FAIRPLAIN, W.Va. — A Jackson County race enthusiast has a plan to save a longtime racetrack in the area. Todd Jones, who races part time, is taking over operations at the I-77 Raceway.
“They only ran two races in 2016 and for the last several years there have been upwards of 20 races,” he said. “The promoter was going to give up the track and it wasn’t going to be run at all in 2017.”
Jones made the decision based on what he was hearing from race fans and others in the local community. He said the previous operator did a lot to improve the track, but he has more investment in mind.
“We’re in pretty good shape going forward, but we’re going to have to invest some money in the bleacher system,” he said. “We want to make a few enhancements which will help the fan experience.”
The fans will be the key to Jones’ plan. Although racetracks nationwide have taken a hard hit in recent years, he’s convinced if they create a quality product, fans will show up and the result could be a huge positive impact on the Jackson County economy.
“The motor sports industry has been hard hit with a lot of tracks closing and things like that,” he said. “But if we can run the 21 races we have on our schedule, it could generate over a million dollars in economic activity just right here in the local area.”
The first moves will be small, like changing the name to “I-77 Speedway.” He also hopes to enhance communication with fans to let them know the class of cars which will run and feature races each week through local and social media. The plan will be to run their first race in March, weather permitting, and run a full schedule with racing on Saturday night’s during the summer with selected dates added for September and October 2017.
“The racing community is very tight knit and so many folks around here we know in racing really wanted to see the track run because it’s been in operation for 40 years,” Jones said. “We all just wanted a local place to race, so I just decided to take over promotion of the track.”