The Rock... Going... Going... GONE!

Steve Coleman · **Joined:** Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:50 pm **Posts:** 188

Well... they're auctioning off Rockingham... probably as I type... I sure hope Andy Hillenburg gets it, so it'll stay an open race track... the other known bidders are Blackwater who ain't even likely to rent it out, and some idiot golf course developer, can't imagine how that's gonna work unless he's getting the land especially cheap including the demo costs, and even then it's a piece of crap for a golf course, with little or no trees... then again maybe it's for a miniature or three hole deal inside the track... yeah, that's the ticket... driving lil white balls AND cars in the same venue... you hit yer ball then race down to the next tee... ;)

OTOH ya'll have got yer nickels and dimes together and are matching them turkeys at every turn, right... I wish... :(

Steve 'who'd gonna hate to see 'is handy work and best ever memories get thrashed... :( ' Coleman

PS: The B*st*rds... a pox on all they grubby arses... don't ask me how I REALLY feel...

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:28 pm

Sold!

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:34 pm

Seems like damn good news to me!!!

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Tue Oct 02, 2007 2:34 pm

Quote:

The auction attracted about 100 people, but there were few bidders.

guess I set my max bid too low on ebay.

Jeff_B_Bailey · **Posted:** Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:07 pm

The following was posted on WRAL.com

Rockingham — The owner of a high-performance driving school in Charlotte submitted the winning bid Tuesday – $4 million – for the nearly abandoned North Carolina Speedway.

Andy Hillenburg, who competed in 16 NASCAR races, finished 28th in Indianaolis 500 in 2000. His bid was one of fewer than 10 submitted.

Hillenburg is trying to bring lower-tier NASCAR races to the track known as The Rock, which NASCAR abandoned in February 2004.

"We'll definitely have racing here," Hillenburg said. "We'll have some driving schools. We'll have some movies and commericials, and have a few legends races and hopefully be an important part of the community. And that's the thing. I want to be a part of it. I want to be a part of this community. I love this sport a lot, and I want to make a difference."

Hillenburg plans to move his family to Rockingham from Charlotte.

The speedway was put up for auction by Speedway Motorsports Inc., whose chairman is Bruton Smith. Speedway Motorsports owns tracks in Concord; Atlanta; Fort Worth, Texas; Bristol, Tenn.; Las Vegas; and Sonoma, Calif.

"Today is a win for Rockingham. No question about it," said Rockingham Mayor Gene McLaurin. "It's a win for this community. And I'll tell you what else. It's a win for race fans, too."

Ryan Holton · **Posted:** Tue Oct 02, 2007 6:54 pm

Sirius Satelite interview with new owner Andy Hillenburg

http://www.mcmmotorsports.com/hillenburg.mp3

Apparently he can afford a 4 million dollar track but not a good cell phone.

Graham Jagger · **Joined:** Fri Aug 29, 2003 12:53 am **Posts:** 1718

He owns FastTrack Racing. http://www.fasttrackracing.com/
So when he talks about a driving school he's referring to that I believe. Since he is paying rent to run it Lowes and Atlanta Speedway. This would save him a ton on track costs alone just to run his school.

Rob Lupella did this school at Lowes. He said it was a blast and way better bang for your buck than the Be Petty and other big name roundy-round boys deals.

Heck if he brought it to the rock I'd actually do a day if I could run the full track in a NASCAR prepped car.

It'll be interesting to see what he does with the infield. Short term he can probably make a few bucks renting the track for HPDE like today. Long term though if he wants to run an ARCA series. That infield is going to get torn up with all the trailers and pit crews... At least that's my guess...

Steve Coleman · **Joined:** Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:50 pm **Posts:** 188

Well Hot Damn! Some times things go right... sure am glad Hillenburg got it...

Steve 'who's admitting to being optimistic for a change' Coleman

Matthew Fortner · **Joined:** Sun Mar 21, 2004 12:21 am **Posts:** 384

No doubt the best realistic scenario for the track and the community. Some of the other interested parties were eyeing for the scrap belive it or not. Hopefully the tax assessor there will come to their senses and re-appraise the value post cup conditions.

Steve Coleman · **Joined:** Sun Nov 13, 2005 9:50 pm **Posts:** 188

Graham Jagger wrote:

It'll be interesting to see what he does with the infield. Short term he can probably make a few bucks renting the track for HPDE like today. Long term though if he wants to run an ARCA series. That infield is going to get torn up with all the trailers and pit crews... At least that's my guess...

If he's smart and it appears he is... he'll keep the infield course intact and kept up for numerous reasons I won't bother to go into...

As for tearing it up with race crews and their rigs, etc... NASCAR manged to keep from tearing it up over a 25 year period... and as far as I know there was a period when Penske owned it that it was essentially abandoned to be used for an access road and motor home parking... I was sure it'd be graded under never to be seen again... I was very surprised to find it had been kept pretty much intact through all those years...

If he needs more paved area it's easy to pave plenty of area and still leave the infield track, like they did at Charlotte T3... I will admit it's weird to drive at speed with all that pavement inside the turn like you're racing in a big parking lot, which I guess you are at the location...

Steve 'think I'll check in with Andy and see what's up 'is sleeve' Coleman

jimpastorius · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 9:53 am

With the removal of the back straight grandstands, maybe they will put in an opening and expand the road course outside of the track. Then there is no need to worry about that infield.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:11 am

What's the parking lot situation like there? - AB

MikeWhitney · **Joined:** Wed Aug 20, 2003 9:15 pm **Posts:** 4724

Aaron Buckley wrote:

What's the parking lot situation like there? - AB

Last time I was there, like 3 years ago, I scouted all the lota for autocross potential. There are a number of decent sized lots but the big problem is/was that there are 4' high RV hookup poles ALL over the place on every nice lot that I saw.

I think I remember about 3-4 lots of decent size, but they were all somewhat randomly placed, nothing contiguous/continuous. Would be worth looking into again though.

Marty Howard · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:18 am

and you may be able to request removal of some of those poles now.

Aaron Buckley · **Posted:** Wed Oct 03, 2007 10:19 am

MikeWhitney wrote:

Last time I was there, like 3 years ago, I scouted all the lota for autocross potential. There are a number of decent sized lots but the big problem is/was that there are 4' high RV hookup poles ALL over the place on every nice lot that I saw.

I think I remember about 3-4 lots of decent size, but they were all somewhat randomly placed, nothing contiguous/continuous. Would be worth looking into again though.

Interesting. I bet Hillenburg would like the idea of being able to sell out an unused lot or two on a weekend. Maybe the RV poles will go bye bye

I doubt it, but I agree, worth looking into. - AB

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