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USA Speedway Sold, Will Be Closed

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By TONY FABRIZIO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 1, 2008

Lakeland's USA International Speedway, best known for its Hooters USAR Pro Cup stock car races and as a NASCAR test track, has been sold to a developer and will be closed, operations manager Barry Williams confirmed Thursday.

Saturday night's second leg of the FASCAR Sunbelt Super Late Models Florida Triple Crown will be the speedway's final event.

"We've been trying - the fan participation is just not there," Williams said. "People just don't come and watch, and you can't run a facility without fans."

Track president Billy Martino didn't return a phone call immediately, but he told Tribune correspondent Gary Ardrey that an official announcement with details will come Monday. It's believed that an industrial park will be built on the site.

The track, which sits on a 47-acre tract, will auction off its inventory Aug. 9.

"We'll be auctioning everything from the dirt on the floor to the skybox," Williams said. "All the vehicles, the grandstands, the tower, everything."

Located off Exit 38 of Interstate 4, USA International opened as a five-eighths-mile track called Lakeland Interstate Speedway in 1970. NASCAR drivers Rick Wilson of Bartow and Joe Nemechek and the late John Nemechek of Lakeland raced at the track when they were coming up.

Martino, one of the track's early owners, preserved two slabs of cement the Nemechek brothers used for pit stalls.

In 1995, Martino sold the track to Hooters of America CEO Bob Brooks' company. Hooters rebuilt the track into its current .75-mile configuration with 14-degree banked turns.

A group headed by Tony Amoco of Clearwater bought the track in May 2007.

Since the track was reconfigured, USA International's niche has been special events and testing for NASCAR and other series. A regular weekly program like those run at most grassroots short tracks wasn't feasible.

"We're a three-quarter-mile, high-banked facility," Williams explained. "And we tried to maintain our position as a special-events track."

NASCAR limits the amount of testing teams can do at Sprint Cup tracks, so race teams commonly use nonsanctioned tracks to prepare for races. Almost all of NASCAR's top drivers have tested at Lakeland at one time or another before races at Richmond or Martinsville.

Reporter Tony Fabrizio can be reached at (813) 259-7994 or afabrizio@tampatrib.com.

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