Just got off the phone with Longdale Speedway track owner Jessie Hoskins. He told me it started off him building his own race track to practice on as he bought a sport mod during the summer months. A few people convinced him to build an actual race track and with some thought, he done just that.
The dirt work was easy as he has all the equipment at his disposal for the dirt work because of his business. “What was overwhelming was buying the grandstands, public address systems and all that other stuff.”
A couple of sprint series have already contacted him as well as USMTS. In fact, Todd Staley (USMTS president) told him he was going to visit with him sometime next week. He is very interested in hosting an NCRA sport mod show or two (and no, I didn’t request actually, he was interested anyway.)
The track will have about five, two night shows (Friday and Saturday night) and will run on Saturday nights. He would like to get rules the same with Elk City Speedway and get on the same page.
The official website for Longdale Speedway is being built as we speak. The divisions will consist of: outlaw type modifieds (I recommended USRA rules); IMCA/NCRA type sport mods; pure stocks and a combined factory stock/street stock division and a switch over to an IMCA stock car division in 2015.
He will not be the promoter of the track as he wants to race so he is looking for a track promoter to run the deal. He asked me (no comment) and mentioned a couple other people and got my input.
Locals inform it is a good size half mile track and from aerial views provided by Kip Hughes it looks pretty big. He is also looking for a couple people for tech and said he will tech each race night.
Mr. Hoskins has the finances to get it done, now if race people will not expect great things from the get go, stay positive and leave alone any negative comments and realize it is a process then there should be no doubt this new track will be successful.
I will keep you updated as I know more.