Something is happening to local racing in Tennessee, and a lot of it isn’t good. Mind you, there are still a host of positive aspects to local racing, and Tennessee is no different than the rest of the country: local racing and local race tracks are hurting.
Here’s something to digest, in East Tennessee alone there are 10 tracks in the immediate surrounding area, lets say of 50 miles. Of those ten, two are asphalt and one is concrete, the rest are dirt, good ol’ Tennessee red clay. You can add into the mix, Corbin Kentucky, located just over the border, asphalt, and Cleveland Speedway near Chattanooga, a dirt track. Of those tracks, six have been sold to new owners and two are in foreclosure, just in the past year. The rest are operating weekly, and it would depend on who you talk to whether or not they are doing good business. I would venture to guess though, if you walked up to any of the owners and offered them close to the market value, you could own one of these tracks too. This just happened in Middle Tennessee at Highland Rim Speedway, long-time owners Ron and Pat Baucom sold their track in just two weeks, and really didn’t have it on the market.
So what’s the point to all this? With all the increased attention that NASCAR has brought to the sport of automobile racing, and the fans that stream to the big tracks, why is it so hard for weekly shows to survive? The answer seems simple enough, cost. Unfortunately, saying the answer is not as easy as creating one. Cost is out of control for the racers and tracks have not kept up with purses. But in the same breath, costs are out of control for the race track owner and the fan count doesn’t keep up with that inflation. So if all these costs are out of control, why can’t the racer, (the hobbyist), get together with the track owner, (the businessman)?
It’s a Catch-22 for all involved and I don’t think that anyone is working real hard at fixing any of it, the racer will keep adding money to his equipment and the track owners will continue to cry poverty, at least until they sell the property, a vicious circle. Unfortunately the ones that suffer are the die-hard fans that have stuck with local race tracks and the guys and girls that compete there.
‘Till next time, keep turning left. 

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