Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Summit Point at 52: A Living Legacy of Mid-Atlantic Motorsports (Edwin Paradue)

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Summit Point at 52: A Living Legacy of Mid-Atlantic Motorsports (Edwin Paradue) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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  Grand Touring Motorsport started as a social group of car enthusiasts,
• 0:04
  but we've expanded into all sorts of motor sports disciplines and we
• 0:08
  want to share our stories with you.
• 0:10
  Years of racing wrenching and motorsports experience brings together
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  a topnotch collection of knowledge and information through our podcast.
• 0:18
  Break Fix.
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  Picture it two hours outside of Washington DC in the eastern panhandle of West
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  Virginia, it's the fall of 1969 and the sun is rising over the apple trees.
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  Drivers are warming up their vehicles for the first time at.
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  Where else?
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  Summit Point Raceway.
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  GTMs home, away from home and with us tonight to talk about the history
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  and evolution of Summit Point.
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  Motorsports Park is Motorsports Director Edwin Purdue.
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  Welcome to Break Fix, Edwin.
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  Hello, sir. Glad to be here.
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  Thanks to, I like that you're painting like I had this
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  beautiful picture in my brain.
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  It was fantastic.
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  Well, I mean, what else can we say about Summit Point?
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  And for those of you that are listening in the DMV, you know, summit Point.
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  Well, but for those of you that don't, we're gonna explore this 52 year history
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  of this track that's nestled in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.
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  So, like I said, summit Point turns 52 years old this fall with over five decades
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  of racing being hosted at Summit Point.
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  All sorts of drivers, all sorts of series.
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  So, Edwin, let's talk about the history of the track.
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  Well, you, you know, you mentioned that fall of 1969
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  history's super important to us.
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  If you come in, if you.
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  Go to some of our concession areas.
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  There are actually pictures on the wall from that very first year.
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  Some people don't realize when the track was first built,
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  the uh, carousel wasn't there.
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  You came down the chute, just hung a right and headed for
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  what's now turn number nine.
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  We, and then the carousel was added the very next year.
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  But we've got pictures, people on track and alongside it's still dirt and you
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  can still see the tractor marks in there.
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  So that history is super important to us and we try to really let folks know
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  kind of the heritage and what happened.
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  In fact, we're in the process now of actually adding a, uh, motorsports.
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  Summit Point Visitor Center where we'll talk.
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  Very cool.
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  Not only the history of the Summit Point Motorsports Park, but also the history
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  of road racing in the Mid-Atlantic.
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  And people may not realize there's a, there's a really interesting
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  history of road racing in the dc, Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia area.
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  So we wanna be able to tell that story now and then kind of like you've talked
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  about, how does it pull us up to the.
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  Modern how does where we've been, get us to where we want to go.
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  That's true.
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  And in some of the classrooms especially, there's pictures of the old Upper
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  Marlboro racetrack in Maryland and there's an association between Summit
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  Point and that racetrack as well.
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  So is that incorporated in those first 10 years of the track?
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  Because a lot of people really associate Bill Scott, who we'll
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  talk about in a minute with Summit Point and its legacy, but that first
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  10 years, 19 69, 19 79, it's kind of a gray area for a lot of folks.
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  Yeah.
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  And there were, there were people who were involved.
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  Yeah.
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  There were people who involved.
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  Were involved in both, uh, both tracks.
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  You know, we still have people, you know, it's been long enough
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  now where people normally will.
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  Talk about, oh, well, you know, my dad used to run at Marlborough and then
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  started coming up to Summit Point.
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  So a lot of the characters and a lot of the folks from the early days
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  here were very much tied into that.
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  And then you go back even further in that, you know, you had Hagerstown airport at
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  the Cumberland Airport, some huge like national SECA events there in the mid
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  fifties that ran on the airports there.
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  So it's all part of this regional history that has us kind of where we are today.
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  That's true.
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  And even when I was coming up through DER Cross, we went out to several SECA
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  events at Cumberland where they were still holding Otter crosses at the airport.
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  So that tradition has not broken after all these years.
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  Then you even touch on, you know, newer things that's happened in
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  the region, whether it's street racing in DC and Baltimore.
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  The emergence of, you know, autocross where you know you can
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  turn a good parking lot anywhere to a weekend Motorsports facility.
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  So it's a proud tradition.
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  Skipping forward 1979, summit Points 10 years old at this point and now
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  World Champion Formula v racer, bill Scott steps into the picture.
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  So yeah, bill Scott, his partner, and they came in and purchased it.
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  I think it was a, uh, an opportune time to come in and kind of
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  pump some new life into it.
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  What's nice is obviously with Bill's background, you know, people don't realize
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  that, you know, bill was an engineer by trade and a racer through the love of it.
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  So he brought this engineering mindset and a love of racing here and
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  immediately saw it starting to grow.
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  One thing we've done to be sure we have a nod to that is our concessions over
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  at the Shenandoah Circuit, which was a track that Bill designed himself.
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  That concessionary is now called Bill's, burgers, and fries, and it
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  is full of Bill Scott memorabilia.
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  We've got.
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  Pictures going back to the late sixties, not just his open wheel days, but the
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  fielding TransAm cars, uh, cars he fielded at Daytona in the 24 hours.
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  We have all of that history there where people can kind of go back
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  and look at that, and the logo for the place is really cool.
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  We had somebody do a, a sketch of bill and over his shoulder is his car going up the
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  hill and under the bridge at Shenandoah.
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  So it's really kind of cool and people go there and they can learn a lot.
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  About that era of not just Motorsport, but that era here at Summit Point.
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  That's right.
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  And as you mentioned, the concessions are some of the greatest places to
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  see a lot of this memorabilia when you're moving from track to track.
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  And a lot of people don't realize that Summit Point has grown into a campus.
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  And we'll explore that a little bit more here as we go through the history.
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  And I remember as a kid looking up in awe on the walls of Shea Summit at
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  Summit Maine, look going, Tom Cruise, Paul Newman, you know, you're pointing
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  these folks out and they raced there.
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  When I was a kid, you know, I was there, I was watching, you know, Hanok run
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  the group 44 Audis at Summit Point.
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  You know, it's, it's.
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  Epic in those times, IMSA was a big deal.
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  Was that a draw?
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  Because Bill Scott was also part of Can-Am and IMSA and
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  he brought it to Summit Point.
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  I think it was the thing where you had a racetrack here in this part
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  of the region where it just made sense for those series to come here.
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  You know, look at all of the tracks since those days that have been built.
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  At that time, the number of tracks were a lot smaller.
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  If you look back in that era, I think it was a great place for
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  them to come, both from a regional standpoint, you see, you know.
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  Moving through the area and Yeah, absolutely.
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  A lot of those people were drivers and teams that Bill knew from his racing day.
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  So, you know, it was a good business decision, but it's also Oh yeah,
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  let's, you know, let's get some of the buddies together, we'll have a race.
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  Yeah, and you're very right about that because if you look over, let's say, you
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  know, not necessarily neighboring tracks, but in, in the general, let's call it
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  eight to 10 hour vicinity, you had Nelson Ledges that have been around forever.
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  Everybody, you know, it's, it's iconic.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  It hasn't really changed too much.
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  It's been rep paved, luckily, thankfully.
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  But you look at the Glen, it's gone through several evolutions
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  over the years and even VIR, which a lot of us love as well.
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  It's not the VIR that we know today.
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  When you look at Summit Point in the eighties and nineties, VIR was.
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  Had overgrown, it was wooded.
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  It's gone through a massive transformation.
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  But Summit has stayed consistent over these 50 years, which
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  is really, really incredible.
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  That's one of the challenges we have.
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  We want to keep that history.
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  We want, we want to keep that feel, but at the same time, we want to
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  keep it modern, keep the facility relevant, whether it's what we're doing,
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  aesthetically, what we're doing from a safety standpoint, what we're doing with,
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  you know, our improvements in the paddock.
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  We just put in a brand new, uh, fueling station in the Summit Paddock.
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  So it's a big modern, you know, nice paved.
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  It's easy to get in.
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  It's, it's beautiful.
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  I've seen it.
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  It's really nice.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah, it turned out great.
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  So, some of those things, so what you want to do is add those amenities and those
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  things that make the place up to date.
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  But you don't wanna lose that historic feel to it.
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  I, I, I think that one of the tracks that I think they do such a good job of
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  staying modern and relevant and keeping that historic feel is, uh, limerock.
