Catchfence » Wisconsin Motorsports http://www.catchfence.com The Only Thing Between You and the Action! Fri, 10 Feb 2012 04:49:38 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Is Milwaukee Mile facing its final red flag? http://www.catchfence.com/2009/truckseries/07/08/is-milwaukee-mile-facing-its-final-red-flag/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=is-milwaukee-mile-facing-its-final-red-flag http://www.catchfence.com/2009/truckseries/07/08/is-milwaukee-mile-facing-its-final-red-flag/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:27:48 +0000 Caught in the Catchfence™ http://www.catchfence.com/?p=18071 more»]]>
The Milwaukee Mile Logo
The Milwaukee Mile Logo
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

]]> http://www.catchfence.com/2009/truckseries/07/08/is-milwaukee-mile-facing-its-final-red-flag/feed/ 0 Bill from NASCAR past due http://www.catchfence.com/2009/truckseries/06/27/bill-from-nascar-past-due/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bill-from-nascar-past-due http://www.catchfence.com/2009/truckseries/06/27/bill-from-nascar-past-due/#comments Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:27:02 +0000 Caught in the Catchfence™ http://www.catchfence.com/?p=17044 more»]]> The race promoter for the Milwaukee Mile owes NASCAR money stemming from the races last weekend, and the Indy Racing League won’t say whether it has been paid yet for its event in May.

The Mile hosted the Camping World Truck Series Copart 200 and the Nationwide Series NorthernTool.com 250 last Saturday. Claude Napier, head of Wisconsin Motorsports, did not disclose attendance numbers Friday but said the turnout for the truck race was low. As for the Nationwide Series race, Napier said it was in excess of 35,000 fans.

Napier acknowledged that the track would lose money this year. The Legislative Audit Bureau, which recently completed an audit of Wisconsin State Fair Park, said in its report that the Mile would lose money this year, putting added fiscal pressure on the fair.

“The sanctions fees are part of an overall deal,” Napier said Friday. “We have been working closely with NASCAR in resolving these issues.”

Asked for details, Napier said: “I don’t want to get into specifics about what we owe and what we don’t owe. We are working very closely with NASCAR and in particular we are working on the future.”

Ramsey Poston, a NASCAR spokesman, said in a statement that, “despite having a terrific day of NASCAR racing last Saturday there remain outstanding issues which concern NASCAR. As a matter of policy I won’t get into the specifics of our business dealings. However, I can say we are working closely with the track management to resolve outstanding issues.”

- The Milwaukee Mile

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