Willow Springs International Raceway has been sold to a private equity firm, and the track’s existing management has told all remaining tenants to vacate the property by the end of the month, according to notices posted at the circuit.
The storied track has been acquired by CrossHarbor Capital Partners, which has not responded to an email from Roadracing World seeking comment. A sale price was not immediately available.
Notices have been posted by the track’s current management saying the property must be vacated by March 29 at 5 pm or anything left at the facility may become the property of CrossHarbor. Since the death of longtime Willow Springs owner Bill Huth in 2015, the facility has been operated by his children.
On its website, CrossHarbor describes itself as:
“Founded in 1993 by loan workout and property turnaround specialists, CrossHarbor is a long-standing, privately-owned investment and asset management firm focused exclusively on commercial real estate located within the United States. The firm manages multiple fund strategies that invest across the risk/return spectrum on behalf of a diversified and highly regarded group of endowments, foundations, public and corporate pension plans, financial institutions, family offices and sovereign entities.”
The 600-acre Willow Springs property’s roots go back to 1953 when a flowing, nine-turn, 2.5-mile road course was built and soon earned the reputation as “the Fastest Road in the West.”
Over the years, the facility was expanded. Now, Willow Springs International Raceway includes eight separate tracks: the 2.5-mile paved road course (which was partially repaved in 2023), the 1.8-mile Streets of Willow paved road course; the 1.0-mile Horse Thief Mile paved road course; the paved 0.625-mile Willow Springs Kart Track; a 0.25-mile paved autocross and drifting track called the Balcony; the quarter-mile Willow Springs Speedway paved oval; and Walt James Stadium, which includes 3/8-mile paved and clay oval tracks.
The facility operates year-round and has hosted sanctioned racing, riding and driving schools, track days, and TV and movie production non-stop since it opened. Huth also founded the Willow Springs Motorcycle Club (WSMC) to run club races at the track in 1991, following disputes with AFM (over a club associate criticizing EMTs at the track) and ARRA, (which Huth said ran events without the track-required medical insurance).
WSMC ran the third Sunday of every month for most of its 21-year history before it was closed down in 2012.
According to a post on thedrive.com, the new owners said, “Crossharbor is honoring all current bookings, subject to normal course-of-business adjustments.”