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  I think Limerock does such a nice job of balancing the two.
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  'cause when you go there, you know, you're at Limerock, but
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  they've continued to improve.
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  So I, I kinda look at that as a. A similar piece where you, when you come in here,
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  it's like visiting an old friend, but you notice some of the new things that
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  have happened in the new Absolutely.
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  Is done in a way that doesn't take away from the historic
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  significance of the place.
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  I mean, I, I can vouch for that myself.
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  I mean, I've been coming to Summit Points as I was a little, little
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  kid, so over, well over 30 years of seeing Summit Point evolve.
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  But every time I go back, it's like you said, it's like putting on an
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  old pair of gloves or an old shoe.
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  You know it, and it's like second nature.
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  But, you know, reminiscing about the past, even one of our more recent guests, John
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  Warner IV came on and he talked about how Summit point's his home track, right?
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  He ran SA series as well in the nineties and he's like, summit Point is home.
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  A lot of people in our area call Summit Point Home.
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  There's still a lot of changes and a lot of history there.
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  And so you mentioned Shenandoah, right?
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  That's a, that's a big accomplishment.
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  Bill Scott's last track that he designed, but there's a track in between
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  there on the campus that he was also involved in, known as the Jefferson
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  Circuit that was developed in 1996.
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  Let's talk about that.
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  Why Jefferson Circuit?
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  Jefferson Circuit?
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  It was built in two phase.
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  As you know, there was the, the, the first phase, the second phase, and now
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  it's 1.7 miles around the Jefferson 2021 has probably seen more events going
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  on on the Jefferson than ever before.
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  Great track whether folks are doing a high performance driving event.
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  We have, uh, some of our motorcycle groups go over there and do track day.
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  And it's funny 'cause it's kind of tucked away its own little place.
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  You can, parts of it are a little bit close to the summit circuit, so
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  you occasionally can see each other, but the paddock's kind of tucked
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  away in its own little area there.
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  So you literally can be over on the Jefferson circuit.
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  There's stuff going over on Shenandoah and Summit Circuit and you've got kind
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  of your own little spot out there.
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  So between the, the driving events, motorcycle track days.
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  Some drifting over there.
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  Uh, Jefferson was super busy this year, and I only see it
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  being even busier next year.
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  I remember when Jefferson came online and, you know, obviously the, the
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  short version of it, the original version, and by the way, a lot of
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  us in the area call it Jefferson and New Jefferson, depending on how we're
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  running the configuration, right.
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  But the, we'll call it Old Jefferson, you know, it was, it was very short.
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  It was a bit more of a clinic type of track.
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  Mm-hmm.
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  Autocross track.
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  I remember it was used for autocross very early on and it was an interesting
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  concept, like track cross, right?
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  It was like nobody was doing that.
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  We were still running at Ripkin Stadium and FedEx Field and all
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  these different places, and it's like, wait an autocross on track?
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  And we're gonna talk about that a little bit more as we go along.
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  But I think Jefferson was underappreciated.
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  And now with the new configuration, I've driven it a bunch of times.
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  It's actually a lot of fun and if you haven't checked it
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  out, check it out for sure.
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  Yeah, everybody has like a nickname for the new part of it.
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  Some people call the new part of it, Barney or Snoopy's Head.
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  All sorts of weird, you know, when you see the outline of it.
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  So everybody has a different name for it, whether it's New Jefferson or, or
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  you know, Snoopy's head or whatever.
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  But no, it's, it's beautiful.
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  And you know, the new part, the extension, you know, there's a bunch
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  of elevation change and you're.
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  Up and down and it kind of tightens up.
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  And I mean, it really has not surprising, we talk about
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  Bill Scott's, uh, background.
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  It does have a feeling of almost like an old European F1 circuit going way
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  back when it's got that feel to it, you know, we're constantly talking
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  about what can we do there again, to bring in some of the other amenities
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  and pieces that we need over there to make it even more attractive.
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  And, and to your point, when you were talking about Limerock, I
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  always joked, you know, people like that, what's limerock like?
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  And it was even on my bucket list for the longest time, and I finally had gone there
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  and I was like, well, I drove Jefferson.
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  What do I need to drive Limerock for, you know, new j, New Jersey Lightning?
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  Same thing.
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  Like if you've driven one of the three, you kind of get it.
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  But to your point, it was almost modeled after that design of Lime Rock.
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  So it was good to have that close and you didn't have to do the 10
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  hour tow to get there, you know?
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  Well, and we had, we, I don't know why we, we don't have a lot of
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  groups that do this, but we have.
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  One track day group that literally over the course of the weekend
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  does a day on each of the circuits, and I think that is really cool.
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  So you can come in here on a Friday and you're on the summit circuit, and then
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  Saturday you're on the Jefferson, and then Sunday you're on the Chendu circuit.
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  So you get three completely different circuits.
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  And the commute from paddock to paddock is, you know, three tenths of a mile.
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  Exactly.
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  So let's fast forward a little bit.
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  Here we are circa, you know, 2003, when ideas are forming pavement.
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  Companies are getting involved and things are being designed.
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  And Shenandoah was born two years later, right?
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  2005. And to be honest, I remember when Shenandoah didn't have cars on it yet.
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  It was motorcycles and go-karts, but Shenandoah, a lot of people have a
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  love-hate relationship with that track.
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  I personally have too many days on that track that I, I like to admit.
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  But it's unlike any other track.
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  It's probably one of the most technical tracks on the East coast.
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  It's one of the most difficult to teach on, which is why multiple
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  organizations use it as their certification track for instructors.
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  But where did the idea come from?
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  Because the only thing I've ever been able to relate Shenandoah to
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  outside of, I know that it has some turns that it mimics is actually NCM.
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  I know NCM is newer, and the reason I put them in the same category is
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  that Shenandoah feels more like a test track than it does a race track.
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  So the idea was Bill had run a lot of tracks around the world, but particularly
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  some favorite tracks in in Europe.
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  And there were just some things he liked in that style of racing.
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  And the idea was, all right, let me build a tight technical modeled
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  after some of the corners and places that he liked in Europe and
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  kind of put that piece together.
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  And you're right, you know, uh, one of our motorcycle groups says, you know,
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  you, you can learn the track in a day, but it'll take you a lifetime to master.
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  Its like tennis.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  What's particularly nice is it creates a challenge that's completely different.
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  Than Jefferson a challenge that's completely different
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  from the summit circuit.
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  So when you look at all three of them in concert, each one
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  kind of compliments the other.
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  'cause it gives you three very different experiences.
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  Again, all on the same campus.
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  I'll be honest, I've taught on that track, I've competed on that track,
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  trialed on that track, et cetera.
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  And the one thing I always remind people what you know, that are like, I don't
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  know that I really like Shenandoah.
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  You know, they give you that whole, the grimace that goes with that.
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  I always remind them the one most important part about Shenandoah is
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  that it will show you everything that is wrong with your setup.
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  And if you can make a car go fast on Shenandoah, you will
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  be awesome anywhere else.
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  And that's not a slight against that track, but it really does show you things
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  about your car that you wouldn't see at VIR or Watkins Glen or, or somewhere else.
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  Well, and you talked about it, one of the big things we do and we're,
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  we're really stepping into a broader piece of this is instructor training.
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  Uh, we've done it through years, through our Friday at the track program.
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  We're expanding with what we're doing with Motorsports Safety Foundation, and
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  you touched on it when you're teaching instructors how to instruct, there's
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  probably not a better environment in the country to do it than there
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  on, on the Shenandoah Circuit.
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  Being out here, having fun, enjoying motorsports is a big thing, but the
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  training aspect of it has always been a huge part of what we're
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  doing, and Shenandoah is uniquely designed to deliver that experience.
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  So somewhere in between all of this.
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  Two more tracks.
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  Were born at Summit Point.
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  A lot of people don't realize it's a five circuit campus, right?
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  There's a lot going on on the Summit Point property.
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  So we had the Washington Circuit, which people probably
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  don't even remember that name.
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  And that's the carting track, which I think now is used for Track
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  cross, which we will get into.
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  And then there's the offroad or rally, cross circuit, which is housed outside
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  of Turn 10, outside of the main circuit.
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  So those came online as well.
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  What brought about those two ideas?
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  Yeah.
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  Well, Washington is multipurpose a lot of states.
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  So Washington this year alone, we did carts on Washington,
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  multiple drifting events on Washington, autocross on Washington.
