Irwindale Ca.Track closeing??
Bankruptcy stuff will stall things for a little while.
Jim Mnoian is a reasonable and great guy, by all accounts from the people that have talked with him and known him for years.
It's about getting the "right" group back in there.
Saugus Speedway was very successful in putting people in the stands considering what they had to work with (pretty dumpy). Ray Wilkings promoted that track and was the very first promoter for Irwindale Speedway in it's first year.
After the first year, Wilkings and Jim Williams (owner) parted ways after differences. Williams, with an Indy car background, didn't want the typical local short track "low brow" features like train racing, demo derby, auto soccer, etc. Years later after spectator decline, Irwindale added demo derby's, outlaw figure 8 races, trailer boat races, etc. A little late.
Read this about the old Saugus Speedway:
http://articles.latimes.com/1993-09-14/business/fi-35205_1_saugus-speedway
"This year (1993), Saugus Speedway's audience is averaging 4,200 fans, up from about 2,800 five years ago."
The bathrooms there were horrible. For as little as they had. Spectators parked on dirt. You pitted on gravel or if you were lucky rough lumpy broken concrete or asphalt. The stands were splinter fest. The pit stands were mostly lawn chairs. Seriously we would line up lawn chairs all along turns 1 and 2 first come, first served...
And they still got 4,200 fans a night!