Gresham Motorsports Park reopens with 26th World Crown 300

Months of anticipation will come to a head this weekend when Gresham
Motorsports Park reopens with the 26th-Annual World Crown 300. The
historic late model stock car race will close out a three-day weekend
speedfest that begins this Friday at the totally refurbished racing
facility. Formerly Peach State Speedway, the facility has undergone a
massive eight-month renovation that has completely changed the
landscape of the track.
 
“It’s hard to totally conceive how much work has been done here,” said
Dan Elliott, Gresham Motorsports Park General Manager. “We’ve repaved
the track, but that is just a part of what we’ve done. We’ve also made
major improvements to the rest of the facility, things that will
enhance the experience here for our fans and sponsors. What is for sure
is that the weekend is going to end with another great edition of the
World Crown 300. It’s race weekend and it’s time to show off what we’ve
done. This is a culmination of nearly a year’s work.”
 
Included in the GMP facility improvements were the resurfacing of the
half-mile oval and the creation of a quarter-mile track, all-new
lighting and sound system, an aluminium grand stand, rest room and
concession amenities. The track is also one of the most technologically
advanced anywhere with an Inis Motorsport, Ltd. wireless and solar
powered safety lighting system, a 7-loop data/timing scoring system and
a two-lane drive-thru Infield Technical Center.
 
Meanwhile, a host of top Late Model Stock Car drivers have entered
Sunday’s 26th-annual World Crown 300 event. Defending champion Russell
Fleeman of Dacula, GA leads the list of this year’s hopefuls. Fleeman
will have his work cut out for him against the likes of three-time
World Crown titlest Paul Kelly and former World Crown winners Bobby
Gill and Fredrick Moore. Additional challenges will come from young
chargers Chase Elliott and Max Gresham while Taylor Saterfield, Cassius
Clark, Ryan Sieg, Shane Hall and Jeffrey Choquette are just a few of
the more than 40 entries expected for Sunday’s 300-lap headline event.
 
This year’s World Crown weekend will take the green flag Friday when
the INEX/600 Racing Series Legends, Bandoleros and Thunder Cars make
their first-ever appearance in the more than 40-year history of the
track.
 
Adult tickets for Friday’s inaugural GMP event are just $10.
 
Saturday’s World Crown action will feature main events in the
Mini-Stock, Renegade (Street Stock), Trucks and Iceman Late Models as
well as Late Model Pole Qualifying  for Sunday’s World Crown 300.
 
Sunday’s schedule is chocked full of activity with a dedication and
ribbon cutting of the new GMP facility, pre-race entertainment and the
running of the 26th-Annual World Crown 300 at 2 p.m. Eastern Time.
 
“It’s going to be an exciting weekend, not only for the fans, but for
the competitors too,” said Elliott. “Be sure you are here early so you
don’t miss a minute of the weekend – from Friday’s first-ever INEX/600
Racing program to Sunday’s pre-race where we have a couple of surprises
planned that we know the fans will enjoy – right down to the final lap
of this year’s World Crown 300.”
 
Tickets for the 26th-Annual World Crown 300 are also now on sale at
www.GreshamMotorsportsPark.com and will be on sale all three days of
the event at the GMP ticket office.

==================== ==================== ====================

Gresham Motorsports Park is a short drive up I-85 north from the
Atlanta Metro area:
* Take I-85 to Exit 140 – Dry Pond Road Exit.
* Travel south on Dry Pond Road approximately three miles before
turning right at Hwy 82.
* Travel ½-mile south before turning left on Lyle Field Road
* The Jackson County Airport will be on your left, Gresham
Motorsports Park will be on your right.

==================== ==================== ====================
 
About Gresham Motorsports Park
 
Opened as Jefco Speedway with a NASCAR Late Model Sportsman (now
Nationwide) race in 1967, Gresham Motorsports Park has served the auto
racing community for more than 40 years. The half-mile asphalt oval
located just outside Jefferson, GA, has undergone a total facility
renovation and will reopen with the 26th-Annual World Crown 300
November 13-15, 2009. The multi-purpose venue is currently formulating
plans to host a wide range of events in 2010 including multiple
divisions of auto racing, local and regional Trade Shows, Farmer’s and
Flea Markets, Car Shows, Concerts and other community events. For more
information about Gresham Motorsports Park – or to enquire about
booking a 2010 event at the facility – please contact Dan Elliott at
info@GreshamMotorSportsPark.com

PHOTOS AT http://www.greshammotorsportspark.com/photos.php

==================== ==================== ====================

One great asphalt late model publication is Late Model Digest. Editor
Jim Carson
puts out a 64-page issue every two weeks, covering the asphalt short
tracks nation wide.
It’s $30 per year. Late Model Digest, PO Box 340, Murphy, NC 28906
www.LateModelDigest.net
lmd1@webworkz.com

The latest issue features an interview with Tony Gresham, and we
reprint it with permission.

