Story submitted by Terry Whetstone
CLEARFIELD, PA – In a shocking decision made early Monday morning, Tim Bainey has cancelled the 2011 racing season at Central PA Speedway.
Due to a number of reasons, mainly physical damage caused by weather to the track surface and the facilities over the past few months, the Central PA Speedway will not be opening for the 2011 Season.
“I love dirt track racing, and I amvery proud of what we’ve been able to do in just a few years with the track, but some of these circumstances are beyond our control and have just made getting the speedway ready to go not possible at this time,” Dan Bainey, director of operations said.
“We hate to have had this all come up a month before our first scheduled event, but we wanted to make the decision as early as possible.”
The Bainey family has a lot of commitments at this time, and they’re being pulled in a number of directions with everything going on between their businesses. “We’ve had to make a tough decision,” Bainey said. “But with the unexpected problems, the time and attention it will take to remedy them, and our current situations – getting the Speedway ready to open is just not an option right now.”
He went on to say, “I’m not sure where we are going to go from here, we’ve considered selling the Speedway – but to find an interested and capable party in the next few months probablyisn’t going to happen. But we won’t rule it out.”
The winter weather has virtually destroyed the ultra-fast surface, to the point where asphalt is showing again. It was a terrible thing to have happen to such a great facility, and fans from near and far are devastated.
“I just can’t believe it,” said Justin Queen, local racer and fan. “I missed all of the shows there last year, but I figured, I could make up for that this season.”
Drivers had high hopes of not only turning laps on the historic speedway, but they also hoped to bring home one of the trademark Big Bear trophies.
“I know we’ve done a lot in the last three years to really take the Speedway to the next level, and this will be a little setback to that,” Bainey said. “But we will see what happens.”
“I can tell you we’ve had a few talks, but nothing serious yet. We are going to continue entertaining talks with interested parties and evaluating our options over the next few weeks andwill let fans know as soon as we have something put together.”