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  And we even had a group that put together really a road course there.
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  It was almost like you're, it's like a step between autocross and a full track,
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  HPDE and actually set up a road course so people could dip their toe into it.
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  So those, all four of those events.
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  All occurred on the Washington Circuit this year.
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  So the piece there that's a challenge is trying to be, I don't wanna say all
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  things to all people, but you know, what's great for one may not be great for.
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  So finding some balance there.
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  So it works for everybody, but it again, had probably one of its
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  busiest years in history because we can host all those different
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  types of events on the Washington.
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  Yeah.
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  And Washington circuit, for those that don't know, was home to Summit
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  point carts for many, many years.
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  And I competed there in endurance races and things like that.
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  It was a shame to see Summit Point Cart go away.
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  And we will talk more about carting here in a little bit, but let's
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  also talk about the off-road offerings that Summit Point has.
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  Yeah, so we're in the process right now of kind of seeing where we want
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  to go with that program because there.
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  You know, different trails all through here and different things.
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  So right now we're, we're in the process right now kind of figuring
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  out what we want to do there, what does the market want, what can
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  we offer and do the two match.
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  And then of course, you know, making that from a business standpoint,
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  making that a, a profitable offering.
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  So we're really right now's just kind of.
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  In the phase, we've done a few things, but it's in the phase of the market.
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  Does our facility meet that need?
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  And then creating a business model to where it makes sense for everybody.
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  So you'll see us kind of going through the steps there, um, which
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  is where we're right now, just kind of figuring out what direction to go.
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  All the tracks have names.
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  Well, Maine is Maine.
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  We all call it Summit Point, Maine, or just Summit Point.
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  So does the off-road track have a name?
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  So there's different areas where off-road can be done.
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  So no, it's not, there's not one area where, where it's like, oh.
• 18:09
  That's where they do the off-road stuff.
• 18:11
  So that's, like I said, that currently is kind of being, again, kind of figured out
• 18:15
  what direction we want to go with that.
• 18:16
  And that's used also for a lot of the, uh, non-motor sports
• 18:19
  training that we do as well.
• 18:20
  You hinted at one point that in the future there might be the possibility
• 18:23
  of some UTV racing in conjunction with the rally cross racing.
• 18:27
  That already happens at some point.
• 18:28
  Is that still on the horizon?
• 18:29
  Just looking at again, what, what does the market want and then
• 18:33
  is our facility right for it?
• 18:35
  You know, so we need, we need to be sure as well is our facility
• 18:38
  right for that type piece.
• 18:39
  'cause you don't want to.
• 18:40
  We don't wanna do something if we're not gonna be able to do it
• 18:42
  in a really good way where people go, oh man, that's fantastic.
• 18:46
  So we still have some work to do there.
• 18:48
  We're not there yet, but we're working on it.
• 18:50
  So, switching back just for a moment, 'cause I have to ask, so is Carding
• 18:53
  gonna return to Summit Point officially?
• 18:55
  Yes.
• 18:56
  Oh, oh, you have my attention.
• 18:59
  So, working on, you know, our two and three year plans
• 19:02
  and everything, so I have.
• 19:04
  A couple different kind of multi-year plans to try to bring a
• 19:08
  really topnotch, I hate the phrase concession carding, but that's, that's
• 19:13
  what it's called in the industry.
• 19:14
  People are like, you're eating french fries while you race, but
• 19:17
  a really topnotch program there.
• 19:19
  So it is on a three year plan, it's something I'm really, really pushing for.
• 19:24
  So, and I, and I have to ask because it was a feature of SPK back in the
• 19:27
  day, whe whether or not the name stays the same or, or, or whatnot.
• 19:31
  Will the carting school return?
• 19:33
  'cause I've been super excited to put my daughter in that I think it, my
• 19:38
  thought right now is, I think it should, because if you're doing the training
• 19:42
  and the school part of it, how better to create your own customer than to be
• 19:46
  able to take somebody at a novice level.
• 19:49
  You know, we started doing a thing, uh, and we hosted over on the
• 19:53
  summit circuit called My Track Time.
• 19:55
  So my track time should be, if you've never been on a track in your life, it is.
• 19:59
  Absolutely.
• 20:00
  If you know, if you've done two or three HP Dees with Porsche Club or something,
• 20:04
  probably not for you, but it is, you come out with your streetcar, there's
• 20:08
  a classroom session, there's a lead follow on track for about 20, 25 minutes.
• 20:13
  There's a little debrief on pit road, another on track, 20, 25 minutes lead
• 20:17
  follow, you know, you're there for a couple hours in the afternoon purely
• 20:21
  for folks to get that first taste of it.
• 20:24
  We have some people who've come back three or four times.
• 20:26
  Other people do that and say, that's cool.
• 20:28
  What can I do next?
• 20:29
  Oh, well sign up for a Friday at the track in the same way that, that's been
• 20:33
  great to, um, create more interest there.
• 20:35
  Same thing if we're gonna do carding.
• 20:37
  You wanna be able to bring people in brand new.
• 20:40
  And Sarah, let walk you through this.
• 20:41
  Let's create our own customer base.
• 20:43
  Going back to our history lesson, fast forwarding a little bit more,
• 20:46
  the year is 2019 and the Scott Family sells Summit Point to Zeto.
• 20:51
  How did that all come about?
• 20:52
  What does that mean?
• 20:53
  Sure.
• 20:54
  So that was after Bill passed away.
• 20:55
  Barbara ran the place for years and there was an opportunity.
• 20:59
  The company, uh, Exeter Corporation, saw an opportunity
• 21:02
  here on the training part of it.
• 21:04
  'cause that training part's so huge and then the motorsports part as well.
• 21:08
  So they just saw it as a, a good acquisition, a good thing to add to
• 21:12
  kind of their repertoire, if you will.
• 21:15
  A lot of people were very worried when the sale happened.
• 21:17
  They go, oh gosh, it's, you know, it's gonna become a, a strictly
• 21:21
  training place and there's not gonna be any motorsports anymore.
• 21:24
  And so when I sat down and, and interviewed with the folks a couple
• 21:28
  years ago, I said, what, you're looking to hire a new motorsports director?
• 21:31
  What's the future?
• 21:32
  Of motorsports and at the time they said no, we're, we're committed to
• 21:35
  the long-term future of motorsports.
• 21:38
  And since I've been here now almost two years, that commitment's never wavered.
• 21:42
  You know, they didn't have to spend a half million dollars on a new fueling station.
• 21:47
  You don't need that for training.
• 21:48
  So, converted the, the concessions over to bill's, we've talking about a
• 21:53
  visitor center, all these other things.
• 21:54
  So anytime that there's been a, an opportunity to reinvest in the
• 21:58
  motorsports side of it, you know, if I can create a, a plan that makes, uh.
• 22:03
  Financial since the support has been there.
• 22:05
  So it's, it's been unwavering.
• 22:07
  I learned something new, which is how to properly pronounce the parent company.
• 22:11
  Now you're not the only person, so don't worry about it.
• 22:14
  But on top of that, what I'm really curious about is the upper
• 22:18
  echelons of the food chain there.
• 22:20
  Are there some petrol heads?
• 22:21
  Is that why they're excited about Motorsport?
• 22:23
  And my second question is, if that's the case, is there maybe a resurgence
• 22:27
  or a return to get on maybe the SA schedule or something like that to
• 22:31
  bring big racing back to Summit Point?
• 22:33
  What's your outlook on those things?
• 22:35
  Yeah, so let me, yeah, let me jump, let me jump back on one piece.
• 22:38
  It's funny 'cause people will ask sometime and they're like, well how often are
• 22:41
  the people from Exeter at the track?
• 22:43
  And I'm like, well, no, we, we, we are Exeter people, so everybody that works
• 22:48
  at the track is an Exeter employee.
• 22:50
  So it's not like there is.
• 22:52
  This mothership somewhere.
• 22:54
  And then here's some, no, it's, it's the, the employees here are employees
• 22:58
  of the extra corporation and so we are all integrated into that.
• 23:02
  So it's not outside entity, it's a company that wants to be involved in Motorsport.
• 23:08
  And on the training side, you mentioned MSA as far as I have been looking at,
• 23:13
  and there's several different directions where you can go on that, as far as that
• 23:17
  line of quote unquote bigger events.
• 23:20
  So we're looking at right now some infrastructure.
