Negotiations continue between the Chesterfield EDA and Competitive Racing Investments to transfer the shuttered Southside Speedway to the development team, which intends to reopen the venue. (BizSense file)
It’s been more than five months since Chesterfield County initiated talks to transfer the shuttered Southside Speedway to Competitive Racing Investments LLC, an entity tied to local businessman and racetrack booster Lin O’Neill, for a potential redevelopment and reopening of the venue.
And while it was unclear as of late May where negotiations stood, two things are clear: the discussions between Chesterfield and Competitive Racing are still ongoing; and the rival development team that got passed over for the project still wants to be the one to bring it across the finish line.
In a prepared statement, Economic Development Director Garrett Hart said last week the county remained committed to ongoing talks with O’Neill’s group.
“The Board of Supervisors directed the EDA to negotiate with Competitive Racing LLC to bring racing back to Southside Speedway. The Board of Supervisors has made no changes to that directive,” Hart said.
O’Neill hasn’t responded to requests for comment from BizSense in recent months. He has made several posts about the process in the Facebook group Saving and Remembering Southside Speedway.
The latest of those social media posts appeared to be in-March, when he responded to a post from someone curious about steps being taken to get the track reopened in 2025, a goal that O’Neill had previously shared in the group.
In his comment, O’Neill said talks were ongoing with contractors and that he was working on promotional and informational meetings for racers, which occurred in the following weeks. He didn’t directly address the question of an opening date.
“Everything is going great. It just takes time working all the details out. We have been actively working on future promotions, getting quotes at the track for the past 3 weeks,” he wrote. “We may have been quiet lately but we are working busy as a bee behind the scenes on every single facet.”
Chesterfield’s December announcement that it would enter negotiations with Competitive Racing followed several years of discussion about the future of the Southside Speedway, which hosted stock-car races for decades from when it opened in 1959 until it closed in 2020 and was sold the following year to the EDA. The track, known as the Toughest Short Track in the South, had hosted future NASCAR standouts such as Denny Hamlin, who has voiced support for the track reopening.
Chesterfield framed its 2021 acquisition of the site at 12800 Genito Road as a means to secure the property situated “in a growing sports tourism corridor … and preserve the possibility of a return to racing.”
The county last year issued an RFP to find a developer to rebuild and redevelop or replace, and operate an auto racing track on the property “with sustainable business operations” and to “provide more public entertainment space” along the lines of concerts and sports events, according to the RFP document.
The RFP listed minimum requirements for the development, including a racetrack with associated infrastructure like bleachers and stands to accommodate at least 5,500 people. The facility could also include restaurants, breweries, theaters and arcades. Additionally, the proposal needed to include road, water, sewer and utilities.
Also required was a financing plan to build the project that included at least 20 percent equity funding from the entity that filed the proposal.
The Southside Speedway property, which is marked with the number 3, is subject to ongoing negotiations between the Chesterfield EDA and Competitive Racing about a transfer and redevelopment of the site. (BizSense file)
Competitive Racing emerged as the frontrunner of two pitches made to the county during the formal requests for proposals solicitation.
Chesterfield’s starting point was to negotiate a ground lease with Competitive Racing for a 41-acre section, which includes the racetrack itself and land on the other side of Genito Road, of a larger site eyed for redevelopment. That would appear to be a change in direction from the RFP’s initial scope, which was focused on a nearly 15-acre carve-out focused on the racetrack itself.
Under the ground-lease arrangement, Competitive Racing would be expected to make the payments necessary to eventually buy the property, and would own the improvements made to the property.
While a ground-lease arrangement was considered most likely, an outright purchase agreement could also be in the cards, Hart told BizSense around the start of the process.
Just days after the county announced it would enter negotiations with his development team, O’Neill wrote in a post to the Facebook group that he hoped to see the track reopened in 2025.
Rival developer tries to stay in the race
Josh Fowler is part of the Avant-Garde Industries team that has continued to vie for the chance to reopen Southside Speedway.
Chesterfield’s ongoing talks with Competitive Racing haven’t discouraged Josh Fowler, who is part of rival development team Avant-Garde Industries.
Avant-Garde submitted the other proposal to the county’s RFP, and over the last few months has maintained contact with Chesterfield about its continued interest in the project. In the time since it was passed over in the RFP process Fowler said the team has made two increasingly higher offers to acquire and develop the site.
