permit application, such as the proper labeling of buildings on the site plan.

They have focused on the details of the application in the hopes of stalling our efforts and deflating our will to move ahead with our project. With the help of our lawyers and site engineers, we have submitted an extremely well-detailed and complete conditional use permit application. Once our application is found to be sufficient, Ms. Brownlee and her lawyer will be left to make their arguments regarding the issues at hand.

Ms. Brownlee claims the proposed location of our racetrack is the heart of a Civil War battlefield. This is patently false, and as Ms. Brownlee knows, and as we have confirmed with well-recognized experts in the field, the Civil War skirmish to which she refers took place on the railroad trestles near (but not on) our property.

Ms. Brownlee is infamous for delaying projects in the Trading Ford area, including the planned construction of a new Interstate 85 bridge that was to cross the Yadkin River between Rowan and Davidson counties and would have replaced the existing bridge -which was built in 1955 and is now considered functionally obsolete. Because the bridge has not been replaced, Interstate 85 now dangerously funnels into two lanes on each side of its Yadkin River crossing, causing numerous traffic accidents. What was initially a $175 million budget to build a new Yadkin River bridge is now estimated at $350 million.

Who is Stephen Horton?

Ms. Brownlee does not own land adjacent to High Rock Raceway, and she is not a resident of the Town of Spencer. She has, however, demonstrated she will go to any extreme to delay or stop projects in or around the Trading Ford area. She has in the past admitted that she receives little in donations to fund her cause, yet somehow she has retained Mr. Fruth, who has stated publicly that he is being paid for his work on this matter. We understand that Mr. Stephen Horton of the Richmond, Va., office of McGuire Woods Consulting originally hired Mr. Fruth on behalf of Ms. Brownlee. Mr. Horton is a lobbyist with McGuire Woods and works on behalf of conservative causes in Virginia.

Mr. Horton, who to our knowledge has never demonstrated any interest or concern whatsoever for historical causes in North Carolina, has stated that he is working pro-bono on behalf of Ms. Brownlee. Mr. Horton, who was chief of staff for the Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, a Republican who served from 1998 to 2002. In Gilmore's administration, Horton worked with Joshua Lief, who served as Secretary of Commerce and is now general manager of Virginia International Raceway - High Rock's nearest potential competing venue to the north.

We move ahead

Despite any obstacles Ms. Brownlee, Mr. Fruth or Mr. Horton may attempt to throw in our way, we will move ahead with determination. We have in the past received the full support of Spencer aldermen and the Zoning Board of Adjustment. More than 1,300 individuals have signed the Support the High Rock Raceway petition, which you can find online at www.petitiononline.com/hrir and thousands visit our Web site - www.racehighrock.com - each month.

High Rock Raceway represents the redevelopment of an abandoned textile mill and new growth in an area that has been long neglected and direly needs economic stimulus. High Rock Raceway will help spark growth in the surrounding area, represents a significant increase in the tax base for the town of Spencer and will bring racing enthusiasts from throughout the United States and abroad to Spencer.
++++++++++++++++
Dave Risdon is the majority owner and developer of High Rock Raceway.

Do not reply to this message because it will not be delivered.
Please send your reply to my regular email address
coco@trackschedule.com

Welcome to last week...

http://www.thscc.com/phpBB/viewtopic.ph ... 5&start=26

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http://www.greywinds.com

FWIW...

The 'historic' site crapola has been going on since the git go...

I doubt that's going anywhere... as for the partners getting they sheeet to together, that's 'nother story...

OJTJM, ICBW...

Steve 'who ain't holding 'is breath' coleman

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Stacy King
Midlife Crisis Participant

So I wonder if 4 individuals could split a corporate membership without problems - it'd be pretty unusual for a single person to spend 60 days at the same track per year but pretty easy to spend 15...

After amortizing the initiation fee 15 track days would only be $50 per day! Including the initiation fee over the first 4 years would make each day cost about $783 but then presumably the initiation fee could be resold at least at par assuming the track is successful.

--Kevin H.

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2003 WRX (again!)

God luck Kevin... I can't see them letting you do anything like that, if they know about it and with whatever controls / ID they must use to allow folks get on track it wouldn't be hard to keep track... pun intended...

If however you're able to pull it off, let us know... I reckon if they get real hard up to sell 'shares' they might, but somehow it would seem to defeat their 'business plan'... and FWIW it's likely they'll be pretty persnickety about number of guests and the number or times one is allowed to come back each year...

Then again one never knows... sheeet happens...

OCTJMO, ICBW...

Steve 'who would like to afford just getting into the pits' Coleman