• 23:23
  There's some things that we need to do before we do that.
• 23:25
  So we're looking at plans to redo our grandstands, look at some issues
• 23:29
  of parking and that type of thing.
• 23:32
  So yes, we want to, but I don't wanna get the cart before the horse.
• 23:35
  You know, it goes back to figuring out what we can do and what we can do.
• 23:39
  Well, the last thing we'll do is.
• 23:41
  Spend a lot of money, bring in some big event, and it just be a disaster.
• 23:46
  So I think what you're gonna see is us taking steps as it goes along.
• 23:50
  One thing that's changed in the industry, and you see it in Motors
• 23:53
  sports across the gamut, is, I'll say gap for lack of a better word.
• 23:58
  The gap between what is professional motorsports and what is club Motorsports,
• 24:04
  that gap has gotten bigger and bigger.
• 24:06
  And so what's happened in years past, people you, you would go a any track and
• 24:11
  they'd go, what'd you have this week?
• 24:12
  Oh, well, our local chapter of the SCCA is here.
• 24:15
  They're running their spring races.
• 24:17
  Seven people who are there running, were at Daytona in the 24, earlier in the year.
• 24:23
  So that gap's gotten bigger just across the board.
• 24:27
  What's not gotten bigger though, is the quality of racing.
• 24:31
  If you come out here, you know the Mars series, van Atlantic Road
• 24:34
  Racing Series, you come out for that.
• 24:36
  Or when NASA is here running, they have two weekends of racing
• 24:40
  year and I'll leave somebody else.
• 24:41
  So just run a list of everybody, the PCA Club, race, you know,
• 24:44
  any of those people, you come out here, the racing is fantastic.
• 24:47
  The quality of the racing is fantastic.
• 24:50
  With that said, we're exploring some opportunities to bring some of those
• 24:56
  touring series and those types of things, but we've got work to do
• 24:59
  here first on the infrastructure side so that we can properly host them.
• 25:03
  But I don't want people to confuse the level of fame of racing for the
• 25:08
  quality of the racing, because they're not on opposite ends of the spectrum.
• 25:13
  Well, and I brought the question up, not because.
• 25:16
  You know, I'm trying to put you in a position.
• 25:18
  What I'm trying to get people to understand is VIR as a comparison went
• 25:22
  through this exact evolution, right?
• 25:24
  We saw the repave and all this stuff and we were all saddened
• 25:27
  by Oak Tree having been removed.
• 25:30
  But when IMSA stepped in, they had to change large sections of the track.
• 25:34
  They had to redo the paddock, they to do all this kind of
• 25:36
  stuff, to bring it up to par.
• 25:38
  And you're just like Oak Tree.
• 25:39
  As I grew up understanding it and understanding how to drive
• 25:43
  it, it's no longer the same turn.
• 25:44
  They had to make it bigger as more runoff.
• 25:46
  It's, it's not the sa, it's not the same anymore.
• 25:48
  And so, you know, sometimes like you, you think about even celebrity as
• 25:53
  you move up, you lose that original, that originality and that history.
• 25:57
  And so, you know, there's a fine line when you, like what would
• 26:01
  change at Summit Point if you brought in, you know, a bigger race.
• 26:04
  Right?
• 26:04
  Right.
• 26:04
  You know, those are not always financial home runs.
• 26:08
  You know, the best way that we keep Motorsport.
• 26:11
  Here is by making Motorsport successful from a business standpoint.
• 26:16
  And so, I mean, how many times have you heard about whether it's
• 26:19
  a temporary street circuit or whatever it is, and they're like,
• 26:22
  well, it wasn't a bad first year.
• 26:23
  We only lost 4 million.
• 26:25
  And you know, so yeah, like the Baltimore Grand Prix, I mean, shoot, at least
• 26:30
  if they had repaved the roads, right?
• 26:31
  But hey, yeah, no, it's, so, it's, it's one of those things where, um, so, so
• 26:35
  there are, there are lots of things out there, there are different groups
• 26:40
  out there that you could bring in that fit what you currently have here.
• 26:44
  You make some infrastructure improvements, you get more eyes on, on what's going on.
• 26:50
  But you know, to be fair, if you go back to, you know, I've got pictures
• 26:54
  around the office here and everything.
• 26:55
  If you go back to some of the days of the, uh, uh, seventies and all,
• 26:59
  and you see like just people camped all along the track and you're
• 27:03
  like, oh my gosh, what was that?
• 27:04
  And they're like, oh, it was the SECA, uh, regional race.
• 27:07
  There was also a time that those races themselves packed a lot of people in.
• 27:12
  And so there's opportunity to do that.
• 27:13
  You know, we, we've tried to reach out more, whether it's with some of
• 27:17
  our social media, some old traditional media of letting folks know, because
• 27:22
  I still have people, they'll say, oh, well I know people go up there
• 27:25
  and race, but I didn't know you had events spectators could go to.
• 27:28
  You're like, yeah, yes we do.
• 27:29
  Exactly, exactly.
• 27:31
  And going into 2020, we had a media program all put together
• 27:34
  and then we had this thing called COVID two or three different times.
• 27:37
  Now we've had these marketing programs put together and we're like, oh, okay,
• 27:40
  let's set that back on the shelf.
• 27:42
  We'll try it again in six or eight months.
• 27:43
  So that part's been a little frustrating, but literally people go, oh, well
• 27:47
  you, they do some training up there and, and my friend drove his car up
• 27:51
  there one time, but I didn't know there were events I could spectate at.
• 27:54
  You know, we started this year on the summit circuit.
• 27:56
  Just selling like reserved parking spots along the fence line so you can come
• 28:00
  in, reserve your spot for the weekend and all some of those little things.
• 28:03
  But as we get into 2022, hopefully we can be a bit more broad in what
• 28:08
  we're doing with our marketing and advertising to let people know,
• 28:12
  yeah, this is a place you come.
• 28:13
  Spend the weekend sit track side.
• 28:16
  Enjoy a great time.
• 28:17
  And I think the confusion there is for those of you that are race fans
• 28:21
  that are used to maybe going to, let's you mentioned Hagerstown, right?
• 28:24
  To maybe one of the dirt track races or you know, some of the other bigger races
• 28:29
  that are out there, or other race tracks.
• 28:30
  You gotta pay to play.
• 28:31
  You gotta pay to get in.
• 28:32
  The beauty part about Summit Point is try to remind people this all the time.
• 28:36
  It's one of the most accessible tracks on the East coast.
• 28:39
  You want to see a race during the week, during the weekend, any given weekend,
• 28:43
  there's something going on, whether it's SECA Porsche Club like you said.
• 28:46
  Mm-hmm.
• 28:46
  Or nasa, whoever, and it's like, why not?
• 28:49
  I mean, I remember even earlier this year when we did our charity event
• 28:52
  with the American Cancer Society.
• 28:54
  Mm-hmm.
• 28:54
  First of all, thank you again for that because Summit Point is always
• 28:57
  very positive and very supportive of the Motorsport community and
• 29:00
  also working with charities.
• 29:01
  But we had people that were literally from Jefferson County.
• 29:04
  In the neighborhood going, I never knew I could just come
• 29:07
  over here and watch a race.
• 29:08
  And it was completely baffling to, to hear that, you know, and
• 29:11
  there's two mindsets for that.
• 29:13
  For a while there were just like, well, hey, come on out and join us.
• 29:16
  And so what we tr what we're trying to do now is make the events
• 29:19
  very accessible, but make them spectator events, make 'em wear.
• 29:23
  If people can just swing by any time.
• 29:26
  That's great, but it's like, oh, I was gonna swing by this weekend,
• 29:29
  but eh, I'll go another weekend.
• 29:30
  And all of a sudden it's November.
• 29:32
  So what we tried to do is make the Mid-Atlantic Road Racing Series.
• 29:36
  Hey, here are the six dates for the Mars series.
• 29:38
  Be sure you're here.
• 29:40
  The, uh, FRP, which is the open wheel guys here, you know, we're
• 29:43
  starting to brand that is the West Virginia Grand Prix weekend.
• 29:46
  So we're trying to make those weekends more of a standalone.
• 29:52
  You, you, if you wanna see this event, you gotta come this weekend.
• 29:55
  So it becomes a little bit more appointment, if you will.
• 29:58
  Where people are making a point of coming to it doesn't mean there's something going
• 30:02
  on all the time and people can come to it.
