Bad News from out West
 

ABC Motorsports.com has posted thet The Martins have sold Manzi to a trucking company and it will close April 1st. What will now happen to the Westerns-Copper on Dirt? A very sad day for open wheel racing and the history of such a awesome race track.

Re: Bad News from out West
 

Unbelievable.

Re: Bad News from out West
 

http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/p...ost?id=3360238

Maybe they can take the profits from the sale a build a new speedway.:thumb But I doubt it.

Re: Bad News from out West MANZT SO;D!
 

:checkered:ITS IN ESCROW NOW IT LOOKS LIKE A DONE DEAL! THE LAND IS WORTH 10 MILLION! A HELL OF A LOT MORE THEN A RACE TRACK! TUCSON KICKED KEITH HALL OUT!!!!!!! CASA GRANDE HAS A LAW SUITE!!! SO YOU ONLY HAVE CANYON SPEEDWAY IN THE PHOENIX AREA! MAYBE FIREBIRD WILL BUILD A TRACK AGAIN OR A INDIAN CASINO BUILDS ONE?????? GOOD LUCK!!!!!!!!

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I'll only point out the April 1st schedualed sale date. I have no idea if its true or not.

Chuck

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what a bummer!

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April 11th is the last race.

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i am in complete shock. Just got off the phone with the track and they said the new owners have no interest in racing, or in keeping it a race track. I have spent my intire life at manzy and never thought i would see the day this would happen. Guess the only thing left now is to move to indy.haha

Re: Bad News from out West
 

WOW I went to this years Copper on Dirt and I fell in love with Manzy! I am in shock! I so wanted to come back and see it again. ***???


Kyle

Re: Bad News from out West
 

WOW:action-smiley-049:, I'm glad I made it out 2 years ago. Very cool track.

How about the Western World at Ventura :checkered:

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And that is why I say instead of ******** about it, you had better enjoy it while you can. Current history and past history are only seperated by mili-seconds.

Re: Bad News from out West
 

:crying:
R.I.P. old friend.
David.

Re: Bad News from out West
 

Never thought this day would ever be possible to happen!!....been goin to Manzanita from mid 70's....meeting good friend,Debbie/Husband with Dairy,at Races back then!!...Hi Deb,how's Atlanta??...
____________
Brucer'

Re: Bad News from out West
 

This type of thing is going to happen more often no place is safe. That is why open wheel racing has got to keep growing into new markets or we will live to see the day dirt track racing is a thing of the past.

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EVERYTHING & EVERYBODY has a price.

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Just because your rich doesn't make you smart. What is this Jack thinking! Turn 1 is done. Now I need a new home. :censor:

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Nothing is sacred anymore. Everything has a price because thats all MOST people think this life is about. $$$$$$$

Terre Haute and Gas City will probably be the next to go.:crying:

I wonder what it would take to build a new race track because I would like to have one. I say that because I am sure there would be lots of ******** involved in building one and I hate ******** as much as I do the DT-3 tire.:angry-smiley-007:

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Trucking companys must be pretty healthy. lookes like they could lower their rates. They must be like the farmers, not making any money!

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What gives with these trucking companies and classic dirt tracks? That's what happed to Atomic Speedway in TN. Became a Crete Carrier terminal.

Well, guess I'll never see this vintage track in person.

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Hope this trend dont migrate to indiana, RIP MANZANITA

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What a sad day. I made it out there for the Copper at PIR. Went to PIR for something to do during the day. Only real reason to go was to go to Manzy. That was one spectacular racetrack. No reason left to go to Phoenix now.

Re: Bad News from out West
 

A sad day indeed. Manzanita was one of those places that needed no explanation when you talked about it. Langhorne, Ascot, Manzy, Eldora, Knoxville - that was all you had to say.

A sad day indeed.

later,

Bob Mays

Re: Bad News from out West
 

What a complete BULLSH*T statement. Go ask a farmer, not the ones with 4000+ acres but the ones with 1000 to 1200 acres if they are making any money. Oh wait, I can answer that, THEY AIN'T.

They MUST get approxmiately $3.90 a bushel at the elevator (not the Chicago markets) to break even.


As to the topic, I am very disheartened that Manzy is going the way of Little Springfield and countless other speedways in America.

I wonder what/if USAC will replace the Copper on Dirt with?

Re: Bad News from out West
 

Wow, unbelievable and complete shock are the exact words to describe how I feel.
It seems like at the end of the season for everyone of the eight years I have been going to Manzy the rumors would start to fly about there not being a race track there the next year. An every year my friends, longtime Manzy faithful competitors would assure me not to worry those rumors had been around for ever. They are just as shocked today as the rest of us, when I called to tell them they had no clue this was happending.

