Fairgrounds signs new lease for race track

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Fairgrounds signs new lease for race track

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Monday, 25 January 2010 06:28

After years of disagreements with the manager of its historic race track, the board of the Tennessee State Fairgrounds has picked a new man to oversee the 2009 racing season.

Danny Denson, co-owner of Nashville-based Full Throttle Race Parts, signed a contract with the State Fair board this afternoon. The new lease, which runs through Dec. 31, will put an end to NA SCAR-sponsored racing at the track. Instead, the 2009 season will feature local and regional racing, with similar divisions and cars to NASCAR.

“This was an economic decision more than anything,” says Buck Dozier, executive director of the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. “We liked (Denson’s) proposal because it doesn’t include an automatic $90,000 guaranteed (from the fairgrounds to NASCAR). We want to see if local racing can work.”

Dozier says the contract includes a $40,000 up-front fee that gives Denson the right to run and manage the track.

Denson could not be reached for comment.

Joe Mattioli, a racing entrepreneur who also manages and owns tracks in Pennsylvania and Virginia, had leased the track for five years until Dec. 31, 2008.

Mattioli, who has said he invested about $1 million in track improvements over the years, fought for an extended 30-year lease to the track, arguing that a longer lease would allow him to make more long-range improvements to the aging track.

"We want to be the Super Bowl of short tracks in the country," Mattioli told the Business Journal in 2007.

When the Fair Board requested public proposals for new projects at the fairgrounds in 2008, Mattoli submitted a proposal to bring a Tennessee Motor Sports Hall of Fame, a NASCAR team, a minor league baseball stadium, indoor water park, a sports complex, retail center and race track renovation to the fairgrounds.

Other community proposals included two mixed-use developments, a media village with a film school and an entertainment complex. Dozier says the proposals are still being considered for the final development plan.

The car racing venue, one of the oldest short tracks in the United States, was established in 1904. The track, once known as the Fairgrounds Speedway, once filled the stands with between 12,000 and 15,000 fans for big national racing events.

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