Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

Skip to main content
Newspapers.com by Ancestryprint logo
Free Trial
Sign in

AIR's Biggest Need: A Transfusion of Green (Part 2)

AIR Only Needs Cash Continued from Page 1-D has been some mismanagement at Atlanta." In January of 1971 U.S. District Judge Sydney O. Smith, acting on a petition presented him by Raceway officials, placed the 1½-mile super speedway under Chapter Ten Bankruptcy. He appointed Neal Batson, an Atlanta attorney, to oversee reorganization, and Batson later turned it over to Stacey Cotton. Several interests have offered to take over the track. The track was rescued once before, by the late Nelson Weaver of Birmingham, third president of AIR, but Weaver was an "absentee owner" who eschewed a year-around operating plan and made an appearance some eight weeks before each T. Jack Black, an Atlanta businessman, took over the presidency following Weaver's death in 1969 and initiated a merger with American Raceways, Inc. That flopped and a divorce ensued as debts mounted and bills went unpaid. Then the court stepped in. Last year the spring race drew 53,000-plus, the July race 28,000. Two years ago it was 35,000 and 17,500. This contrasted to the 80,000 and 45,000 of early years. "The track was undercapitalized from the beginning," says Hal Hamrick, a promoter on retainer from the court. "Then when it was hounded by rain for some 13 races, it could not recover. "And it did not do a selling job. I do not see the other major sports football, baseball, hockey and baseball--as competitors, but as added attractions. Fans make it a long weekend to see racing, football, baseball, Six Flags or what have you. "All racing people agree AIR is the most ideally located track in the country. It is three of four hours from the racing hotbeds of North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia and there are three interstates intersecting within a few miles. "The main thing wrong with AIR is that it has lacked a continuity of management. All successful tracks have a year around operation. You've got to work at it." Junior Johnson sees other faults. "Traffic," he says, "it's terrible. Takes you nine hours to get out of the infield. I think they built the grandstand on the wrong side. If they had built it on the backstretch, they would have two flows of traffic, one going on the backroads and the other on the expressway. People who want to get home get tired of that." The way racing tire dealer Gene White sees it, failure breeds failure. "All of those financial problems, tied in to management," he says, fected the image of AIR. And, lets' tale. it, there are more things to do in Atlanta than in Charlotte or Darlington. But I see the sport showing signs of revival here." The bucolic Johnson expresses the same thought in a different way. "The people, they're funny," he says. "They like to go somewhere it's successful and the track itself ain't at fault. I like it. It puts on a good show." Driver Larry Smith, not one of the big winners, insists he has nothing against the track, but he can't afford to race here. "I've demolished two cars there," he says, "and when I asked the track officials for help, they didn't even answer my letters. One car cost me $5.000, the other $7,000. I understand they've had problems with money, but the track about tapped me out." And driver Buddy Arrington, another face in the field, knocks the rough condition of the track itself. "No track in the country breaks a car up like Atlanta," he says, "and a race there makes it hard to meet the next two or three races on ruined suspensions. When I go to Atlanta I usually come home without money or a car." A sick track is like a sick person. One symptom leads to another. As Hamrick says, AIR was undercapitalized from the beginning. It needs a transfusion, a green transfusion. Most agree there is a place for auto racing on the Atlanta sports scene.
Article from 14 Feb 1973The Atlanta Constitution(Atlanta, GA)
•
CLIPPED BY
TheNASCARMaverick

Topics to Browse:

Get started searching Newspapers by searching a keyword, name, or phrase…

PeopleTopicsLocationsOther

More Clippings by tags, date and location

Loading

Loading

Loading

Loading

Trending Clippings

Loading

Loading

Loading

Loading

View All Clippings
[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2026 Movatter.jp