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Jeff Taylor's Side Word For Word - As Told In AARN


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#1 PennL8Fan

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 08:06 PM

By STEVE BARRICK

 

TRENTON, NJ -  The premature closure of America's Motorsports Park less than two years into its reopening by Cherry Hill, N.J. businessman and former race car driver Jeff Taylor was not done solely for fiscal reasons or municipal pettiness.

 

Taylor closed the place down to preserve his own well being. "I was quoted somewhere saying, 'we'll run specials only but not weekly' and that the track will continue to be viable. I'm here to say, right now that I will never run another race at America's Motorsports Park."

 

In his first year of operation, Taylor said him and his wife America's relationship with AMP's drivers, teams and fans was warm and cordial at its outset. But, Taylor said, it quickly changed.

 

When teams were picking up their pay from my wife, they would taunt her, throw the pencils and pens as they signed the release sheet with at her, just being abusive and for no reason." Taylor said.

 

Taylor said the number of rude people was "eight  or nine" and it ultimately led to America no longer being on the speedway's front lines.

 

Then there was chronic fighting among race teams. There were minor scuffles like there are at many tracks but Taylor said some were brutal, injury producing affairs.

 

"I called the State Police several times and they said they weren't interested in coming on private property. I tried to sign criminal complaints with the Lawrence Township police against people who beat up others and they didn't want to hear anything."

 

"A couple of nights when it was really bad, the township police said they'd be out to see me - at ten o'clock the next morning. They said they were understaffed, they were too busy," Taylor said.

 

Taylor said a mid-summer incident this year with a driver's wife is what prompted him to close the track.

 

"I was heading down to the pits and a lady, a driver's wife, was walking towards me." Taylor said. "She walked by and something told me to be careful. I turned around just as she was throwing her camera at my head."

 

Taylor was similarly perplexed by an encounter with a surly competitor in one of the track's support classes. "A driver walked up to me cursing a blue streak, demanding to see a video of the race he had just been in. We watched it together, for ten minutes, and nothing happened, not to his car, not to anybody's. All the time, he's cursing about the officials at the track."

 

Taylor said that the collective abuse has taken a toll on him and his wife."To be honest, it's kind of like the wild west up here. I don't understand it. We had a banquet in January paid out a points fund, it was well attended, everyone had a good time."

 

"At the track, almost everyone is looking for a fight." Taylor's experience at AMP has been a costly lesson. He estimates he has $300,000 invested in real estate, improvements and equipment. He believes he has a buyer for the graders, water trucks and other assets and can sell the property either as a race track or as land that can be otherwise developed.

 

In the interim, Taylor is concerned about vandalism on the property, and theft.

 

Once Taylor and his wife decided to close three weeks early this year, Taylor said his problems with the unruliness of the region did not cease. In fact, they turned criminal.

 

"I've received numerous death threats from fans. One screaming woman told me I had destroyed her life and the lives of her family by taking away her Saturday night fun and it went on from there." Taylor said.

 

Jeff Taylor admits he is at a loss to understand the extraordinary depth of anti-social behavior he has observed and been in the midst of trying to operate, in the midst of the citizenry of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania.

 

The county is among the poorest in the Keystone State.  There have been individuals  who were supportive ot Taylor throughout his reign, including driver and sponsor Randy Sterling.

 

By and large, the majority of the Late Model and 305 Sprint drivers and teams, Taylor has found, are good folks. Taylor's personal goals  with the race track were driven by pride, not by thoughts of striking it rich.

 

"I thought that we could work hard, build something we could be proud of, something the racers and fans would enjoy. I wanted to build a good track, have quality food and facilities and either break or make a few thousand dollars a few nights." Taylor said.

 

Not any more. "The last few weeks when I went to the track, the closer it got to the time when we opened the gates, the sicker I got," he said.





 

#2 macdaddy

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 08:29 PM

I think if you go to any racetrack in America and the racers have trouble collecting their winnings because their checks bounced I bet you'll see a change in their attitude. I've worked at every racetrack in the area in the past 25 years and have never seen anyone get run off from someone throwing a pen or pencil at them. It wasn't working out. You weren't making money. It wasn't as easy as ya thought. Put your bigboy pants on and tell the truth!!!!!

Edited by macdaddy, 07 September 2014 - 08:41 PM.



#3 Toolbox3

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 08:41 PM

Jeff spread lies about thunder mountain when he rented it for 1nite, they ripped poor jeff off! So jeff bought a tird track and was gonna steal all the birds cars, look who is still running strong? Not jeff, he pretty much did everything wrong but LET'S BLAME THE DRIVERS it's easier for them to be wrong!!!! Jeff and Jeff alone caused his own downfall!!!


#4 macdaddy

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 08:44 PM

Jeff made 8 grand for putting the show on at Thunder Mountain and still felt the need to steal Equiptment from the concession stand. No pitty from me!!


#5 Toolbox3

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 08:46 PM

P.s. he has no big boy pants he's wearing women's panties!!!!!


#6 racing fan 5

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 08:52 PM

All tracks have fighting.. bitching.. If you want to close a business, don't bring the whole community down with it.


#7 714d

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 09:09 PM

And there are people who still feel sorry for, and support this douchebag? Scum, just plain scum. Good riddance. Shame this even got published, but good to know how he truly feels about the community. The interviewer should have jacked him in the jaw and walked away.


#8 suhoney18

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 09:22 PM

And there are people who still feel sorry for, and support this douchebag? Scum, just plain scum. Good riddance. Shame this even got published, but good to know how he truly feels about the community. The interviewer should have jacked him in the jaw and walked away.