• 30:04
  We've started adding, you know, to those events, some ticket
• 30:07
  prices, pretty cheap ticket prices.
• 30:09
  Uh, you know, you can rent a reserve spot for the weekend for 20 bucks.
• 30:12
  So there's some of those people.
• 30:13
  What happens there though, is now you're making a plan to come.
• 30:16
  Things where you don't make a plan to, you go, you know what?
• 30:18
  We are really thinking about getting to summit one weekend.
• 30:21
  It never happens.
• 30:22
  If you say, oh, we're going to the West Virginia Grand Prix weekend.
• 30:25
  Now you have an appointment time set to come.
• 30:28
  I think that makes, uh, makes a difference.
• 30:30
  And you see it, you know, you mentioned like Hagerstown, you know, you see
• 30:33
  on the stock cars and everything.
• 30:34
  Oh, this weekend it's one of two visits by the four 10 sprints
• 30:38
  this weekend or whatever.
• 30:39
  You know, you have those special events.
• 30:40
  So always drove me crazy on, you know, circle track stuff where they
• 30:44
  would, you'd look at their schedule.
• 30:46
  Like eight nights out of the year.
• 30:47
  It's like it's our regular show, why would you call it?
• 30:49
  Right.
• 30:49
  Who wants to go to the regular show?
• 30:52
  Like I would go, those are the eight weeks.
• 30:54
  I'm not gonna go.
• 30:55
  I'm not going to, but I'm gonna go when it's the Firecracker
• 30:59
  200 or something like that.
• 31:00
  Yeah, exactly.
• 31:01
  Exactly.
• 31:01
  There's been a longstanding relationship between Summit Point and SCCA, obviously
• 31:06
  through Bill Scott and it's, it's home to multiple disciplines of SECA
• 31:11
  Motorsport, whether it be Autocross Pro solo, rally Cross, HPDE, time
• 31:17
  trials, club racing, et cetera.
• 31:19
  Right.
• 31:20
  The list goes on and on on it's home to the WDCR region of SCA as well.
• 31:24
  Right.
• 31:25
  They run all their events through Summit Point or a majority of
• 31:27
  them, and now in conjunction with Dominion and a couple other places
• 31:31
  as well as, as they've expanded.
• 31:33
  What I'm kind of wondering is.
• 31:35
  Are there gonna be more disciplines coming to Summit Point?
• 31:37
  Do you envision drag racers using Summit Point's facility at some point, maybe
• 31:42
  to do no prep or something like that, that you know they're going to the
• 31:45
  local airport, you know, two miles away.
• 31:48
  So it goes back to what we were talking about earlier is, is there a
• 31:51
  need from the motor sports community and can we properly host it?
• 31:54
  Can we do it in a way that it's not halfway done?
• 31:58
  Yes, there are multiple things that are still out there that we can do.
• 32:03
  You know, expanding carting, we already talked on that.
• 32:05
  Looking at what we do with some of the, the newer technologies.
• 32:09
  And then we know what do our clubs need and then what can we bring
• 32:12
  in our Drift Nirvana program.
• 32:15
  The guys who do that do a great job with it.
• 32:17
  I, I think we're really scratching the surface.
• 32:19
  On what we can do there.
• 32:21
  So it's kind of twofold.
• 32:22
  I think we've got a huge opportunity to do what we're doing already,
• 32:26
  but in a bigger and better way.
• 32:28
  And then look to add those other pieces that are out there and it goes back again.
• 32:33
  It's gotta have the right business model to it, but it's, it's gotta also
• 32:36
  fit with what we are doing here and what the needs of the community are.
• 32:40
  But there, there's so many things that we've got already
• 32:42
  that we just need to expand on.
• 32:44
  It's a good thing, bad thing, however you wanna look at it.
• 32:48
  You know, our calendar's absolutely jam packed.
• 32:50
  I'm not sure where I would shoehorn something else in.
• 32:55
  And you know, you talked about that.
• 32:56
  What's, what's really cool about this place is so many people
• 33:00
  consider their home track.
• 33:01
  I mean, you mentioned SCCA, nasa, the PCA, uh, Potomac Chapter.
• 33:06
  You know, we have had the Porsche Club, BMW, Mercedes-Benz Club, SECA, nasa,
• 33:13
  all of those ones that are headquartered Mid-Atlantic or DC region or whatever.
• 33:18
  You've got a whole lot of people who.
• 33:19
  This is their home track.
• 33:21
  And there's always been a sense of ownership, which is
• 33:24
  a really, really good thing.
• 33:25
  'cause people come here and feel like they're coming to their track.
• 33:28
  You know, our, our motorcycle community, the two wheel community here, has
• 33:32
  grown huge over the last couple years.
• 33:34
  So you've got a lot of those track day groups.
• 33:37
  It's a, Hey, yeah, this is home track man.
• 33:38
  We'd love to add some dates here at our home track.
• 33:41
  So it's a good challenge for us to have.
• 33:43
  But as you talk about expanding everything, there's just, once we fill
• 33:46
  up all the tracks for 52 weeks a year, you know, that'll keep us fairly busy.
• 33:50
  This is a curiosity question more than anything.
• 33:53
  So do tracks have competitors or is it just competing for
• 33:56
  people's time where they wanna go?
• 33:58
  Do you guys have a competitor?
• 34:00
  That's, that's the biggest one.
• 34:01
  The biggest, the biggest competitor we have.
• 34:04
  From the Motorsport side is everything we do here, this is, this is recreation.
• 34:08
  These are your extra dollars to spend discretionary income, right?
• 34:12
  Yes.
• 34:12
  Your discretionary income.
• 34:14
  So from the racer standpoint, for the people who actually get on the bikes
• 34:18
  or get behind the wheel, it's nice because they're addicted to the sport.
• 34:23
  So that part is good.
• 34:24
  Getting the folks to come and try it for the first time, or come and
• 34:28
  sit track site and watch, you're competing with every other thing that
• 34:31
  distracts 'em throughout the year.
• 34:32
  So our biggest competitor is just, there's so many other
• 34:36
  things to do, which is important.
• 34:39
  You know, it falls back on some of the clubs and everything.
• 34:41
  We've also gotta keep this as a very accessible sport from the
• 34:45
  participant side, where people feel like they can come out and get
• 34:50
  involved from a financial standpoint.
• 34:52
  You know, some people go, oh.
• 34:53
  Sports car racing when I don't have several million dollars.
• 34:56
  Well, there's a whole lot of areas where you don't need it.
• 34:59
  Come do my track time in whatever car you drove to work this morning.
• 35:02
  Bring it here and come do my track time.
• 35:04
  So we need to work with, you know, the different clubs and groups to
• 35:06
  continue to make this accessible so it doesn't feel like it's just something
• 35:11
  beyond our reach and everything.
• 35:13
  It should be a piece where if people want to get involved, it's very, very easy.
• 35:17
  And it hasn't always been like that, not just here, but in the industry
• 35:20
  as a whole, where it's like, oh, well I've gotta be with, uh, this club, or
• 35:24
  I've got to, no, there's a whole lot of different ways to get on the track.
• 35:28
  I tell people.
• 35:29
  Come out and experience the track just one time, then go to some of the other
• 35:33
  events and you're gonna find, oh man, I really, I really jive with this club here.
• 35:37
  These guys are cool.
• 35:38
  They kind of match my style.
• 35:39
  'cause as you know, every group has a little bit their
• 35:42
  own personality and style.
• 35:43
  Go to a couple different ones.
• 35:44
  You're gonna find them one that you feel comfortable with.
• 35:47
  Or you know, there's some people, instead of having the stickers that
• 35:50
  actually stick on the car, they have the magnetic ones so they can
• 35:52
  change club affiliation each weekend.
• 35:55
  They're my favorite 'cause they're here like 20 times a year.
• 35:58
  So, but the summit point, track map never changes on their, never changes for them.
• 36:02
  No.
• 36:02
  They can keep that one on there.
• 36:04
  A couple factor fiction questions here before we talk about
• 36:07
  futures with Summit Point.
• 36:08
  So first off.
• 36:10
  Summit point.
• 36:10
  Apples are grown on the orchards surrounding of the track, and you
• 36:15
  can find them at local grocery stores in our area, fact or fiction.
• 36:18
  So that once was fact, but a lot of those orchards that were right
• 36:23
  on the property are no longer here.
• 36:26
  But again, that was, you know, we've kept all of that old memorabilia.
• 36:29
  We still have old Summit Point Orchard, apple boxes.
• 36:32
  We've got pictures of Bill Scott out pruning the tree.
• 36:36
  So that history, you know, one other thing we did over at Shenandoah is
• 36:39
  we've taken the upstairs at Shenandoah and put those into like VIP day suites
• 36:43
  that will be introduced to next year.
• 36:45
  And one of them is called the Orchard Suite.
• 36:47
  And there's, you know, a picture bill picking apples.
• 36:50
  So yes, it was, it was once true.
• 36:52
  But no, there, there, there are still a lot of orchards in the
• 36:54
  area, but none actually on, on site.
• 36:57
  Next question, summit Point has been used by government agencies for
• 37:01
  training exercises, fact or fiction?
• 37:03
  Oh yeah.
• 37:04
  I mean you've got like, I mean, and across the board you've
• 37:06
  got everything from local fire.
• 37:09
  EMS police, all sorts of different training that's gone
• 37:13
  on out here through years.
• 37:15
  And that's, you know, that's become a big part at a lot of tracks.
• 37:18
  And, you know, when, when Bill started doing the driver training piece, it
• 37:21
  was, um, all right, I've got my track rented Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
• 37:25
  I need to rent it Monday through Thursday.
• 37:26
  All right, what can I do?
• 37:28
  And it's not just governments, the accident avoidance program out here on
• 37:32
  the training side, literally, I don't have, we don't have stats on it, but
• 37:36
  I've probably saved hundreds of lives through the years, not just for young
• 37:39
  people, but typically a lot of young people after they get their license, come
• 37:42
  out and take that accident avoidance.
• 37:44
  So training has been a huge part of what Summit Point's
• 37:47
  done ever since Bill was here.
• 37:49
  And we're trying to step that up now where we're doing more of the training on the
• 37:52
  motorsports side with, uh, instructor training, those types of things.
• 37:56
  On the first fact.
• 37:58
  On the second.
• 37:58
  Okay.
• 37:58
  Good fact or fiction, pistol grip is named after the shooting range that's
• 38:04
  tucked behind parts of the Shenandoah circuit that many people don't realize.
• 38:08
  Is there?
• 38:09
  Yes.
• 38:09
  And it kind of looks like that too.
• 38:11
  Like Barney's head or Snoopy's head on the other thing.
• 38:14
  So no, if you're here, sometime in you're driving, you'll hear some of the
• 38:17
  ranges being used if think about it, if you're doing some driver training
• 38:19
  for police, but they could do some of the other stuff here at the same time.
• 38:22
  Just makes good business sense.
• 38:24
  Yeah.
• 38:24
  It's not a Miata backfiring in the paddock.
• 38:26
  It might be, but it's not.
• 38:29
  So, Edwin, one more factor fiction question.
• 38:31
  The shoot, and for those of us that know what the shoot is, it's the
• 38:34
  section between turn four and turn five.
• 38:37
  On Summit Maine is one of the most highly contested sections of track on any track
• 38:43
  east of the Mississippi Fact or fiction.
• 38:45
  Ooh, I'm gonna go with, I'm gonna go with fact because if you've
• 38:48
  seen like a Spec Miata race.
• 38:51
  And, uh, they try to come through the chute three, four wide.
• 38:54
  Yeah.
• 38:55
  It doesn't always work out, but it's really cool to watch.
• 38:58
  So stand down one of the reserve spots where the stands are, stand down
• 39:01
  there and watch the start of a race.
• 39:03
  And, uh, people get very, what's the right word?
• 39:05
  Very optimistic on what they can do coming down the chute.
• 39:08
  And I will say as a coach, it is one of the most argued about sections of
• 39:14
  any track anywhere I've ever been.
• 39:16
  Like, people don't argue about the boot at the Glen or, or oak tree at VIR in
• 39:21
  the same way that we argue about how you should take the shoot at Summit Maine.
• 39:26
  It's cool about it.
• 39:27
  It's, and it's not like that, like the shoot was designed.
• 39:32
  It's just kind of like they got to that part and they go.
• 39:34
  Well, we're gonna go downhill because it goes downhill here.
• 39:37
  That's the cool part of it.
• 39:38
  It's just, it wasn't designed, it just what was here.
• 39:42
  Let's move on.
• 39:43
  Let's talk about futures a little bit, but I wanna ask you, because you're
• 39:45
  very passionate about Summit Point and, and the whole entirety of the
• 39:49
  campus, and I'm sure you've been on all the circuits, whether, you know,
• 39:53
  driving them, riding them, et cetera.
• 39:55
  Which one is your favorite?
• 39:56
  Well, from the historic part of it, you know, just the history
• 40:00
  of the Summit circuit itself.
• 40:02
  Tracks like Summit aren't built anymore.
• 40:04
  If a new track is built, you go in, you move literally every cubic yard of dirt.
• 40:10
  You create a track using a computer model and they're great and they're beautiful.
• 40:15
  Don't get me wrong, they're fantastic facilities tracks like Summit and
• 40:20
  some of the others we've talked about.
• 40:21
  Some guys got on a bulldozer and they go, oh, let's kind of turn here
• 40:26
  and kind of go down the hill here.
• 40:28
  And just the historic part of being a true natural Terrain Road
• 40:33
  course makes it incredibly unique.
• 40:37
  So I think, I think from that standpoint on the history, you know,
• 40:39
  I think Jefferson is one, it kind of falls on me to do the things
• 40:42
  that we need to do on Jefferson.
• 40:43
  To me, Jefferson is just an underappreciated.
• 40:46
  Piece, and again, it was busier this year than it's ever been, and some
• 40:49
  of the pieces we're making over there are, I think, will lend to making that
• 40:53
  even busier for the years to come.
• 40:54
  So do you have a favorite of those?
• 40:56
  Just a personal favorite, like picking a favorite kid.
• 40:59
  You can't pick a favorite kid.
• 41:00
  You know, there's an evolution to every track.
• 41:02
  We had Gingerman on early this year, and they talked about their evolution.
• 41:06
  They've only been around for, they, they're celebrating their
• 41:08
  25th anniversary this year.
• 41:10
  And so they talked about, you know, one of the things they have as a claim to fame
• 41:14
  is one of the safest tracks in the country because of the way they're designed.
• 41:17
  A lot of the older tracks, as you mentioned, they were
• 41:20
  built into the elevation.
• 41:21
  Somebody saw the path and so we're gonna cut here and this is where the
• 41:24
  straightaway is gonna be, or this is where the shoot is gonna be or whatever.
• 41:27
  With that came, oh, we're gonna put a berm and we should probably put tires
• 41:32
  here and maybe a fence and things.
• 41:34
  And, and safety has evolved a ton, especially over 50 years
• 41:38
  because there are multiple tracks.
• 41:40
  At Summit Point, there's different safety concerns on all of them.
• 41:43
  The way Shado is constructed, the way Jefferson's constructed, and
• 41:47
  there's been, let's face it, assorted past on some of these tracks.
• 41:51
  We all know about some of the tragedies that have occurred over the years.
• 41:55
  Some of them are funny stories, like I've heard about nine fourteens
• 41:58
  landing on top of trees and all sorts of, you know, big fish stories.
• 42:01
  But the reality is we do have to take safety into concern now as
• 42:05
  cars are getting faster and faster right off the factory floor.
• 42:10
  So what is Summit Point doing to evolve and compensate for that?
• 42:14
  And what are some of the changes that you're implementing to make all
• 42:17
  the tracks at Summit Point better?
• 42:19
  It is an ongoing process.
• 42:21
  You don't get to a point and you go, okay, yay, we've got our safety piece done.
• 42:26
  One thing we've done is we've redone some of the tire walls is
• 42:29
  more and more of the conveyor belt where, where you can add that.
• 42:33
  It makes such a difference 'cause you, you know, you attach the tires
• 42:36
  vertically and laterally, but when you can use that conveyor belt.
• 42:39
  To hold everything together.
• 42:41
  That makes for just, you know, even a really supreme hit there.
• 42:45
  It's not displacing the tires.
• 42:46
  The tires are doing what they need to do.
• 42:47
  They're absorbing and springing back out runoff.
• 42:51
  If you had 800 feet of runoff, somebody will come back and say,
• 42:54
  gosh, we really needed 802 feet.
• 42:56
  So you're always working.
• 42:58
  But it's an ongoing process.
• 43:00
  Uh, looking at runoff areas, you know, at 10, at one with the gravel traps there,
• 43:06
  you know, you've seen some different technologies there, uh, where some
• 43:09
  places are using different stuff there.
• 43:11
  So it's always assessing what you can do.
• 43:14
  But you're right.
• 43:14
  What happens now is as cars and bikes get faster, what was decent
• 43:20
  at one point has to be improved.
• 43:21
  But when I go back and look at some of the pictures from not that long ago,
• 43:25
  you know, 20, 30 years ago here, the tires were just kinda, you know, laying
• 43:29
  over against the hill and every, so when you look at where it's come in, in, you
• 43:33
  know, the last two or three decades.
• 43:34
  Okay.
• 43:35
  If we just keep making that level of progress over the years as
• 43:39
  new stuff is designed and staying ahead of it, we'll be good.
• 43:42
  But it's, it's something that we work on every single day.
• 43:46
  And it's gotta be tough too, especially because Summit Point being built
• 43:49
  in wooded area in an old orchard and things like that, you always
• 43:54
  have green space to worry about.
• 43:56
  And obviously Jefferson has always been the biggest concern because the
• 43:59
  trees are the closest to the track.
• 44:00
  And so do you guys find yourselves having to strike a balance
• 44:04
  between environmental impact?
• 44:06
  Like how many trees can we remove while keeping green space,
• 44:10
  but making it safe as well?
• 44:12
  Is there a battle there?
• 44:12
  Is there a struggle there as well?
• 44:14
  There's some areas where it's not, it's not a factor.
• 44:16
  There are other areas, you know, a lot of times for the, the trees and everything
• 44:19
  are just having good sight lines.
• 44:20
  From a safety standpoint, I guess the piece I always go back
• 44:24
  to is if you go, well, I'm not gonna worry about it over there.
• 44:26
  'cause we've never seen a car go there and I don't think a car could ever get there.
• 44:30
  Well, guess what?
• 44:30
  At some point a car will we'll get there.
• 44:33
  We also, yeah, we also rely a lot on our partners when they're coming out here.
• 44:38
  Um, the different groups that come rent the track from us and
• 44:41
  taking their feedback as well.
• 44:44
  You know, you have to remember that yes, it, it is a, a relationship,
• 44:48
  it's a business relationship, but those people are also your
• 44:51
  partners in what you're doing.
• 44:52
  So taking feedback, getting insight there is huge.
• 44:56
  But again, it's a daily process and just do the little things.
• 45:00
  It's important to occasionally step back, drive around your own track like you've
• 45:03
  never been there before and you see stuff, you go, oh, well that's kind of weird.
• 45:07
  We need to, we need to change that.
• 45:08
  We make those changes all the time.
• 45:10
  You talked about the extension to Jefferson, you know, a lot of us
• 45:12
  call it New Jefferson, and so that was an interesting bill because.
• 45:16
  There was a lot of land brought in to build that back section.
• 45:19
  And when you're up there, it's kind of a cool look back over the campus.
• 45:23
  You can see the Washington circuit up there very clearly.
• 45:26
  You can see the other parts of the campus that you wouldn't be able to see
• 45:29
  had they not brought in all that land.
• 45:32
  I often wonder where does Jefferson go from there?
• 45:34
  Will it be expanded again?
• 45:35
  But before your tenure here at Summit Point, we heard a lot of rumors
• 45:39
  about changes coming to Shenandoah, new paths to change the shape of the
• 45:44
  track, like adding some access roads.
• 45:46
  You could cut off the corkscrew and you could do this and you could do that.
• 45:50
  Are those still on the horizon for Shenandoah?
• 45:52
  Because it feels like it's pretty blocked in between Stone House,
• 45:57
  which if you've never seen it before, you should check it out.
• 46:00
  'cause you can see it from other parts of the track and the church
• 46:02
  and other things where there's not a lot of room to grow it.
• 46:05
  Are there configuration changes that can be made to maybe, you
• 46:08
  know, give it some variation?
• 46:09
  So with Shenandoah there's already a couple places where you can do
• 46:12
  some different configurations.
• 46:13
  You're right, it's, it's kind of.
• 46:15
  As far as expanding, it's kind of in its own little space over there.
• 46:19
  There are a few places where there's some different cutoffs and everything.
• 46:23
  There's some ideas on maybe some alternate layouts, like for some of
• 46:26
  the carting people and everything.
• 46:28
  So it kind of goes back to again, if, if there's a need for it and it makes
• 46:31
  sense, you know, there's two little paved area people always ask about
• 46:34
  it, that actually, you know, they're blocked off that Connect Summit and
• 46:37
  the Jefferson, and they're like, oh.
• 46:39
  What are you doing there?
• 46:40
  And somebody said, oh, that, you know, bill once had the grand
• 46:42
  scheme, all three tracks will be hooked together and, and all that.
• 46:46
  But they're each so different from each other.
• 46:48
  It probably, it sounds cool, but it probably doesn't make sense.
• 46:51
  It's kind of like the, the Berg ring when they connect the GP track to the Nords
• 46:55
  life, you're like, it doesn't make sense.
• 46:57
  Right.
• 46:58
  Multiple animals, but there's a evolution to all of it.
• 47:01
  And as we see the needs, we evolve in what we can do there.
• 47:05
  You know, I'd like to add some amenities to Jefferson.
• 47:07
  There's some areas where do some work on some runoff, add
• 47:10
  some additional tire barrier.
• 47:11
  You know, those are the things I think right off before we go in and.
• 47:14
  Redesign and do that stuff, let's maximize what we've got there first.
• 47:18
  You know, we kind of alluded to it earlier with Shenandoah about its design
• 47:21
  and you know, it's the last track that Bill Scott built before he passed.
• 47:25
  So he purposely mimicked certain terms, as you said, from European tracks whatnot.
• 47:30
  And the carousel is a hallmark of Shenandoah.
• 47:34
  Love it or hate it.
• 47:35
  It's one of those things.
• 47:36
  Is there ever the possibility of building around it where we don't have to use it?
• 47:41
  And I bring that question up because it gets asked a lot.
• 47:44
  It's like, would there be any way, because it, I hate to say it's a
• 47:47
  wheel bearing killer, a, a lot of cars don't like going in there.
• 47:51
  It's a splitter killer.
• 47:52
  You know, things like that.
• 47:53
  I think, and I'm not trying to speak poorly of it, but It's true, you know?
• 47:56
  No, but if you just look, you know, if you look like an aerial above it.
• 48:01
  It's just, yeah, it's, it's really cool, but there's just not a lot of space there.
• 48:06
  Yeah.
• 48:06
  To do anything additional.
• 48:08
  So it's kind now, like I say, some of the groups will do, once you come
• 48:11
  up over the hill onto the bridge, there's the left loop that you can
• 48:14
  take and take it out of the equation.
• 48:16
  It shortens up the track some, but again, there's just not a place there to redo it.
• 48:20
  So it's one of those things that, you know, you talked about it.
• 48:22
  Some people are like, oh my gosh, this is my favorite track and I love this.
• 48:26
  And other people don't.
• 48:28
  What's neat is having all three facilities here, again, there's
• 48:31
  something that, it's something you like.
• 48:33
  There's some people that think it's the coolest thing that
• 48:35
  they've ever seen in the world.
• 48:37
  So being able to offer that, listen, you're never gonna be all things to
• 48:40
  all people, but having a little bit of variety I think does help us.
• 48:43
  Where other places are like sorta, Hey, here's our track.
• 48:46
  This is what we've got.
• 48:47
  We've got some variety.
• 48:49
  So we're gonna talk a little bit about the repave on main here
• 48:52
  in a second, but Jefferson got a refresh because of the extension.
• 48:55
  Is Shenandoah next?
• 48:57
  Is there a repave on the horizon?
• 48:58
  Are we gonna lose all of our visual cues?
• 49:00
  Once it gets repaved, we're gonna change all of the corners.
• 49:04
  And so those sealant lines are really important in the hook.
• 49:09
  Yes.
• 49:09
  You know, I'm just letting you know.
• 49:12
  Um, yeah.
• 49:12
  So everything has a timetable, obviously, when you pay the track.
• 49:15
  That's not gonna be a a hundred years from now and not repave it.
• 49:18
  So those are all things, what we have is.
• 49:20
  A list of what are the things that we need to do through the year.