Catching up with Tony Gresham

Interview conducted by Jim Carson

One of the Southeast’s traditional Late Model events is the World Crown
300.
From the mid-1980s through 2008 it was held at Peach State Speedway in
Jefferson, Ga. This season the race will mark the rebirth of the
half-mile
oval, now called Gresham Motorsports Park and owned by the family which
operates the Gresham & Associates insurance brokers. In addition to
final
preparations for the remodeled half-mile, Tony Gresham and his father
Jim
are also guiding the career of Tony’s 16-year-old son Max, who has four
major Late Model victories in the past 15 months.

Late Model Digest: What’s the reasoning behind taking over the Peach
State
facility?
Tony Gresham: It’s a couple-fold. My dad’s always kinda gotten into
things
with both feet, no matter what line of business we’ve been in. The
rumors
were swirling and signs pointed to having the gate locked on that place
and
my dad took an interest in trying to make sure it stays open. We had an
assessment of the piece of land the track sits on, and it worked out
very
well from an investment standpoint. We put two and two together, and
figured
we could salvage the facility and make a reasonable investment for the
family at the same time.
It led to the renovation. We didn’t plan for it to be as expensive as it
turned out, but if we were gonna make some changes, we’d try to make
them
lasting and make it a place where people would enjoy coming to see.
We’re
committed to making it the finest facility we could put together.

LMD: What will we see with the place at the World Crown?
Gresham: You will not recognize much of the place. Gone are all the
physical
structures that were there previously. The only thing that has not been
replaced or torn down is about 3/4 of the outside wall of the track.
That
section of the wall we felt had the structural integrity that it needed.
Everything else essentially will be new.
The grandstands on the hill have been moved from the northeast side of
the
track to the southwest side, and it’s now all aluminum grandstands that
will
seat about 4,000. The key to that change was to put the sun at the
spectators’ backs during afternoon events; that’s the only reason we
turned
the track around. The old building outside what used to be turns one
and two
is gone. We expanded that area into a ticketing area and vendors’ area,
so
there’d be a midway as you approach the track. There’s a new entrance
about
100 yards further up the street, and it’s nice and wide so rigs can get
in
and out and not worry about rolling off into a ditch.

LMD: Voice of experience?
Gresham: No, but we did stick the rig going to the Pensacola track the
other
week.
Anyway, we pulled the old surface up and put a new surface down. It’s a
polymer-blended asphalt with an extremely-high amount of grip. We
enlisted
the assistance of Kim Stokes, a consultant for SMI (which owns seven
tracks
on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule), to get the proper mix and the
right contractors to get the surface down. The #1 issue from any racers
we
heard from is “Please don’t change the characteristics of the track.”
From
several of those guys who helped with tire testing, the nuances that
were in
the track previously are still there … every bump, camber change and
wrinkle
is still there, only now it’s smoother with a ton of grip.
All the fencing is new, and there’s a legends track in the interior
that’s a
lot like what the Nashville Fairgrounds has, where the half-mile and the
quarter-mile share the front straightaway. We’ve lowered the infield
eight
feet, so that with tall rigs in the center of the infield, it’ll still
give
clearance for the people in the grandstands to see the back
straightaway.
There’s a new tech building with concessions, bathrooms and a small
meeting
space, and from the grandstands you can see the back straightaway over
that.
There’s a new control tower and press box, with VIP seating for
probably 30
people and 20-25 in the media center, plus plenty of room for scoring
and
timing.
Behind the main grandstands and scoring tower, there will be a new
place for
concessions, souvenir sales and bathrooms. If it will quit raining,
we’ll
get ‘em done, but that’s a question mark on whether those will be
complete
in time for the World Crown. If we don’t, we’ll make arrangements for
that
weekend. And there’s a lot of stuff underground, including seven scoring
loops in the half-mile, so that they’ll have track data for teams that
want
to test there … hopefully some NASCAR teams will come and test.

LMD: Is anything planned away from the track itself on World Crown
weekend?
Gresham: The grand opening weekend is primarily a community weekend. The
people of Jackson County have given us an unbelievable acceptance. The
track’s been through many owners and promoters, but most of the
community
has accepted us warmly, and the Chamber of Commerce has been very
helpful.
Everyone has some idea of the value the track brings to the county.

LMD: What about naming the track after yourself and your family?
Gresham: I can’t really give you a solid answer on that one. My dad
spent a
lot of time going through different names, but that was his decision
alone.

