Running Wide Open

North Wilkesboro Speedway sat dormant for nearly 14 years until this spring when a Georgia man leased the property from its owner, Speedway Motorsports. Now that company’s chairman says that the 62-year-old track may soon have a buyer.

“I have people coming in tomorrow who want to buy it,” Smith said during a telephone interview on Tuesday. “I’m not sure if they have money or not — if not, it’ll be a short meeting — but they’re very serious about it.”

Smith wouldn’t say who ‘they’ are. The meeting Wednesday is not with the man leasing the track, Charles Collins, though Collins says he wants to buy the track after his lease expires in August.

Collins’ tenure at the speedway started in March with the purpose of using the facility to film a women’s racing reality series. He also had plans for a tractor pull, concert and stock car race in May and June, but those events were canceled, reportedly because of a lack of sponsorship. Smith said that Collins’ original lease, which expired in May, did not include plans to host a race.

“I don’t know exactly what his plans are, but  he had the place leased for 90 days and had not been fortunate to get anything done,” Smith said. “It’s a shame, really, because I’d really like someone to do something up there and be successful.”

As to why Collins was granted an extension on his lease, “I guess he caught me at a weak moment,” Smith said.

Built in 1947, North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina hosted NASCAR races from 1949 until 1996. Smith and former New Hampshire Motor Speedway president Bob Bahre bought the track that year and closed it to move it’s two race dates to New Hampshire and Texas Motor Speedway. The track has sat, virtually mothballed, ever since.

On Tuesday, officials and instructors from the Buck Baker Racing School tested at the speedway to see if it was in good enough shape to host a class there. Collins said the test went well and that the school was “on board.”

A note on the Buck Baker Racing School Web site said, “We are going back to the historic North Wilkesboro Speedway,” and that schools at the track may begin as early as the end of June.