Nazareth Speedway rebirth taking slow turns

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Once known as the world’s "fastest mile," the Nazareth Speedway today has slowed to a halt.

It’s been seven years since auto racers lapped around the Nazareth Speedway, six years since the property went on the sales block.

All that's left are a few rusty signs and some overgrown grass. The track’s grandstands and most of the signage has been removed. A fence surrounds the site.

Former Lower Nazareth Township Supervisor Alan Dilsaver attributed the closure to race car enthusiasts wanting bigger and better things. The speedway’s narrow track, which made it hard for drivers to pass one another, couldn’t compare to larger tracks in other areas. And more spectators were being drawn to NASCAR than ever before, he said.

"It was not drawing enough people from northeast corridor, people would go to Bristol or Pocono Raceway," Dilsaver said. "It just wasn’t exciting enough for the general public to go there, even though it was in our own backyard. It's a sad thing."

Still, municipal officials, business owners and residents are optimistic the now shuttered property, listed since January 2005 for $18.8 million, will be resurrected and help bring back the township’s identity.

The property is owned by Daytona-based International Speedway Corp., also known as ISC, which owns or operates about 13 motorsports facilities.

"We did lose an icon and an identity," Township Manager Timm Tenges said about the speedway’s closure in 2004. "It was the focal point. It was cool to have events of that caliber come to your community."

Municipal officials said it's been years since any proposal for the 157-acre site at Routes 191 and 248 has come to the township. However, Glenn Fritts, senior vice president and broker of record at Weichert Commercial Brokerage, the firm handling the property listing, contends there has been some interest.

"There are several groups and opportunities that we are currently evaluating," Fritts said, declining to elaborate.

Charles Talbert, director, investor and corporate communications spokesman for International Speedway Corp., said, "At this time, I do not have any update to provide on ISC’s Nazareth property site. Any statement concerning the sale of this property will be provided at the appropriate time."

'Dreams for the future'

Supervisor Robert Kucsan hopes for something that would serve as a downtown. He envisions three-story buildings with commercial, office and luxury living space. They would be connected by walkways and have parking in the back.

“I would like to see homes and different types, a grocery store around the corner ,” Kucsan said. “That was coming to vision when the economy went down the tubes and it never came out."

While the land is zoned commercial, Kucsan said he would support a zoning change for a residential portion, if the proposal was right.

“We’re not ruling anything out there,” he said.

What isn’t being envisioned by municipal officials is a massive housing development, which is what the last potential buyer pitched. Ashley Development Corp. of Bethlehem, Lewis Ronca of Wind-Drift Real Estate, and Norton Herrick of Herrick Development Co. in Morrisville, N.J., had proposed 1,400 homes in a mixed-use development in February 2006. The deal fell through in October 2006 when municipal officials and developers couldn’t agree on the zoning.

In May 2005, Abraham Atiyeh wanted to build an 8,000-seat professional hockey arena. Atiyeh was unable to solidify his deal and time ran out on his agreement to buy it.

"Since then, it’s just sat idle," Tenges said. "If someone is interested, most certainly the board would entertain any thoughts and ideas relative to it. We don’t go out and actively market it. We haven’t spoken to anyone from ISC for two or three years."

Tenges said about half of township land zoned for commercial/industrial development is being used, noting the majority of the open land is zoned agricultural. Some of the farmland is preserved, he said.

'Time will tell'
AT A GLANCE
• The Nazareth Speedway hosted races as early as the early 1900s and was an on-again, off-again operation for about 96 years, according to township officials.
• It began as a dirt track. It was renovated and re-opened in April 1966 as a five-turn 1.125-mile dirt track, later called Nazareth National Speedway. The track held nine events in 1967 — one of its greatest annual totals. Lower Nazareth Township Manager Timm Tenges estimated about four events at the track annually.
• In 1982, the track was bought by Lindy Vicari. Vicari later knocked it down and transformed it into a one-mile oval.
• In 1986, it changed hands again and was purchased by Roger Penske, who built his track, later named Nazareth Speedway, just south of the former track. The original Nazareth Speedway was demolished when the former grocery store Laneco built its building on the property. That building today houses the Giant grocery store.

The chanting roughly 30,000 spectators at Speedway races are a distant memory for such racing greats as Mario Andretti, who won the 1969 U.S. Auto Club dirt champ car race at Nazareth Speedway. The Speedway was the home track of Mario and his son, Michael Andretti.

"There were a lot of local heroes, a lot of champions there," Andretti recalled. "I was always very proud of this facility."

Dilsaver said spectators patronized local businesses, flooding into restaurants and overbooking hotels. He said the speedway put Lower Nazareth Township on the map financially.

"It's definitely a throwback the way it was, now it’s like a ghost town," Dilsaver said. "When the economy tanked a few years ago, it became less enticing to do something at that site. What goes in there, time will tell."

In the speedway’s heyday, a 10 percent amusement tax generated about $200,000 for the township annually, Tenges said. But as attendance dwindled, he said, the tax was lowered to help the speedway stay profitable.

Crystal Beers, of Palmer Township, whose mother owns Speedway Salon next to the track, recalled the sounds of engines revving as race cars circled the track on weekends. Cars would pack the parking lots, she said.

"There needs to be something there to bring people in this area again,” said Daniel Beers, Crystal's brother. "We need more business in this area."

Luis Gonzalez, manager of Pizza Joe’s on South Main Street in Nazareth, remembers when his phone would ring and it would be speedway representatives at the other end, requesting 50 pies.

"That was a big help for the business," Gonzalez recalled. "We would deliver all day there."

Kucsan recalled selling programs at the speedway as a member of the Nazareth Lions Club. The Hecktown/Lower Nazareth Lions had a hot dog stand.

“Before the race started, you'd start making hot dogs — 600 to 700 hot dogs ahead of time — right after the first car went, 50 people would be in line, side by side,” he recalled. “You sold a lot of food and beer.”