LMD: Are you looking at only special-event schedules in the future, or
would
you like to develop weekly classes?
Gresham: We’re gonna be a special-event facility. Now we have 12 dates
circled on the calendar for next year, plus the World Crown.

LMD: In recent years it has been tough to draw crowds to the Jefferson
track.
Gresham: That’s our focus, bringing fans to the track. Even the Chamber
of
Commerce and the commissioners are bringing in side events along with
the
races, so there’ll be a dual attraction there. And we’ve got
opportunities
to bring series to the track which haven’t spent a lot of time in
Georgia in
the last six years.

LMD: In the 1990s, I’d walk through the parking lot at Peach State and
it
seemed like a quarter of the cars had South Carolina license plates.
Are you
targeting the Upstate at all?
Gresham: At the last ASA Southeast race at Anderson, Dan Elliott’s wife
and
daughter, my girlfriend and myself probably spent an hour handing out
flyers
for the World Crown and putting them under windshields. We had a great
response to that. And one of the divisions at the World Crown is
renegades;
we don’t have that class in Georgia, but there was a robust crowd of
those
cars that night at Anderson. So hopefully some folks from there will
come.

LMD: Did Max do any of the tire testing at your track?
Gresham: Max hasn’t even been on the track yet. The tire testing was
done at
first by Chase Elliott, Casey Roderick and Trey Poole, and then another
session with Russell Fleeman and Jason Hogan. Max’s giving me a rough
time
‘cause he hasn’t been up there.
Since the shutdown of ASA Southeast, we’ve been in a hustle to find
something competitive for him. It flipped us upside down, because we
were
all in with that series. What the shutdown led to was a change in
equipment.
We decided to go Super Late Model racing, and the motors had to be
freshened
and everything. There was an open test (Oct. 17), but we’d already had
the
track in Nashville rented for All American 400 practice. There’s a lot
of
speculation about his involvement and what advantages Max might have
there,
but we’re putting that to rest.

LMD: Are you excited with what Max has done in two years of Pro Late
Models?
Gresham: Yeah. Actually we had a disappointing Late Model season this
year.
Max opened with a couple of wins, but we ran into trouble at Cordele
and it
cost us a car. Plus we had some crew issues, with guys in and out of the
hospital. The brightest spot was the four races with the Joe Gibbs
Racing
guys in the NASCAR Camping World East Series. He qualified on the
outside
pole at New Hampshire and finished ninth, had a strong run at
Adirondack,
and really did well in the car at Iowa and finished third (in a West
Series
race). He shared the car with Matt DiBenedetto, and Kyle Busch drove
the car
once. They asked us to come back and meet with them at their shop over
the
winter, so hopefully we’ll come back with an agreement for him to run
more.

LMD: How did you end up with Gene Roberts as Max’s crew chief?
Gresham: The way that came about is we were working with Joey Clanton
and
Beau Slocumb with their legends program, and Joey had other
opportunities
that he liked to pursue. He suggested we talk to Gene, and he knew Gene
had
the knowledge we needed to put good equipment on the track and educate
Max
and help Max carry himself on as a race car driver.

LMD: Like many new Late Model drivers, Max came up from legends cars.
Some
of us don’t really think much of the scaled-down cars. Do you think
they’re
really a good training ground?
Gresham: Guys that drive legends cars … some of ‘em say they’re the
hardest
cars to drive. This is my opinion: it teaches them the fine motor
skills and
car control. The downside I see is that there are aspects to legends
cars
that lend themselves to bad habits. Legends cars are so light and stop
so
quickly, that most drivers when they advance have a hard time figuring
out
where the corners are and when to move up and when to brake. That’s
especially true for guys that spend a long time in legends cars; those
habits become innate things.

LMD: You were always a race fan, and your dad attended NASCAR’s first
race
at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 1961. But your first serious involvement in
racing wasn’t until Max started in a bandolero car in 2002. Did you ever
think you’d be this deep in the sport seven years later?
Gresham: No. When Max started in bandoleros, we were just having fun,
and we
kept having fun. The first time this became pretty serious – where
there was
more to it than Max getting out with a smile on his face – was when we
were
preparing for the Legends Nationals in 2006. From there he showed that
we
can work hard and put it all together. We’ve had as many as 12 cars in
our
shop, with legends and Late Models, and thunder roadsters that my dad
drove.
It’s a great experience for us, getting the family involved so much. We
joked that legends car raicng was kind of a traveling carnival, where we
watched each other’s kids to keep them out of trouble. It grew from
there,
and that’s probably the biggest reason my dad said we’ve got to
propagate
this and make sure that that track stays open.