Owners of motorsports facilities across Virginia have their eyes on Richmond, as a bill with historic and commercial implications makes its way through the General Assembly.
Introduced by Sen. Bill Stanley, R-Franklin County, SB 17 would designate a number of motorsport facilities as enterprise zones while also granting them historic landmark status.
Enterprise zones are a statewide program that encourage job creation and private investment through access to grants and other incentives.
Historic landmark designation can increase the awareness of a location, according to the Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Around 3,000 sites are listed in the Virginia Landmarks Register, which began in 1965.
These two benefits, according to Stanley, will encourage the longevity of these facilities.
“What we are trying to accomplish here is preservation of short race tracks around the commonwealth of Virginia,” he said during a Feb. 22 subcommittee meeting of the Counties, Cities and Towns Committee.
Later in that meeting, he added that racing plays a significant part in Virginia’s culture.
Stanley mentioned about 14 tracks across the state, including tracks in Wythe, Halifax, Wise, Grayson, Rockbridge and Pulaski counties.
The bill has received bipartisan support, with the Senate passing it on a vote of 40-0. The bill is still waiting for a final House vote and a signature from Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
Stanley said the idea behind the bill was both economic and historically based. Speaking to members of the House Counties, Cities and Towns Committee, he said he believed motorsport tracks deserve some measure of historical designation.
“It’s important we keep them going,” Stanley said. “A lot of those tracks rely on grassroots racing, which is so important to their economies as well.”
Raceway owner Fred Brown said Virginia raceways have become increasingly important as the decades passed.
“This makes 53 years of racing at the track I built a long time ago,” said Brown, the founder of Wythe Raceway.
Wythe Raceway is a dirt track that hosts weekly racing classes, monster truck shows and various amateur races.
While acknowledging that general track participation has declined over the decades, Brown said he believes that Stanley’s bill would have a positive impact. He added that the historical landmark designation is particularly important for older tracks like his.
Chris Lloyd from McGuire Woods Consulting, which represents several tracks, said that that even if the bill passes, any benefits gained wouldn’t be automatic and would instead be at the discretion of the local government.
“It essentially gives local governments another tool to help support economic development at their option,” Lloyd said.
