Mansfield Motorsports Park in Mansfield Ohio has fallen victim to the hard economic times sweeping across motorsports and announced Wednesday that they will close.
“As of right now, we will not be staying open. We have no events planned,” track owner Mike Dzurilla told the Mansfield News Journal. “I dealt with the unfortunate task of telling my remaining employees that, by Christmas, they would be unemployed.
“Unfortunately, this has been in the works for quite some time. I tried to pull a rabbit out of the hat, but my last option ran out (Tuesday) night.”
The half-mile track had played host to a NASCAR Truck Series race since 2004, but that race will now move to Iowa Speedway. The event there will be held on September 5th, the Mansfield race had been scheduled for May 23rd.
“It’s a shame. We really enjoyed working with NASCAR,” Dzurilla said. “You hear all the time how NASCAR is so difficult to work with, but that was never the case.
“We have been talking with them for the past couple of weeks trying to figure out how we could save the event. (NASCAR officials) said, ‘Please do what you can to save it.’ They are as upset as we are.”
In a statement Mansfield officials said they would begin processing refunds for current ticket holders immediately.