Fowler, a racer and owner of locally based JBI Contracting, said the Avant-Garde team’s vision for the Southside Speedway site is on the scale of a $100 million to $150 million investment that would reopen the track to stock-car racing and introduce other recreational amenities.
Fowler said his team’s vision would also involve accommodations for other types of motorsports and would include restaurants, breweries and what he described as “dynamic nightlife ambience” and concerts.
“Our developmental focus centers on entertainment. We aim to retain the families that frequent (the nearby county-owned) River City Sportsplex,” Fowler said. “Our goal is to entertain them by offering a versatile venue conducive to all age groups.”
Fowler described himself as a lifelong racing enthusiast with connections to the Speedway. In the 2010s, he and his younger brothers served on the pit crew for their father while he raced cars at the track. Fowler started out racing dirt bikes as a child in the late 1990s and took up stock car racing himself in 2022.
Fowler estimated that his group, which includes an unidentified local development firm, could get the track operational in 90 to 120 days after securing the site.
“Our objective is to revive stock car racing for current and future race fans in Chesterfield,” Fowler said. “I acknowledge the urgency of the timeline, yet we are fully prepared to proceed with execution.”
Whether Fowler and his group can gain any traction remains unclear. Hart, the EDA director, made clear in his statement to BizSense that the county for now is focused on the front-runner’s proposal.
“During this process, the EDA has received numerous inquiries about the status of the property and interest in developing it,” Hart said. “The EDA has not and will not discuss, entertain, or consider any other proposals on the property while we are working with Competitive Racing on the development of an acceptable agreement.”
Negotiations continue between the Chesterfield EDA and Competitive Racing Investments to transfer the shuttered Southside Speedway to the development team, which intends to reopen the venue. (BizSense file)
It’s been more than five months since Chesterfield County initiated talks to transfer the shuttered Southside Speedway to Competitive Racing Investments LLC, an entity tied to local businessman and racetrack booster Lin O’Neill, for a potential redevelopment and reopening of the venue.
And while it was unclear as of late May where negotiations stood, two things are clear: the discussions between Chesterfield and Competitive Racing are still ongoing; and the rival development team that got passed over for the project still wants to be the one to bring it across the finish line.
In a prepared statement, Economic Development Director Garrett Hart said last week the county remained committed to ongoing talks with O’Neill’s group.
“The Board of Supervisors directed the EDA to negotiate with Competitive Racing LLC to bring racing back to Southside Speedway. The Board of Supervisors has made no changes to that directive,” Hart said.
O’Neill hasn’t responded to requests for comment from BizSense in recent months. He has made several posts about the process in the Facebook group Saving and Remembering Southside Speedway.
The latest of those social media posts appeared to be in-March, when he responded to a post from someone curious about steps being taken to get the track reopened in 2025, a goal that O’Neill had previously shared in the group.
In his comment, O’Neill said talks were ongoing with contractors and that he was working on promotional and informational meetings for racers, which occurred in the following weeks. He didn’t directly address the question of an opening date.
“Everything is going great. It just takes time working all the details out. We have been actively working on future promotions, getting quotes at the track for the past 3 weeks,” he wrote. “We may have been quiet lately but we are working busy as a bee behind the scenes on every single facet.”
Chesterfield’s December announcement that it would enter negotiations with Competitive Racing followed several years of discussion about the future of the Southside Speedway, which hosted stock-car races for decades from when it opened in 1959 until it closed in 2020 and was sold the following year to the EDA. The track, known as the Toughest Short Track in the South, had hosted future NASCAR standouts such as Denny Hamlin, who has voiced support for the track reopening.
Chesterfield framed its 2021 acquisition of the site at 12800 Genito Road as a means to secure the property situated “in a growing sports tourism corridor … and preserve the possibility of a return to racing.”
The county last year issued an RFP to find a developer to rebuild and redevelop or replace, and operate an auto racing track on the property “with sustainable business operations” and to “provide more public entertainment space” along the lines of concerts and sports events, according to the RFP document.
The RFP listed minimum requirements for the development, including a racetrack with associated infrastructure like bleachers and stands to accommodate at least 5,500 people. The facility could also include restaurants, breweries, theaters and arcades. Additionally, the proposal needed to include road, water, sewer and utilities.
Also required was a financing plan to build the project that included at least 20 percent equity funding from the entity that filed the proposal.
The Southside Speedway property, which is marked with the number 3, is subject to ongoing negotiations between the Chesterfield EDA and Competitive Racing about a transfer and redevelopment of the site. (BizSense file)
Competitive Racing emerged as the frontrunner of two pitches made to the county during the formal requests for proposals solicitation.
Chesterfield’s starting point was to negotiate a ground lease with Competitive Racing for a 41-acre section, which includes the racetrack itself and land on the other side of Genito Road, of a larger site eyed for redevelopment. That would appear to be a change in direction from the RFP’s initial scope, which was focused on a nearly 15-acre carve-out focused on the racetrack itself.
Under the ground-lease arrangement, Competitive Racing would be expected to make the payments necessary to eventually buy the property, and would own the improvements made to the property.
While a ground-lease arrangement was considered most likely, an outright purchase agreement could also be in the cards, Hart told BizSense around the start of the process.
Just days after the county announced it would enter negotiations with his development team, O’Neill wrote in a post to the Facebook group that he hoped to see the track reopened in 2025.
Rival developer tries to stay in the race
Josh Fowler is part of the Avant-Garde Industries team that has continued to vie for the chance to reopen Southside Speedway.
Chesterfield’s ongoing talks with Competitive Racing haven’t discouraged Josh Fowler, who is part of rival development team Avant-Garde Industries.
Avant-Garde submitted the other proposal to the county’s RFP, and over the last few months has maintained contact with Chesterfield about its continued interest in the project. In the time since it was passed over in the RFP process Fowler said the team has made two increasingly higher offers to acquire and develop the site.
Fowler, a racer and owner of locally based JBI Contracting, said the Avant-Garde team’s vision for the Southside Speedway site is on the scale of a $100 million to $150 million investment that would reopen the track to stock-car racing and introduce other recreational amenities.
Fowler said his team’s vision would also involve accommodations for other types of motorsports and would include restaurants, breweries and what he described as “dynamic nightlife ambience” and concerts.
“Our developmental focus centers on entertainment. We aim to retain the families that frequent (the nearby county-owned) River City Sportsplex,” Fowler said. “Our goal is to entertain them by offering a versatile venue conducive to all age groups.”
Fowler described himself as a lifelong racing enthusiast with connections to the Speedway. In the 2010s, he and his younger brothers served on the pit crew for their father while he raced cars at the track. Fowler started out racing dirt bikes as a child in the late 1990s and took up stock car racing himself in 2022.
Fowler estimated that his group, which includes an unidentified local development firm, could get the track operational in 90 to 120 days after securing the site.
“Our objective is to revive stock car racing for current and future race fans in Chesterfield,” Fowler said. “I acknowledge the urgency of the timeline, yet we are fully prepared to proceed with execution.”
Whether Fowler and his group can gain any traction remains unclear. Hart, the EDA director, made clear in his statement to BizSense that the county for now is focused on the front-runner’s proposal.
“During this process, the EDA has received numerous inquiries about the status of the property and interest in developing it,” Hart said. “The EDA has not and will not discuss, entertain, or consider any other proposals on the property while we are working with Competitive Racing on the development of an acceptable agreement.”
Best of luck to both parties. Southside Speedway is a part of Chesterfield history, and I would love to see it reopen.
For those who have never experienced the racetrack, I promise little can match the fun and excitement of lining up 15-2o modifieds (or grand stocks, or street stocks) for a 50-100 lap shoot out on a warm summer night. Truly a spectical to behold.
It would be great to see this kind of racing in the area. I have plenty of memories from the Flemington Speedway in Flemington, NJ, which was once known as the fastest dirt track in America. Plenty of guys who raced at Flemington also ran here at Southside Speedway.
Ah Flemington, a good old classic of the original Craftsman Truck Series schedule
Does Bizsense ever do an end of the year poll for people’s favorite headlines. If not, they should.
90-120 day turnover? I got a bridge in Manchester I’ll happily sell you.
Thanks to Lin O’Neill for keeping the Southside project alive.Hate to loose this one.
With a lot of historical remnants falling by the wayside in this area, I really hope we can bring back Southside. Stockcar racing has a rich history in Virginia.