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Wednesday, Jul. 23, 2008

Fans might have to go to bat for AMS

The handwriting, as some like to say, may be on the wall for Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Within the past few months, Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns the track, in addition to a handful of others, has purchased Kentucky Speedway with plans of adding a Sprint Cup Series date to that track's schedule. In doing so, SMI CEO Bruton Smith likely will have to move a date from one of his own tracks to give Kentucky a Cup date.

If winds shift a certain direction, it could come at the expense of Atlanta Motor Speedway. If Atlanta loses one of its two dates, it would be a kick in the gut to the state, this area's racing soul and the economy, as well.

That's why the attendance at this fall's race weekend could be crucial to the track's future. With so much at stake for the state of Georgia, racing in the South and the economy boost Middle Georgia gets from fans traveling to the track, action must be taken.

Atlanta, like many tracks, has struggled with ticket sales in the past few years. If Atlanta cannot regularly sellout both of its weekends when a track like Kentucky is able to get closer to selling out its races, it would be a good financial decision to choose Kentucky over Atlanta.

But a very strong showing at the turnstiles in October would give Smith a reason to look somewhere other than Atlanta to find a race date for Kentucky. Smith has already indicated that he has no plans to take a race date away from recently purchased New Hampshire Motor Speedway, so that would force him to either move a race from one of his other tracks with two race dates per year or purchase another track such as Dover or Pocono in order to take Cup racing to Kentucky.

Racing fans in this area cannot make the mistake that a good number of residents in the Carolinas made when they took NASCAR granted and lost races in Rockingham, N.C., and Darlington, S.C.

Motivated in part by sagging ticket sales, NASCAR put profit ahead of tradition, moving both of Rockingham's races away to other tracks and taking one of Darlington's, meaning the venerable old South Carolina track lost the Southern 500 on Labor Day weekend.

In Darlington, however, local residents realized just how large of an economic impact just one race meant to their area. As a result, local fans have since woken up, with the track selling out its races the past four years.

Local fans of racing cannot afford to do the same thing if they enjoy seeing races two times a year within a short drive from many parts of Middle Georgia.

Brad Harrison can be reached at 744-4400 or bharrison@macon.com