SPORTS

Mansfield Speedway news better than lousy for a change

Rob McCurdy
Reporter
  • Racing is expected to return to Mansfield Speedway for the first time since 2010.
  • Dale Blaney won the World of Outlaws sprint car race for the second straight year at Attica.
  • Wayne County Speedway’s races were rained our for the fourth time this year.
  • Super Summit takes over the drag strip in Norwalk Friday and Saturday.

MANSFIELD – For seven years, the news out of Mansfield Speedway has been lousy.

The drag strip never came close to completion due to money woes. A season that included a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race was canceled. Yet another season was canceled within weeks of its expected start. Sure, a couple of ARCA races and a stunt show were held over 2009 and 2010, but nothing since.

Tax problems forced it to go to sheriff’s sale in 2013 where it was bought by a guy with no racing background and continued to sit dormant.

Even when news was good, it’s turned bad.

Last fall much was made of the announcement that northern Ohio promoter Kevin Ruic was going to bring events back to the half-mile oval. Then for the third time since 2008, a season was called off before it started. Track owner Grant Milliron ended the agreement with Ruic after racist postings on Ruic’s Facebook page were revealed this spring.

Bad luck, bad management and bad decisions plagued the former Mansfield Motorsports Park since it was paved and reopened in 1999 after 40 years of operation as a dirt track. Don’t believe me? I’ve got a Word document eight pages long in a time-line format detailing the good and the bad since the late 1990s.

Still, when I found out late last week that for the fourth time since 2008 a racing season was announced, I took it as good news, despite all the aborted plans and big talk of the past.

A reputable group with skin in the game wants to bring six events to Mansfield. Good news, right?

I thought so, but Milliron didn’t want to comment on bringing the track back to life in the 11th hour, so chalk it up to yet another bizarre twist in Mansfield Speedway’s time line.

Regardless of Milliron’s weird no comment, it should be good news. K&B Promotions runs races for three series that tour the Buckeye state and also operates Sandusky Speedway. They were going to bring events to Mansfield in 2015 through Ruic, but now they’ll do so without the middle man and promote it themselves.

It’s not NASCAR. It’s not ARCA. It’s not the Hooters Pro Cup. It’s not vintage MMP when it was at its best 10 years ago.

The Main Event Racing Series for late models isn’t going to generate tourism dollars. The Midwest Supermodified Association is not attracting TV cameras and national audiences. The sprint cars and modifieds and front-wheel drives probably aren’t bringing budding racing stars or former big names to Mansfield.

But it’s something. It’s activity at a place that should always be active in the summer. It offers an alternative for area race fans. It’s somewhere families can go that are looking for something different to do in the area.

It might not move the needle like it did a decade ago, but it’s better than going to seed.

So unless it is canceled a fourth time, I’ll take it as news much better than lousy.

Blaney goes back-to-back

Northeast Ohio’s Dale Blaney repeated his $10,000 win at the Kistler Engines Classic, a stop for the sprint car stars of the World of Outlaws tour at Attica Raceway Park Friday night.

It was his 22nd career win at Attica and he’s the first to win back-to-back WOO features at the track since Steve Kinser in 1990 and 1991. Three of Blaney’s 10 wins with the series have come at ARP.

“To defend what I did last year makes it more special,” Blaney said in a release.

Blaney took the point off a restart and led the final 25 laps of the 40-lap main event.

In a late model support race, Ashland’s Ryan Markham outlasted Doug Drown’s bid for a pass in the last corner of the last lap to take the 25-lap feature.

Attica will hold a weekly racing card headlined by 410 sprints on Friday.

Rained out again

For the fourth time this season, Wayne County Speedway saw its racing card washed out due to the weather. The dirt track will try again this weekend with tractor and truck pulling at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Super show

The Super Summit outgrew its former location at the headquarters of Summit Racing Equipment in Tallmadge and the nearby Summit County Fairgrounds. This year it will be held Friday and Saturday at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk.

The 40th anniversary of the monster truck Bigfoot will be celebrated. There will be an autocross and cruise-in as well as a display of Traxxis radio-controlled cars for fans to operate.

“This event is almost like an open house,” Summit Racing Equipment events manager Jim Greenleaf. “We want to spend time with our customers and see what they have built with the products they have bought from us.”

Friday’s hours will go from 2 to 9 p.m. with Saturday’s action going from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Rob McCurdy covers motorsports at the News Journal and can be reached at rmccurdy@gannett.com or 419-521-7241. On Twitter follow @McMotorsport.