New race track management has big plans for '03 season

Auto Tire and Parts Racepark will have new management for the next five years.

Owners of the track said Saturday that the 11-year-old facility in rural Scott County near Benton, Mo., has been leased to Jerry Wolsey of Cape Girardeau for a five-year term.

Wolsey will operate the facility as part of Jerry Wolsey Promotions LLC that includes his wife, Debra, and sons Jerry II and Jimmy.

Wolsey said Saturday he already has much of the 2003 season mapped out for the dirt oval track, part of a larger facility that includes a supercross-style motorcycle track and paved drag strip. Doug Friese, the majority owner of the facility, will continue to operate the supercross track and develop a new 1 1/2-mile motocross track and a smaller youth track. Jimmy French will continue to operate the drag strip, which he leased this year.

"When my partners and I bought the facility two years ago, our long-term goal was to turn it into a whole motorsports entertainment park," said Friese of Cape Girardeau "We've been fortunate to find the right people who are experts at what they do and let them have the opportunity to run parts of the facility."

Among Wolsey's immediate plans for the oval track are to address admission and concession costs. To increase attendance, Wolsey said he wants to reduce both.

"The fan base is the No. 1 area," Wolsey said. "This year the economic situation wasn't the best it could be. People were hanging on to every dollar they could. We want to adjust ourselves to the economic situation, make it affordable for a family to come out."

But besides a few changes in personnel and track rules and policies, no large-scale changes are on the horizon. The track will keep its name and continue to compete weekly on Saturdays. Sprints and cruiser classes will return. So will pure stocks, which now will compete with rules identical to Malden (Mo.) Speedway, along with modifieds, although that division will be sanctioned by the United Midwestern Promoters.

Wolsey said UMP became particularly appealing because of its pending sale to a group of investors that includes St. Louis native and Winston Cup racer Ken Schrader.

"Being aligned with UMP gives our local racers a chance to race for a national championship and national prize money," Wolsey said. "And since there are so many cars from St. Louis, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky that race by UMP rules, that gives us more to draw from."

Special events like truck and tractor pulls also could be added, along with special mid-week events for UMP-sanctioned late models.

Wolsey also owns SEMO Motor Speedway, a track near Blodgett, Mo., he purchased about a year ago. It will have 13 events next year for go-karts but will not be operated by Wolsey.

jhall@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 174