+1000000....i just love how i got called out for being a dick because i made a comment about things (but whats new on here) and now everyone is seeing it


Edited by suhoney18, 07 September 2014 - 09:24 PM.



#9 kip77

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 10:01 PM

Any respect I had for Jeff Taylor pretty much went out the window after reading that. Not very "professional"!!!!

Motor racing, mountain climbing and bull fighting are the only true sports... All the rest are children's games played by adults." Ernest Hemingway

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#10 snooky

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 10:23 PM

Tacky at best. All of AMPS problems were caused by everyone else. None of Mr.Taylor's decisions had anything to do with with it. Classless.


#11 714d

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 10:26 PM

Maybe Chuck Stevens can give us his point of view. What's he been up to these days anyway? Lol


#12 thewick2w

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Posted 07 September 2014 - 10:49 PM

Wow something didn't go right so you say a whole county is poor nice to see you turned on your community just like you did with the track your the poor bastard who couldn't pay the drivers there money and they are the poor classless


#13 race ace

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Posted 08 September 2014 - 05:21 AM

well, i wanted to read it and now i did .so i guess you deal with thousands of people and 9 of them were mean to you ?wow ... you bounce checks all over the place then wont answer your phone ? you get caught saying if the car counts in the classes don't come up next week they are off the card then turn around and say you never said that ? now i heard last night at dog  hollow he was misquoted by the guy writing the article ? maybe just shut up already . he took money from people and sponsers and never once said i am sorry to all those good people .i think owning a track was not his cup of tea and momma wanted to go back to new jersey .there is some honesty for you! the cops wont come on private property ?what ?????they came up there when dicky went ballistic .i even saw them cruising the hillside a time or two.whatever with a few tweaks and some revamping of the track someone will have quite a bargain of a track on their hand just look at dog hollow all anyone could do was complain at that place and for the last two specials he had huge crowds and ran out of food and i never once heard him bash his customers heck he even went to marion center and greeted drivers on their track .



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#14 macdaddy

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Posted 08 September 2014 - 08:54 AM

ARCHIVED 911 CALLS

911- What is your emergency?

Jeff- We just had a simple assault at AMP!!!!!

911- What happened?

Jeff- Someone threw a pencil at my wife!!!!!!!!

911- CLICK

***************************************************

911- What is your emergency??

Jeff- I'm being harassed at AMP

911- What happened?

Jeff- Scott Fenton told me I needed him more than he needed me!!!!!!!

911- Sir, that's not harassment .. That's the truth!!!

Edited by macdaddy, 08 September 2014 - 09:06 AM.



#15 MrFabricator

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Posted 08 September 2014 - 11:24 AM

Now that's funny I don't care who you are.




#16 race ace

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Posted 08 September 2014 - 01:10 PM

:rolleyes:  :rolleyes:  :rolleyes: how about 911- whats your emergency.....jeff taylor ....help i am surrounded by pissed off hillbilly's .



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#17 BaconBits

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Posted 08 September 2014 - 07:49 PM

I'm not saying Taylor isn't guilty of some dumb shit, but some of the people that raced and attended races there are equally as guilty of dumb shit. The truth in these types of he said/she said bullshit situations is ALWAYS somewhere in the middle.

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#18 Fwig

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Posted 08 September 2014 - 11:28 PM

Every race track will have "bullshit situations". Racers, Pit Crew, Fans, and Officials can all attribute to those situations. Now tracks that are managed properly, and strong ownership take care of these types of situations before they escalate to a social media bash-fest. AMP is just the flavor of the month. I've read threads from just about every track in the tri-state area about similar situations.

 

It all starts at the top, if it's not managed well at the top, it only gets worse to the bottom. 

 

Do several racers push to see what they can get away with, or bent the rules to see what they can get away with? Absolutely!

 

Is it a high emotion sport or hobby? Definitely!

 

Do several drivers, fans, crew members, and officials see a incident differently? Yes!

 

Point being, Good management addresses all of the situations professionally and be consistent regardless of the situation. You are only going to appease 50%. It's how you handle the other 50%.    




#19 The Legend

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Posted 09 September 2014 - 04:17 AM

Roger Slack at eldora is the perfect example , eldora is ruled with an iron fist and the rules are enforced the same for everyone there without exception. Even though Roger isn't telling you what you want to hear he says it in such as way as to not pour gasoline on the fire like others in his position have a tendency to do.


#20 racer111

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Posted 09 September 2014 - 06:30 AM

OK, here is my two cents worth...maybe only worth one cent, but here goes. Now this goes backto when Jeff was just thinking about purchasing the track, due to a mutual friend and also racing together quite a bit, Jeff and I talked on the phone quite a few times. He asked me what I thought. I said:

 

ONE - don't buy the track

 

TWO - If you don't listen to number one and buy the track, DON'T go up against Louie on Saturday nights.

 

THREE - Run exactly the same classes as Hummingbird, and enforce the rules to the max, have a set of rules and stick to them. Period.

 

FOUR - Run Friday night or Sunday afternoon. ((And, don't start telling me that Sunday's don't work because Tri-City did it for years.))

 

Now, that article in AARN is terrible and leads everyone to believe that EVERYONE in the area has no teeth, and no education...which is of course not true...there are a lot of very good business people in the area that have VERY successful enterprises going, and many people that could buy and sell Jeff Taylor many times over.

 

With that said, I am not mad at Jeff Taylor, but a wise man ((very high in motorsports I might add)) once told me that if he didn't have anything good to say about something,then he said nothing...Jeff Taylor should have heeded this advice in the AARN interview.







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