Leaders Edge & SC96 both of your post are right on.

This makes the fourth track I have ties to that are gone this year, Mansfield, Ohio and Jennerstown. Pa. pavement tracks and Manzy & Casa Grande, Az. dirt tracks. I said it before and I will say it again, get out there and support your favorite track as much as you can.

Seadog mentioned building a new track and not thinking it would happend. Actually in the paper this week they were talking about land being set aside in Goodyear for a race track and nothing having been done about building a track. The article was confusing, it didn't say where in Goodyear the land was or what kind of race track they were talking about building. Who knows maybe a new track could be in the future for the west side of Phoenix? Every thing seems to be coming to the west valley, way not a race track. Until that happends we are left with Canyon in the Phoenix area and Tucson, I believe there is also a dirt track some where in the Prescott area that I have never been to.

I will put an end to my shocking rant.

Patti

Re: Bad News from out West
 

This is the worst news I have heard in a long time. I grew up going to manzy and remember the first time I finally got to drive a race which was there. I raced there for 20 years and won the SCOA championship in 1990. My wife and I are doing our tenative schedule for this years racing and planned to take Billy P. out there for western world. I had told her my dream was to race at Manzy 1 more time before I quit even if I was not the driver. I will miss that place a lot I guess dreams don't always come true.:crying:

Re: Bad News from out West
 

You may be on to something. If memory serves me, West Capital in West Sacramento was bought out by a trucking company a few years back. That was a classic dirt track.

RIP Manzanita :checkered:

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Beyond just the normal "That's how everything is going.."-sentiment, did ANYbody see this coming this soon? I haven't been center-punched like this by a non-fatality in my immediate memory. I'll remember the dozens of races I saw there, and the Western of 2007 being the last race my father ever attended. And what a race: Coons, Jr passing everybody on his way to the win. Safe to say that without that track there I'll never venture down that street or chunk of town ever again in my lifetime; Not for nostalgia, not for cheap beer, not for a stolen set of rims...Nothing.

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I remember that Dayton (OH) Speedway had a trucking company take it over way back when. Maybe a guy with a better working brain than this old one can confirm that.

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You are correct. West Capital is a trucking yard now. I felt sick when I heard that news, too.

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Gregg, don't forget that queen city speedway was used as a trucking school for years after it closed down. There must be something in this trucking deal, maybe race tracks would stand a better chance of surviving if we tried to ban trucking companies.

Re: Bad News from out West
 

I was just there for The Copper on Dirt and not a word was said about a possible sale. It had been rumored for years that the place was going to be torn down and you kind of dismiss the rumors.

What I find interesting, is that it really is happening and there was no rumors to the fact at the track.

No Copper Classic and now no Copper on Dirt. What is wrong with those people in Phoenix?

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I did forget. It's good to know guys like you are around to pull that kind of stuff out of the old memory banks. I sort of remember that the track itself was still intact until some guy with a Corvette got on the track without permission. He apparently thought he was a racer. I believe a life was lost in that shunt - either him or a passenger? They dug it up after that. Am I out to lunch on this or do you remember that incident?

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I don't remember hearing about that incident, although I can believe that someone would enter the track for a few laps. I think the track was still there until last year. They tore it down for some hotel shopping center project.

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Actually I believe it was the trucking school owners son and a friend. I attended one race there in the mid 80s that included midgets and late modles. I thought it was a pretty nice facility but the city moving in around it spelled doom.

Re: Bad News from out West
 

:applaud:WELL MEL PAID 2 1/2 MILLION FOR IT 3 YEARS AGO AND SOLD IT FOR 10 MILLION! NOW TELL ME IS THAT BAD? I WOULD AND SO WOULD ALL OF YOU TAKE THE MONEY!!!! MEL USED TO PROMOTE THE AZ. STATE FAIRGROUND RACES! HES A BUSINESS MAN!:checkered:

Re: Bad News from out West
 

I attended a number of races at Queen City Speedway over the years. You try not to think much about it, but as Chuck said with the area building up around it, you had to believe that as a race track it would be short lived. Like most of these closures, the property is worth much more that what a race track can hope to present. If the price is right, I would say they are all for sale.:(:headbang

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The money would be nice Duke, but with the respect I have for that place and all the history that's tied to it, I couldn't do it. Not with a clear conscience. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night.

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Gotta love sellouts. Screw tradition and history! :moon:

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I fear the day that something like this happen to Williams Grove. The houses are getting closer every year.

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Williams Grove used to also have a Amusement Park, but it is closed now.

As for MAnzi.....just a general question about Arizona....is any lawns out there actually have grass or do they all have dirt or something that is not grass, never been out there. I know it gets hot.