Wednesday, December 08, 1999
Ky. Speedway tickets going fast
6th race likely to be announced
BY TERRY FLYNN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
SPARTA, Ky. — There's nothing slow about the Kentucky Speedway, whether it's race cars ripping around the 1.5-mile tri-oval at 150 mph, or race fans buying season tickets in the winter.
“We ran an ad in the Sunday (Cincinnati Enquirer)for season ticket sales, and we haven't been able to catch up with the phone calls yet,” speedway Executive Vice President Mark Cassis said Tuesday. “The response has been tremendous.”
Speedway and Automobile Racing Club of America officials are expected to announce Saturday a second Bondo/Mar-Hyde ARCA stock car event in July, which would give the track six racing dates for its inaugural season.
The tentative schedule starts with a NASCAR Slim Jim All-Pro Racing Series (stock car) event June 16 followed by a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on June 17.
On July 1, the Indy Racing League cars will do mandatory testing at Kentucky Speedway, followed by another ARCA race on July 2.
The final big weekend will be Aug. 26-27, when ARCA returns for the Blue Grass Quality Meats 200 stock car race Saturday and the IRL comes in for the Belterra Resort Indy 300 on Sunday.
In response to news of the first- year schedule, race fans are gobbling up the 4,200 tower seats, considered the best seats in the house and selling for $220.
“We're pricing the tickets so everyone can afford to come,” Mr. Cassis said. “That's just $33 per event, and if (season tickets) are purchased in the next 60 days, we'll take off $20. When the tower seats are gone, we'll move into the rest of the grandstand.”
He said the speedway is pushing the season-ticket packages now but will come back with single-race sales in the near future.
The speedway also will offer a Richard Petty Driving Experience stock car school, which includes driving a real racing stock car on the track as part of the instruction.
“We've been in contact with the Petty people in Charlotte (N.C.), and they tell us they already have 15 percent of the available spaces sold for the school here Sept. 12-17,” Mr. Cassis said. “They said this is the earliest and fastest response of any track where they have held a school, and they do them all over the country.
“We haven't even started a real advertising campaign for the Petty school, just word of mouth. I think this really shows the strength of this market.”
Work continues on the $150 million, 70,000-seat race track in Gallatin County. The racing surface is in place, and crews are finishing the main grandstand area and the 50 private suites that have already all been bought.
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