Rockingham NC Speedway to be sold again (2nd Update)
Rockingham Speedway is a ghost town now |
12/30/14 Owners have three days to sell the historic Rockingham Speedway or agree to auction off the property in order to avoid foreclosure. The clock is ticking on Superior Court Judge David Lee's October consent order, which set a Thursday deadline for the signing of a sale or auction agreement on the former NASCAR track.
The speedway must change hands or go on the auction block by March 15. Unless a last-minute extension is granted, the Oct. 14 consent order calls for a sale or auction agreement to be signed on New Year's Day. As of Monday afternoon, no legal filings in the case had been added since October, according to the Richmond County Clerk of Superior Court's office. Co-owner Andy Hillenburg said in October he hopes to bring racing back to the Rockingham Speedway with the help of the as-yet-unnamed group of investors.
If a private sale falls through, the consent order calls for Hillenburg and co-owner Bill Silas to sign an auction agreement. If neither a sale or an auction is scheduled, the foreclosure complaint is likely to come back before the judge. More at the Richmond County Daily Journal
10/21/14 ROCKINGHAM, N.C. – If you have a couple million dollars and want to own a piece of NASCAR history, wait a few months.
The Rockingham Speedway, formerly the North Carolina Speedway, is going to be sold for the second time in less than a decade because its current owners have run into financial trouble.
Back in 2012, Andy Hillenburg did what a lot of people thought was impossible and brought NASCAR racing back to a track that it left. The NASCAR truck series came back in 2013, but didn't get a race date this year. NASCAR also cancelled a minor league event there as well.
Now we know the track has hit hard times. Court documents now show Hillenburg and his co-owners owe more than $4 million in loans and taxes, and the bank threatened to foreclose. To avoid that, Hillenburg agreed last week to sell or auction off the track.
NBC Charlotte was unable to contact the owners on Monday, but court documents say there has to be a sale or auction in place by the first of the year, and a new owner in place by March 15, 2015.
Hillenburg paid a little more than $4 million to buy the track at auction in 2007.
The track itself opened in 1965 and for years, there were two NASCAR Sprint Cup races there every season. But in 2003, it lost one race to California, and in 2004, owner Bruton Smith moved the other races to Texas. After that, it sat mostly empty until Hillenburg bought it– and it looks like that'll be the case until another new owner comes along.