Hastings, N.Y. — Lots of dirt is moving at the planned site of a big motor and harness racing park that local officials hope will bring needed employment and development to this Oswego County town 22 miles north of Syracuse.
For the past several months, crews have been clearing 200,000 cubic yards of topsoil and grading a 150-acre site between Route 11 and Interstate 81, about halfway between Brewerton and Central Square.
The work marks the beginning of construction on racing entrepreneur Glenn Donnelly's Central New York Raceway Park after four years of planning. Donnelly said the complex will feature a 2.2-mile road course, a half-mile synthetic dirt oval track for harness and dirt car racing, a 56-bay NASCAR-style garage, a 15,000-seat grandstand, and a five-story "command center" with a 300-seat restaurant, VIP suites, a video production studio and offices.
Donnelly, the founder of DIRT Motorsports, said he hopes to have the park's major feature, its 2.2-mile road course, ready for testing in October and open for leasing by car clubs starting in May of next year. He said he plans to start construction on the park's buildings in November. They will take six months to build. But even if the buildings take longer than that to complete, he said he still will be able to lease the road course to car clubs.
The park's main source of revenue will be car clubs that lease the facility so their members can race their Corvettes, Porsches and other high-performance cars around the 2.2-mile road course.
Donnelly, who recently took over management of Rolling Wheels Raceway Park in Elbridge, plans to use the planned half-mile oval track in Hastings for dirt racing events.
He also is hoping to eventually use the dirt track for harness racing, but he'll need a state license for that. He has applied for the state's last harness racing license. If he gets it, he said he hopes to begin harness racing in November of 2016.
In the winter, he plans to hold stud-car and snowmobile races on the dirt track.
"Every day we're going to be open," said Donnelly. "We'll have events going on here constantly."
He also is making plans to hold concerts at the dirt track, but he won't be able to do that or hold other events that would draw lots of spectators until he builds an access road from I-81 South. He is seeking permission from the state to run that road from what is now a closed rest area off the southbound lane of the highway.
Donnelly said he is close to reaching an agreement with the Army Corps of Engineers to fill in a portion of a wetland on the site. To compensate for the loss of the wetland, he said he will have to create a wetland of about 10 to 12 acres elsewhere in Oswego County.
Donnelly estimates the park will cost about $50 million to build. The state has agreed to provide $2.75 million in grants for the project, and Donnelly is hoping to get the state to also pay for a bridge to carry traffic into the park from the northbound lanes of I-81.
Town Supervisor Tony Bush said he is hoping the complex attracts other commercial development, such as restaurants, stores and a hotel, to Hastings, a mostly rural community with a population of 9,450 people.
"We need growth and we need it bad," said Bush. "We must do something to keep people here."
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Reprinted with permission of Rick Moriarty and www.syracuse.com