A two-fer
In case you were mulling these two questions -- will they ever race again at the Rock? whatever happened to Andy Hillenburg? -- Dustin Long has you covered.
The short answers:
(1) Yes
(2) See (1).
No link yet. Dustin's early lead is after the jump. We'll have more in Wednesday's paper, including top Rockingham moments.
Wednesday's update: Here's Dustin's story on Andy Hillenburg's purchase. It's a good little read, well worth your time.
By Dustin Long
Staff Writer
ROCKINGHAM -- Stock-car racing will return to North Carolina Speedway next year for the first time since NASCAR left 2004.
Driver Andy Hillenburg, who also owns a driving school, had the winning bid in the auction for this 1-mile track that hosted NASCAR races from 1965-2004. Hillenburg will pay $4.4 million. He outbid eight others registered for the auction. The bidders represented four states and Washington, D.C.
Shortly after Hillenburg signed the paperwork, he was on the phone securing a race date. Expect the ARCA series to race at this track next fall. That series will run 23 races this season. That series races this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway in conjunction with the NASCAR Nextel Cup series.
“I hope to bring a lot of pride back to Rockingham and Richmond County,’’ Hillenburg said. “”We’ll definitely have racing here. We’ll have some driving schools. We’ll have some movies and commercials and have a few Legends (cars) races, and, hopefully, be an important part of the community.’’
Comments (2)
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I would agree ARCA will be there if not next year, no later than 2009. Probably both the RE/MAX Series and ARCA's truck division.
Beyond that he's probably looking at ASA or the Hooters series'.
Pretty amazing price for a track appraised at $30 mil and expected to be auctioned off at around $12 mil.
Andy got a bargain at a little over $4 mil.
Posted on October 2, 2007 9:34 PM
Maybe Hillenburg did get the steal of the century, and I hope he can do something good with it. But the whole deal reminds me of this old classic:
Q: How do you make a small fortune in racing?
A: Start off with a large fortune.
Posted on October 3, 2007 11:58 AM