welp... (http://axisofoversteer.blogspot.com/2011/03/new-jersey-motorsport-park-files-for.html)

i guess when their business plan DEPENDED on selling multi-million dollar track side homes is some backwater part of NJ, that's not much of a surprised. Lets hope they get it sorted out.

Hopefully, I have a membership there. It's an awesome track, just in a crap area.

damn i guess no mx track now and no rally cross this year :(

Just talked to my contact down there. Said it's just reorganization, they aren't going anywhere.

thats just a nice way of saying they're bankrupt ;) a court-appointed trustee will take receivership of the company (basically act as the CEO). they'll let go of most upper management and anyone non-essential or poor performers to trim operating costs. then they bring in their team of consultants to try to nurse the company back to health. the first priority is to repay the company's debts, and that may mean layoffs, liquidation, etc. remember, the trustee and his consultants are the first to get paid, so a lot usually gets liquidated very early to build them a cushion. most of the staff that takes care of day-to-day stuff will be kept on. if they can become profitable in a reasonable time while paying back their debts, then everything is fine. But if not, then everything gets liquidated to pay off their debts. even if that happens, i bet someone else would buy the place and bring it back.

bottom line is that a business doesn't file bankruptcy when nothings wrong. I wish them the best, but having worked for a couple trustees on more bankruptcies than I can count, I really can't imagine the new management will know the first thing about running a race track. maybe in the mean time they'll reduce track rentals to try to improve utilization ;)

DAMN... i have not even had a chance to drive there.

I wonder what realtimeattack is going to do... That is one of their first races...

doubt anything already on the books will be affected

Hope it doesn't close. It's not the fastest or best track in the world, but Thunderbolt is fun to drive - a great handling circuit perfect for cars like our Evos. I heard they charge a lot to hold HPDE events there - nearly double what a much more established track like Watkins Glen charges.

Isn't VIR owned by the same company? Hope they're OK - closing that track would be a DISASTER!!!!

Show your support, and race at RealtimeAttack.com to keep this track running.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4q8ByA0piqQ&feature=channel_video_title

They aren't going to close..yet. Depends on how they restructure and how well they handle the place not. Read blk-majik's long post, explains it beautifully

I haven't been there yet. I'm trying to make it for my first time during the RTT event. Have they really been going the super high-end route? I never got that feeling from them, but then again I've never been. I think the only track in the country that will be able to pull that off will be the new F1 track in Austin... and thats because it'll be the #1 track in the US, possibly in the Americas.

From what I've seen, all along the east coast at least, the tracks that do the best are the ones that are the most helpful to the grassroots racer, who is always borderline broke ;) The more exclusive venues that discourage club racing and amateur events always fail. Atlanta Motorsports Park has already realized this and is changing their tone, and they're not even open yet! If thats the hole NJMSP has been falling into, then maybe a restructuring could do them a lot of good and might even save them

I don't think VIR or NJMSP are either fully owned by one party, but I think they do have one common large part owner. Kind of strange how the two tracks contrast.

Njmsp tries to be very high end. From all the events I've been to this year everything was top notch. Especially the Ferrari challenge, they knocked it out of the park. It actually isn't too expensive IMO, they just don't advertise. I forget what the exact number is without looking and I don't know if they changed it, but for around 10 grand a year you get the track membership and a membership to motor cars of manhattan (I think that's the title?) anyway that's a club that let's you drive whatever car you want for one yearly fee which is included in your membership (normally around 5 grand). Say you want a Ferrari or lambo for the track or even to drive around town, you tell them and they deliver the car to you at wherever you prefer. It's awesome. It sounds to good to be true but it's not.

See I bet you didn't know that, and I'm sure if they advertised it, a lot of people would be joining.

On a side note the townhomes condos whatever you want to call them are so over priced it's not even funny. I think only one or two people have them. I've only ever seen a GT3 outside of one a few times.

yea, thats the same country club business model Atlanta Motorsports Park was trying to pull off. The problem is that very few people really want to spend +$10k/yr for the limited right to use a track. By their nature, race tracks are in the middle of no where, so everyone has to drive some distance to get there, meaning most will only use it on weekends. And in NJ, if your driving an hour from anywhere, there are other options equally near by in a different direction. AMP has the same problem, being an hour away from Road Atlanta. Oh, and track use is typically limited on weekends ;)

edit: $10k = 50 track days in one year. Thats enough to be at the track every other weekend, all year long, even in the winter ;)

The idea of buying a home on the track and being able to use it nearly any time sounds cool, but who's willing and able to give up their job and dedicate their life and the lives of their family to it? not many. Those rich enough to buy it as a vacation home? Probably don't have enough free time to justify it. They save their money and do like everyone else: go to NASA/SCCA or other track days or other sanctioned/club events. I mean, membership to NJ, or an additional Spec Miata racer? Most track junkies, rich or poor, will take the car ;)

There's also no guarantee of this promise to the buyer. We're already seeing that. They need money, so they're hosting public events every weekend all summer long. They're even hosting a 24 hours of lemons race! So much for the polo shirt private country club promise they made to their home buyers ;) Imagine if you just spent over million on a house in the middle of nowhere and lifetime membership, only to find out that you can't use the track any weekend all summer because they had to book them out to club events. But your welcome to spend $300 per day to said club to participate with 200 other jerks in your way. You'd be a bit unhappy, im sure!

The only way to pull off the high end thing is to throw out the country club idea and just build a track to international standards and get kickbacks by hosting a few of the major races, like an F1 race, motoGP, etc; as well as big domestic races like amls, indy, grandam, etc. But again, having crowds in the 10's of thousands kills the country club business model, so one or the other. And you still gotta kiss Burnie's ass and bribe Mosley to even have a chance of hosting a big event. But they didn't build it this way, so thats not even an option.

The side effect is that groups who want to rent the track have to pay WAY more. IE, to run with NASA at VIR, it's $374 for the full weekend. To run the same event at NJ, it's $535. 43% more expensive to run a track that most consider less fun and less challenging. Even the 1-day RTT event is $300! I suspect the Pocono fee will be lower ;)

So now you have a track that's unappealing to it's target audience, and has to charge too much to attack it's alternative audience. Hence the current situation. *sigh* man, I know a lot about track operations, and I've worked in bankruptcy recovery for years. maybe they should let me run this joint ;) lol

another article on the situation:
http://www.nj.com/bridgeton/index.ssf?/base/news-18/129956101114851.xml&coll=10

Where is this track? This isnt Englishtown, NJ right?

nah different track. it's in Millville

From what you've posted I'd nominate you.

Everything is well again

http://www.njmp.com/news/news.php?newsID=356

Awesome.