New Columbus, Ohio racetrack attracting NASCAR hopes? [w/video]

Zach Bowman — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:01:00 EST

Michael Waltrip has announced that he and his race team will be investors in a new racetrack coming to Columbus, Ohio. The Sports Pavilion and Automotive Research Complex is currently being developed on the site of the city's Cooper Stadium and will include a half-mile track and seating for 8,500 spectators. A 50,000 square-foot office building will provide research space while an on-site hotel will serve up accommodations and a meeting center. The plan also calls for 1,900 parking spaces and several locations for restaurants. Of course, we're more excited to hear the SPARC facility will feature an outdoor karting track.

We're all for adding another paved oval to the world, but it seems unlikely the venue would attract any attention from NASCAR organizers. While the track itself could support a NASCAR event, Waltrip says the limited seating on hand would make it difficult to accommodate the sport's spectators. Instead, the SPARC track would possibly bring in smaller Nationwide Series races. More importantly, the track will offer NASCAR teams another viable testing facility since race rules prohibit testing on any track associated with a series race. You can check out the project's promotional video below.

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New Columbus, Ohio racetrack attracting NASCAR hopes? [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 10 Dec 2012 11:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The story of when DeLorean moved to Columbus, OH

Jonathon Ramsey — Mon, 21 May 2012 08:28:00 EST

Filed under: Classics, MISC

A lot of things go down when a high-profile company is in high-profile trouble - unlikely entities can arrive with unexpected sums of money and take the company in unpredicatble directions. Such was the case with DeLorean Motor Car - which is still in business in Texas - when the business, headquartered in Detroit and building cars in Ireland, was taken over by the Russian emigrant who founded discount retail stores Big Lots and Odd Lots.

Hemmings Blog has the tale of how Sol Shenk rescued a bankrupt DMC from the banks in 1982 after John Z. DeLorean's arrest. Shenk already had experience in the specialty car business having bought the bankrupt hulk of Malcolm Bricklin's car company and taken over the parts distribution business. Shenk set DMC and its inventory up in a Columbus, Ohio building on Dublin Avenue that had housed turn-of-the-century carmakers, hoping to make the most of a brand that still had clout.

Obviously, that didn't happen. From his corn-belt HQ, Shenk was able to have more cars built in Ireland and sell most of them and the inventory, as well as offering a gold-plated DMC-12 for a Big Lots giveaway. But he couldn't run the company and sell the cars at a profit, which led to him selling what remained and all the rights to the owners of the new Texas DeLorean Motor Company.

Said the VP of that company of the Columbus address, "When the BlueJackets [hockey team -ed.] came to Columbus, the Dublin Avenue address became much more expensive, and we moved all the inventory to a new facility in our hometown just outside Houston." Head over to Hemmings to read the whole story.

The story of when DeLorean moved to Columbus, OH originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 21 May 2012 08:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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