Music City Motorplex owner Joe Mattioli keeps a watchful eye on his investment as he tries to bring racing back to form in Nashville. Credit: AP

Mattioli may be historic track's last chance

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Joe Mattioli painted the grandstand roof at the Music City Motorplex, slashed fees for drivers, cut ticket prices and scheduled novelty races for children as young as 4.

This year, he switched his races from Saturday night to Friday night to stop competing with NASCAR.

Now if only people will come.

Former NASCAR president and current co-vice chairman Bill France Jr. gives the command "Start Your Engines" to kick off the season of racing at the Music City Motorplex. Credit: AP

"This is the last chance to save what is dear to many people, myself included," said Norm Partin, who for years hosted an auto racing radio show in Nashville.

"To me, I know it sounds corny, but it's almost hallowed ground to me. I've seen people start their careers, seen people end their lives there, spent my money, part of my life there. It hurts me to see what was done wrong for years."

The old race track had fallen into such disrepair that the grandstand roof threatened to rain paint chips on fans below. The cars racing in its top series had dropped to just 16 with only three or four really having a chance to win.

It was a low point for a track where racing began in 1891 with horses, then in 1904 with cars. It was a favorite stop on NASCAR's then-Grand National circuit for nearly three decades, featuring legends like Richard Petty, Fireball Roberts and Dale Earnhardt.

When NASCAR wanted more amenities, city officials refused to expand seating around the .596-mile asphalt track. NASCAR pulled its races out of Nashville after 1984.

The track remained a draw for drivers honing their skills, a place where Darrell Waltrip, Sterling Marlin and Bobby Hamilton Jr. raced before moving up.

Mark Day of Clarksville has been competing here for years and still sees magic in the track.

"It's hard to believe, to realize how bad it's gotten," Day said. "Five, 10, 15 years ago, all the local racers talked about going to Nashville and racing."

Previous promoters turned off drivers with new fees, changing rules.

Music City Motorplex driver Mark Day prepares for the late model race to open the track season in Nashville. Credit: AP

"The way they were operating ... I know that run a lot of people off," Day said.

Enter Mattioli.

His family founded Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania, and he ran Pocono as general manager between 1978 through 1994. He also operates a track in South Boston, Va., and bid for Nashville a decade ago and lost out. He kept trying until he finally won the contract from the city's fair board in October 2003.

He made quick changes like adding a grandparents station with rocking chairs and painting the track walls.

Mattioli opened the track to drag racing and car competitions, quickly drawing 1,000 cars and 3,000 people. He erased the track license and the pit parking fee. He created his inexpensive version of a videoboard using a projection TV and a screen hung from the grandstand roof. Sundays are family day.

His biggest move is switching his main race schedule to Friday nights after seeing that he had only six Saturday nights where he wouldn't compete against the Nashville Superspeedway or NASCAR's Busch and Nextel Cup races.

With 10 tracks within 450 miles racing on Saturday nights, Mattioli also hopes to boost the number of racers by luring drivers wanting to boost their point totals for NASCAR's season series championship for local tracks.

"This isn't rocket science," Mattioli said. "It's old-fashioned promoting, and I'm just an old-fashioned promoter."

As part of his fan-friendly approach, Mattioli has trimmed the schedule by setting the field with heat races and cutting laps off races. If crashes slow down races, he will cut them to green-white-checkered finishes to wrap up by 10:30 p.m. each Friday night.

This season started last weekend and featured former NASCAR president and current co-vice chairman Bill France Jr. and country music singer Billy Ray Cyrus. Nextel Cup driver Bobby Hamilton Jr. also has committed to return for five races in a special Sunday series.

With Nashville home to the NFL's Tennessee Titans and NHL's Nashville Predators, Mattioli said fans now demand more, and the challenge is providing major league motorsports.

"We're not going to bring (Nextel) Cup back. That's not going to happen," Mattioli said. "But we can give people a taste of Cup in the form of a Bill France being here or Bobby Allison making an appearance."

Mattioli is confident enough that he's drawing up future plans for the empty space on the 115-acre site.

"It's such a treasure that I see my job really as the curator, the caretaker, that I inherited the paintings, and they're still beautiful. We just have to clean them up. If I clean them up, I'm going to get a lot of people to come to my museum," Mattioli said.