This just in..Joe Lubeck (savior of Moroso, uh, I mean PBIR) buys Memphis Motorsports Park.

Sent to me on Facebook from the girl in my GT6 photo (who still lives in Memphis)..

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2010/dec/14/independent-investor-joe-lubeck-bids-nearly-19m-me/

But do you really ever want to go race in Memphis? Oh, wait, you know a girl there.

Racing in Memphis is better than not racing at all......

Glad to hear it, hopefully they'll get racing to return soon.

I first got into motorsports there at the road course with the SCCA as a sound control official and occasional crew member for a friend. Now that I live in SC and have been to other tracks like Road Atlanta, I know that MMP may not offer as much as other locations, but it will always be my home track.

Racing in Memphis > Walking in Memphis

So, can they expect $400 entry fees for a SCCA regional race there too now?

Good news. Now who's gonna buy Gateway in St. Louis?

fastmiata wrote: But do you really ever want to go race in Memphis? Oh, wait, you know a girl there.

Yeah, a now happily married girl. (sigh) But still I'm a fan of race tracks staying race tracks. When they removed "The Dip" at Road Atlanta, I was one of those saying, "..hey, whatever keeps it a racetrack instead of a housing development.." In the case of MMP, I was afraid that since Dover owned it, Bruton Smith's group would buy it, fix the oval and the dragstrip, and use the road course for RV parking during the NASCAR minor-league races they'd have.

btrostelsc, an old racing buddy's son (father & son actually run the VW shop I take the little monsters to when the problem's too big for me to fix m'self) here in Atlanta Metro had his first Drivers' School at Memphis. Even all the way out here, he feels about the place the same way you do.

racerfink wrote: So, can they expect $400 entry fees for a SCCA regional race there too now?

$400?!?! For a Regional?? I'll admit that I haven't paid an entry fee for 15yrs or so now (and expected it to be higher these days), but really? Four Hundred dollars?

Holy cow. When he gave the place (PBIR) it's original name back, I thought he was one of us with a bunch of money to spend. I thought he was just soaking the "motorsports country club" exotic street car folks for the repaving bill, and leaving everything else pretty much the same for real racing. This is interesting news.

IF MMP gets run like PBIR, expect it to go nowhere.

As for Gateway, it is probably doomed to be an office park. The whole place is sitting on LEASED land, and the lease wasn't renewed. But then again, the track has to be OPEN to make $. This past year, I believe it was closed more then it was open due to the weather that NEVER happened or no effort seemed to be put forth to open the gates when it did rain.

Brian

Dover ran the three tracks using the same staff so they moved constantly between Memphis, Nashville and St Louis. They all went downhill and it is interesting to me that Nashville is the survivor. It will be also interesting to see how long Nashville lasts.
I spent three long years in Memphis and other than good music and good bar-b-que, there is no reason to ever go there.

fastmiata wrote: I spent three long years in Memphis and other than good music and good bar-b-que, there is no reason to ever go there.

You've got a point, but during the early 1980s, I lived in Starkville, MS. We would run the four hours up to Memphis most weekends just for the music. And the BBQ..

Yeah, but you lived in Mississippi. Think about it. The Ole Miss students all came up to Memphis to drink and party at Silky's on the Square too.

fastmiata wrote: Yeah, but you lived in Mississippi. Think about it. The Ole Miss students all came up to Memphis to drink and party at Silky's on the Square too.

ROFL! Yeah, the preppies up in Oxford would do that. You could find me & my crowd at the Antenna. It closed in 95..but there's another bar in the building nowdays. It's called "Nocturnal", and still has live music. They actually participated in the Antenna Reunion last summer.

http://www.memphisflyer.com/memphis/the-antenna-club-redux/Content?oid=1590578

fastmiata wrote: It will be also interesting to see how long Nashville lasts.

Don't say that. Nashville is my home track now!

Yeah, they started out around $300 for a regional, and hardly got any takers. So, of course, their answer was to raise entry fees to make up for the lack of entries.

Ranger50 wrote: As for Gateway, it is probably doomed to be an office park.

Nobody runs offices out of East St. Louis. It'll be more landfill or a strip club.

alex wrote:

Ranger50 wrote: As for Gateway, it is probably doomed to be an office park.

Nobody runs offices out of East St. Louis. It'll be more landfill or a strip club.

I was trying to be optimisitic for such a poophole area.

alex wrote:

Ranger50 wrote: As for Gateway, it is probably doomed to be an office park.

Nobody runs offices out of East St. Louis. It'll be more landfill or a strip club.

Maybe it'll just be left alone until the world gets better? Hey, it worked for VIR, right? (where's the "hopeful" smiley?)

racerfink wrote: Yeah, they started out around $300 for a regional, and hardly got any takers. So, of course, their answer was to raise entry fees to make up for the lack of entries.

Ouch. I can't see the SCCA guys (except for the nostalgic ones) paying that much. Hell, I'm old enough to remember when the place was called "Palm Beach International" the first time (I was a kid when Moroso Co. bought it), and even I would skip that one. Especially since it would be such a long tow for me (if I were still racing).

Also, most of the NASA guys I've met are young folks that don't give a BMW E36 about nostalgia, they just wanna race. I can't see NASA races being a source of profit, either. Don't see how Lubeck's gonna get the Vintage guys interested, either..they have the dough to pay entry fees like that, but it's not like the place has enough history (in anything other than club racing) to interest them when Sebring & Daytona is so close.

All of a sudden, I'm not so stoked that this is the guy who bought MMP.

Brian Redman's Targa 66 group seems to do very well there. But then again, it's a bunch of doctors, lawyers, and land developers in their Porsche's and Ferrari's for a track day with Brian Redman, so they don't balk at that kind of money.

racerfink wrote: Brian Redman's Targa 66 group seems to do very well there. But then again, it's a bunch of doctors, lawyers, and land developers in their Porsche's and Ferrari's for a track day with Brian Redman, so they don't balk at that kind of money.

I'd forgotten Targa 66. Gotta say, though..I don't think they're paying that kind of money to run PBIR, they're paying it to "hang out" (as the kids say..) with Mr. Redman. Based upon the one time I met the man (worker party, Mitty at Rd.Atl. in the late 80s/early 90s), if I had the money, I'd do it too..