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Save Article | Print Article | E-Mail Article Waynesfield race track hopes new surface means new beginning Jeremy Schneider | jschneider@limanews.com - 05.21.2007 WAYNESFIELD — Three inches of dirt doesn’t sound like much. But it could be the start to a new beginning for the Waynesfield Motorsports Park. While still under the same ownership, there’s a trio of men — Mike Ballinger, Ken Burden and Andy James — directly involved in the running of the track, just west of Waynesfield. And the first priority was resurfacing the track. “The biggest difference is the racing surface,” James said. “It’s definitely an improvement for the racers and the fans. There’s not near as much dust. There are no rocks going into the crowd as there was before.” The track also features an expanded and improved pit area. The improvements to the racing surface and the pits were meant to draw in top drivers and, hopefully, fans as well. “We knew what we had to do. We had to fix the race track in order to get the racers here,” James said. “Once the racers were here, then we’ll be able to promote something to the fans.” The track, which sits on land still owned by Greg Shobe, features weekly racing from four-cylinder trucks, 600cc mini sprints, stocks, non-wing sprints and modifieds. This past weekend, the track hosted its first annual Truck-Off to coincide with the Monster Truck rally at the Allen County Fairgrounds. The improvements have well exceeded the $100,000 mark so far — which also includes new fencing around the track and a pond hold water for soaking the track — but it has been everything James has expected. In fact, he said it has been easier than he thought it might be. Waynesfield has a great location, with cities such as Lima, Findlay, Piqua and Wapakoneta within 50 miles. It also sits between two of the premier dirt tracks in Ohio, Limaland Motorsports Park and Eldora Speedway. James, who raced Sprints at Attica and Fremont, has taken notes on the success of the two bigger tracks. At this point, it isn’t about competition, but filling a need. “We have catered more toward the non-wing sprints, which Limaland doesn’t do,” James said. “However, their cars can take their wings off and come down and race, which many of them do. Eldora is a bigger attraction. They run a lot of series that they don’t run weekly. “I see an opportunity here that because of the location, we can draw from a lot of different areas. I saw a need for the racers to have a place to race locally.” James looks at the improvement of Waynesfield as a three-year plan. One of his goals is to bring in larger, traveling series to give the fans a unique experience. To that end, Waynesfield is hosting the third leg of the 25th annual Ohio Sprint Speedweek and the All-Star Sprints. “That’s a big event,” James said. “We’re really looking forward to that. I think that will be a great show for everybody.” .

Edited by skip, 21 May 2007 - 04:24 AM.

[sprinter97]

so when are they doin this because 2 weeks ago the track was rough as a corn field