Rockingham Speedway sold

dpkimmel2001

dpkimmel2001

Team Owner
Joined
Apr 1, 2009
Messages
36,050
Points
1,033
Location
Western PA
Rockingham Speedway is sold at auction, future plans uncertain


The Rock is off the block.

Rockingham Speedway, located in Rockingham, North Carolina, has been sold at auction to a Florida-based holding company, according to the Richmond County Daily Journal.

A credit bid of $3 million submitted at a May 5 public auction by BK Rock Holdings, a limited liability company managed by Billy Silas, was accepted when no additional “upset” bids were received by Monday, according to the Daily Journal.



http://nascar.nbcsports.com/2016/05...ay-is-sold-at-auction-future-plans-uncertain/
 
I sure would have liked to have seen ISC or SMI as the high bidder on that track. Looks like all hope is lost at this point.
 
Wait a minute, Bill Silas previously co-owned the Rock with Andy Hillenburg. So he still maintains control of the speedway through BK Rock Holdings. Maybe the fat lady has not yet sung!
...and that reminds me, Bryan Silas just could of disappeared from the truck series at the beginning of last year with no mention of why the team folded. They had a couple good runs and I would have liked to see them with more funding.
 
I'm not holding my breath. I'll believe there's racing at the Rock when my butt is once again in the grandstands and the green drops, and not a second before. Not even ticket sales will convince me.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
I sure would have liked to have seen ISC or SMI as the high bidder on that track. Looks like all hope is lost at this point.
Click to expand...

dpkimmel2001 said:
I sure would have liked to have seen ISC or SMI as the high bidder on that track. Looks like all hope is lost at this point.
Click to expand...

That is exactly what I thought as Rockingham and Wilkeboro are part of Nascar history. IDK what use the track would have but with interest, attendance and viewership in X and Trucks very low it could be cost prohibitive for either series to race at the Rock.
 
This just shows how tone-deaf BF and NASCAR are. Can you imagine the amount of good will it would have generated from fans if France/ISC had stepped up here?
 
aunty dive said:
People don't step up to lose money.
Click to expand...

I don't think it's a guaranteed money-loser. A full weekend of racing with trucks/Xfinity coupled with weekly racing through lower NASCAR divisions, for example, might have kept the track out of the red. Perhaps you're right, but I think ISC could have given a try with relatively little risk.
 
I think the market in that general area is just too saturated for The Rock to ever really succeed again, as much as I'd like to see it do so. That said, I don't think a Truck standalone event is really being put in a position to succeed in. I don't think any Truck event could really do well as a standalone besides Eldora and Mosport. An Xfinity/Truck doubleheader could've been appealing.
 
29-4 said:
I don't think it's a guaranteed money-loser. A full weekend of racing with trucks/Xfinity coupled with weekly racing through lower NASCAR divisions, for example, might have kept the track out of the red. Perhaps you're right, but I think ISC could have given a try with relatively little risk.
Click to expand...
It isn't a risk. It's a guaranteed loser. The nostalgia factor lost steam at the ticket window when Hillenburg tried it.

Just bring in some big excavators, a couple of dozers and some trucks. Put everybody out of their misery.
 
Old 97 said:
Dammit!!!! Did anybody watch that video of Earhardt and Rudd on the Ricky thread??? That's the racing that made NASCAR big! Long gone now.
Click to expand...

times the are a-changing... :(
 
That place is a lost cause. The people around there will campaign for racing then not show up after a few of said races they wanted.
 
Stewart Fan said:
That place is a lost cause. The people around there will campaign for racing then not show up after a few of said races they wanted.
Click to expand...
The 2014 population of the "Greater Rockingham / Hamlet NC Statistical Metropolitan Area" (okay, I made that up) is less than 15,000. Even if they all showed up, it wouldn't keep the place open. Other tracks can get by with less than that for Truck or X race because they have an accompanying Cup race to draw much larger crowds on Sunday.
 
Maybe I'm missing something here...why would anybody but an eccentric ultra-rich guy (gal) pay $3M for a track with history but no races?

I would think you could get it for basically the going price of the land per acre.

Surely there is more to this story.
 
Racer1930 said:
Maybe I'm missing something here...why would anybody but an eccentric ultra-rich guy (gal) pay $3M for a track with history but no races?

I would think you could get it for basically the going price of the land per acre.

Surely there is more to this story.
Click to expand...
I guess the theory is to run lower-tier series races. Andy couldn't make a go of it doing that, but self-delusion is cheap.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
I guess the theory is to run lower-tier series races. Andy couldn't make a go of it doing that, but self-delusion is cheap.
Click to expand...

Yeah - I suppose - but wouldn't it take a ton of greenbacks just to get the thing into shape? People expect some quality for their seating/ticket. I remember p!ssing in a trough at a few local speedways - and it didn't bother me much (since I'm fairly well hung)...but this is 2016 :cheers:
 
Racer1930 said:
Yeah - I suppose - but wouldn't it take a ton of greenbacks just to get the thing into shape? ...
Click to expand...
I assume as much. The track itself produced terrific racing, but the surrounding facilities aren't up to what fans have come to expect for Truck or X races. I'm resigned to the track having seen its last race at anything near the level of the K&N series. The only way we'll see racing on that layout again is if someone builds it elsewhere or adapts an existing track. Since neither of those is in the foreseeable future...
 
I think the $3 million purchase price is Monopoly money, not Real money. The $3 million goes to the noteholder, and I believe Billy Silas is the noteholder, having previously bought the note from the bank. So the transaction removes the property from the Hillenberg/Silas partnership and places it with Silas alone. And Silas takes the $3 mil out of his left pocket and deposits it in his right pocket. What Silas paid to the bank for the note would be his Real Money purchase cost, and was probably deeply discounted from the face value of the loan. [All this could be wrong.]

I don't know what Silas' plans for the property are, but I doubt racing is in the plans because he has been down that road.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom