Catchfence

The Milwaukee Mile office is closed, and all 12 staff members have been laid off at least temporarily. Whether the oldest auto racing facility in the country lives to see its 107th birthday is in grave doubt even among its biggest boosters.

“It depends totally if I’m able to get some investors,” promoter Claude Napier said Thursday in a telephone interview from Texas.

“I knew I was going to be short of money.”

Napier, president and chief executive officer of Wisconsin Motorsports, admitted to the Journal Sentinel for the first time that he had no other financial backers when he entered into a deal in February with State Fair Park, where the track is located.

Napier’s organization owes NASCAR nearly $1.9 million for staging two races in June and owes the Indy Racing League an undisclosed amount for its weekend in May. The organizer of a spectator event in August – the track’s final opportunity for a significant payday this season – said this week that he is ready to walk away from his commitment.

- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel