Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Ray Irwin, the new owner of Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, wants to make several improvements to the worn and bumpy race surface at the 14-year-old road course but getting the venue back in the black financially must come first.

“It’ll take a good stream of revenue, as you might imagine,” said Irwin, who also owns Blackhawk Farms Raceway in South Beloit, Illinois. “We made a pretty big expenditure on March 31 to buy the place. We’re not Texas oil men where we have unlimited funds. We’re going to do this in a good, business-like manner. We’re going to be profitable.”

Irwin, who has moved to Topeka to serve as the track’s full-time manager, and members of the Heartland Park staff he has kept on have made several improvements to the facility in the few short months since the change of ownership. “There were over 100 cracks on the road race portion alone in addition to what was on the big end of the drag strip,” said Irwin. “We didn’t just fill them in with tar. We cut them out and put in a wedge of asphalt in two different layers in there. Most people don’t know how bad it really was.

“We knew we couldn’t time-wise or money-wise re-surface it right now until we get the revenue stream for next year, but we went ahead and did that right away because it was just unsafe. We wouldn’t have even invited the bikes over here if we hadn’t done at least that portion of it.”

Irwin would like to incorporate some course changes into the re-surfacing project. “We’re taking the road course off the drag strip. Pit lane will become the front straightaway and re-join the course at the big end of the drag strip where you’re away from the VHT and the chemicals,” said Irwin. “It isn’t really terrible when it’s warm and dry, but when it rains it’s treacherous. Having had that experience myself as a racer at IRP (Indy Raceway Park) and Brainerd, I know how treacherous that can be and I don’t want racers to have to undergo that.”

Another change will be to reconfigure the turn 1-2 chicane for the 2.5-mile Grand Prix course to make it less severe. “It’s not any fun to stop the bike and have to walk it around the corner. It’s no fun as a rider or in a car racer. I think it’ll make the course more fun. Plus, the big banked corner down there at the far end, it’ll make that corner a lot of fun,” said Irwin.

Irwin has already repaved the drag strip staging area, which made NHRA officials happy. Heartland Park’s NHRA Nationals have been the track’s constant money-makers since the facility was built in 1989. The track has also hosted the Winston Cup Craftsman truck series on its 1.7-mile road course and some major sports car races.

But according to Irwin, trying to make those other large events work led to the previous owners accumulating over $1 million in debt and the resulting sale of the facility to him. “They were always going for the long ball,” said Irwin. “No business can work that way. If you run a hardware store, you can’t assume you’re going to sell lawnmowers all day long. You’ve gotta assume you’re gonna sell some nuts and bolts. So we’re going to sell a few bags of ice and a few days on the course – whether it’s the drag course or the dirt track over here. Every little piece of that is part of the puzzle. Then at the end of the year you’re in the black. Control your costs and maximize your income, just like with any other business. That’s what you have to do.”

Irwin says he would like to bring back large spectator events, like the AMA Superbike series which ran at Heartland Park in 1989 and 1990, “but we need to get this place back up on its feet again. It’s not going to happen today or tomorrow. It’s going to take a while to build up to that.

“I think anything is possible in this facility. There’s nothing (no type of racing discipline) that we can’t do on the (750-acre) property. It just has to make good fiscal sense.”

Irwin also plans to investigate why K-rail concrete barriers are placed where they are in run-off areas that have more, unused room behind them.

Most of the top racers who came to Heartland Park with the Formula USA National series this past weekend enjoyed the layout, the track’s facilities and nearby Topeka but not the extremely bumpy road course. “Yeah, it’s rough,” agreed Irwin, who has run the Heartland Park road course in his own 800-horsepower Trans-Am racecar. “Like (CCS official) Larry Miner said, ‘Give these new owners a chance. They’ve only been on the property 131 days.’ Those that have been to Blackhawk Farms over the years know what my attitude is. I try to put on a safe racetrack and a fast racetrack, because I’m a racer myself.”