Benton track closes in wake of race flop

Saturday nights have gone dark at Auto Tire and Parts NAPA RacePark in Benton, Mo.

Cars stopped running on the oval dirt track sometime back in May.

Doug Friese, one of the track's investors, said racing may return sometime -- perhaps by the end of the year -- but the RacePark's relationship with Dirt Track Promotions ended in just a matter of months.

Ruth Myers, who operated Dirt Track Promotions with her husband, Stan, said the track was failing to draw crowds to make the venture profitable.

"We knew it would be a struggle," Myers said. "Every week we were paying drivers out of our own pocket. The biggest crowd we had was 200-some-odd people for demolition derby, and 200 people just don't pay the bills.

"We maybe had 400 people in the grandstand for Stacker2."

The Stacker2 Xtreme Dirtcar Series race on May 7 that was supposed to be the track's biggest draw instead may have been the biggest straw on the RacePark's back for this season.

Short on cash

The race called for a $42,800 purse, which was to be paid by Dirt Track Promotions. However, with a small crowd, Dirt Track paid less than $5,000. The Xtreme Dirtcar Series claims winner Don O'Neal, who was to receive $10,000, was given a check for $2,500 and two other local drivers who participated in the race were paid less than $1,000 apiece.

Doug Bland, president of the Stacker2 Xtreme Dirtcar Series, paid the remainder of the purse to the series drivers and plans to take legal action to recover that money. He said he had been advised to bring his legal action against both the company that leases the property and the owner of the property. Bland said what took place May 8 in Benton was unprecedented.

"We've never had someone refuse to pay and tell us to 'get the "f" off our property,'" Bland said last Friday in a phone interview from his office in Shelby, N.C. "Never in the 15-year history of our company. I'm glad I wasn't there."

In addition to the purse, Bland said his company hopes to recover a $6,500 appearance and incentive fee that is split among the circuit's top 15 drivers who show up to race as well as a $4,000 fee paid to the Stacker2 Xtreme Dirtcar Series as the sanctioning body.

Myers said Stacker2 did not assist with race promotions as she expected and that the series took its models and promotional trailer to LaSalle, Ill., for the May 8 event there.

"He had told us they would do promotionals and things early in the week," Myers said. "None of this was in writing; this was just verbal. They told us a lot of stuff they'd bring with them to promote the race. They guaranteed us 2,500 people in the stands, and if we had that we probably wouldn't have had a problem. We were left holding the short end of the stick."

Myers admitted Dirt Track could not afford to pay out the purse. She believed it was better to be honest with the drivers and pay what it could afford rather than writing bad checks.

"We didn't pay Doug Bland; we felt they didn't do what they were supposed to do," she said. "We only paid what we could pay. We paid O'Neal, not all that he was supposed to get but most of it."

"It was just a bad situation. We should've just canceled the race right there. We still would have had to pay the show-up money but that might have worked out better. We just didn't give much consideration to canceling until after the fact."

Joey Mack, a racer based in Benton who normally drives on the Mid America Racing Series, participated in the Stacker2 feature and took home a check for $700 from Stan Myers.

"I was one of the last ones to leave," Mack said. "I took the check and went to his bank and cashed it and took the money to my bank and deposited it.

"I've seen a lot of things at the race track but I've never seen anyone stand up and say they weren't going to pay. I've seen some bad checks before but I've never seen that."

An unsigned check may've been the first sign of trouble between Dirt Track Promotions and the Stacker2 series. Bland said that's what he received as a $2,000 deposit for the circuit's appearance in Benton.

"We asked them to sign it and they never did," said Bland, who added that O'Neal never cashed his $2,500 check based on advice Bland received from his attorney.

An article dated May 12 on the series' Web site said Bland paid all the drivers and promised legal action. "Absolutely 100 percent," he is quoted as saying. He reiterated his plans for a lawsuit in Chris Econamaki's column in the May 26 edition of National Speed Sport News and told the Southeast Missourian last week that the action would be filed soon.

"Basically, I was the one who had to pay all the bills for the race," Bland said last week. "These are professional racers."

He said the company lived up to its end of the contract with Dirt Track. He said he would provide a copy of the contract via e-mail but it had not been received as of Tuesday.

"We have 30 or so races every year, and they wouldn't keep having them if they didn't make money," Bland said. "You just can't open the doors and expect people to come. We can bring the show to town, but we can't do everything for them."

Friese said the investors had been contacted by Stacker2 for information about Dirt Track Promotions. He does not expect the investors to be part of any lawsuit.

"We didn't see the contract they had with Stacker2," Friese said. "We didn't have any decision-making with the Stacker2 race. It's not on us."

Friese said similar events have worked before at the RacePark. He said in the years when the investment group promoted races after purchasing the track in 2000, events offering purses of up to $38,000 with the World of Outlaws circuit were profitable.

"Every big show we had was successful; we made a profit," Friese said. "Why this one wasn't, I'm not sure. It was on Friday, and I think that possibly affected the crowd."

Myers wasn't certain why the track hadn't been able to get traction with racing fans this season. The relationship between Dirt Track and the RacePark ownership group, she said, "was not a good business relationship." She said some drivers had left Benton track due to the roughness of the track, and that Dirt Track -- which tried to reduce expenses by getting the help of family and friends for maintenance -- had to utilize some of its own equipment for upkeep.

As for the future of the track, "Right now, I don't know where it's going to go."

Added Mack, who watched races at the track in his younger days and often races at Poplar Bluff when the MARS series is on break: "It was a good racetrack in its day. There are too many in the area on a Saturday night. You can take your pick and go to any one of five or six tracks within two hours.

"That track is definitely hard to race on. It's hard on cars and equipment. Something major is going to have to change."

Friese said a promoter with a solid commitment can make it work. He said the investors have had some discussions and hope to identify a new promoter to bring back racing. Friese said the success of Jimmy French in building the popularity of the RacePark's drag racing cards on Friday and Sunday show the facility can be successful.

"It's a great facility as far as dirt racetracks," Friese said. "It needs someone to go in and be consistent on what kind of classes are going to run, to make sure the races go off good, that they're entertaining and have good public relations with the drivers and the crowd.

"It has a great location -- two miles off the interstate. It's just a matter of getting the right person who can be there for the long haul and build the confidence of the racers and the fans."