• 49:23
  So I don't have a time or when it's gonna get done, but yeah.
• 49:26
  Oh, absolutely.
• 49:27
  At some point it's like painting your house.
• 49:29
  It just, you, you know, it needs to be done.
• 49:31
  It's part of the maintenance to it when I don't have a win for you yet.
• 49:35
  So repaving is tricky.
• 49:37
  Some tracks get better, some tracks get worse.
• 49:39
  Lap times get reset.
• 49:40
  Records get reset.
• 49:41
  'cause it's really not the same track anymore, even though it's the same layout.
• 49:45
  It's just the grip.
• 49:46
  The asphalt changes over years too.
• 49:48
  They come up with new techniques and things like that.
• 49:50
  And I remember there was a lot of consternation in 2018 when
• 49:54
  Summit Point finally got repaved.
• 49:57
  And it actually leads me into yet another fact or fiction question, which is
• 50:01
  the bump in nine was purposefully left in during the repave fact or fiction.
• 50:08
  Do you like the bump in nine?
• 50:11
  Uh, is that, that's gonna determine how I answer the question.
• 50:14
  My political answer is.
• 50:16
  I know it's a character flaw of the track.
• 50:20
  I'm gonna put it that way, but I think a lot of us dislike it.
• 50:24
  There's, you know what, and, and everything's got, you know, it's got
• 50:26
  its little nuance and everything.
• 50:28
  You know, you're never intentionally gonna do something that, you
• 50:30
  know, creates a bad situation.
• 50:32
  But, you know, I'll give Chris White who was here prior to, you know,
• 50:35
  Chris gets a ton of the credit for how successful the repave was on Summit.
• 50:41
  He did an incredible job.
• 50:43
  I know when it was going on, he literally was here making sure every
• 50:46
  piece of it was done correctly.
• 50:48
  But, you know, a track also doesn't just change when there's a new repave.
• 50:53
  There's also the change.
• 50:54
  So that's the dramatic changes that happen quickly.
• 50:56
  But there's also the change as that pavement begins to age.
• 51:00
  So as that pavement starts to become a little bit more polished or as more
• 51:04
  aggregate is exposed and changes the grip level or as different pieces settle off.
• 51:09
  So what happens is.
• 51:11
  Uh, through the life cycle of that paving through the years, you have these
• 51:14
  very, very small changes that occur.
• 51:17
  You know, it's like watching a tree grow, you know, it's
• 51:19
  happening, but it's hard to see.
• 51:20
  So you have these very small changes that occur.
• 51:23
  The trap begins to change.
• 51:24
  The surface itself changes, depends on, you know, kind of the makeup
• 51:28
  of the asphalt and aggregate.
• 51:29
  And then you have the, and people go, oh my gosh, it's all different.
• 51:31
  Well, it's been changing.
• 51:33
  The whole time.
• 51:34
  It was just a very, very slow evolutional change.
• 51:38
  You didn't notice it until they got that pave.
• 51:40
  So you know, they're living, breathing creatures.
• 51:43
  You're constantly working on them, changing them, whether
• 51:46
  it's, you know, improving the runoff or doing other things.
• 51:48
  So they're their own little living creatures.
• 51:50
  So do you think the track's faster now after the repave or you, or the numbers?
• 51:54
  You know, some groups, you know, we were looking at some, it kind of depends
• 51:57
  on the car or the bike or whatever.
• 51:59
  So we've seen some groups bring some of those numbers down.
• 52:03
  Other people, I can't remember who it was the other, not the other day, but
• 52:06
  earlier this summer, was it one of our two wheel guys might have been broke
• 52:10
  his own record and he gave it more to just, it was one of those days where
• 52:15
  the atmosphere, the group were just, all the other things were just right.
• 52:19
  He couldn't say, oh no, I did it.
• 52:21
  Absolutely.
• 52:21
  Because the track was quicker after the repaid.
• 52:23
  It was just.
• 52:24
  Everything came together.
• 52:26
  It was the right day for it and everything.
• 52:27
  So, and, and you know, being faster is not always what the goal is.
• 52:33
  Wait, what, when you're, when you're redoing, think about it
• 52:36
  from, from a racing standpoint, not from being the driver's seat, but
• 52:39
  from the racing standpoint of it.
• 52:41
  You know, you wanna create a situation where cars can run side by side.
• 52:46
  Going down the chute, you want to be able to do that late break going into one.
• 52:52
  So I, you know.
• 52:53
  My goal always with that is to make a track that is more erasable
• 52:57
  and it gives people mul, you know, multiple opportunities.
• 53:00
  If we were just doing time trial out here or something like that,
• 53:03
  then it wouldn't be as important.
• 53:05
  Let's just get one nice really fast groove and go for it.
• 53:07
  But when it comes to being a track where people go, oh my gosh, if
• 53:10
  you've never seen a race at Summit Point, you really need to go.
• 53:13
  The reasonable part of it to me is super important.
• 53:17
  You know, you watch, I'm a huge F1 fan, I love watching F1 and you
• 53:20
  know, you go crazy when sometime in the race, a car passes another
• 53:23
  car and you're like, oh my gosh.
• 53:25
  A car passing there, they're super fast.
• 53:28
  Doesn't always lead to really, really exciting racing.
• 53:30
  They're two different things.
• 53:31
  Exactly.
• 53:32
  And on a personal note, I mean, I, I drove summit soon after I got repaved
• 53:36
  and it took some getting used to, because to your point, there were
• 53:39
  grip in places where I didn't expect it because the asphalt was new.
• 53:42
  And it, and it's weird going back to that analogy you made about, you know, kind
• 53:46
  of like it being an old shoe, old hat, you know, it was the same style of shoe.
• 53:51
  Yeah.
• 53:51
  But it was all new insoles and rubber and you're like, I
• 53:55
  know how to drive this track.
• 53:56
  I've been driving it forever, but it doesn't.
• 53:57
  Feel the same.
• 53:58
  It was like putting on a new pair of socks.
• 54:00
  You're like, all right, whatever.
• 54:01
  But now, a couple years later, to your point, the surface has changed.
• 54:06
  I just drove the track a couple months ago.
• 54:08
  I was there, you know, trying to put down some lap times and
• 54:10
  whatnot in my time attack car.
• 54:12
  And it was like, wow, it is faster now.
• 54:14
  It feels more like it did before, but I don't have to worry about
• 54:17
  this rut or this bump or this thing.
• 54:20
  And you could really focus on driving it.
• 54:21
  And, and I would say Summit Point is actually more fun now that the track
• 54:25
  has seasoned and it has settled in from when it was first rep paved.
• 54:30
  But you talked about like trees and stuff like that.
• 54:31
  Also, you, you can throw people off 'cause they're like, wait a
• 54:33
  minute, that one tree down there had always been really important.
• 54:36
  'cause I knew that.
• 54:37
  And you know, and you're like, it it, you know, so there are also things that happen
• 54:41
  off track that will change it as well.
• 54:43
  So, like I said, but, but it is constantly changing.
• 54:46
  It's, you never can get something like that.
• 54:48
  To be absolutely the same.
• 54:50
  It's always gonna be in a constant state.
• 54:52
  52 years in the making.
• 54:54
  What's the next 25 look like?
• 54:56
  What are things that drivers and organizers should expect from
• 55:01
  Summit Point, let's say next season in 2022, in 23 and 24 and beyond?
• 55:05
  You talked about the new fueling station and all that, but what's next?
• 55:09
  What's coming?
• 55:09
  What's, what are you thinking about?
• 55:11
  We've got a couple of projects that are on paper right now.
• 55:15
  They're not far enough along to say, here's what we want to
• 55:17
  do, but tease us a little bit.
• 55:19
  I'm just amenities.
• 55:21
  Some of the amenities that you have at other tracks.
• 55:23
  We don't have some of those amenities that I would like to add.
• 55:26
  Some of those amenities would allow us to entertain sponsors and those people
• 55:31
  more, which leads back into your question about, you know, what type of racing
• 55:36
  do you have, but the main piece that we need to do over the next two or three
• 55:40
  years, and it carries on to the next 25.
• 55:42
  Is be sure that the investments that we're making are investments
• 55:46
  that improve the product.
• 55:48
  For our partners who got us here, A, B, C racing, we're just gonna make that up.
• 55:52
  Calls and says, oh my gosh, we really want to run at your track and our
• 55:56
  series is gonna be great there.
• 55:57
  We need this weekend.
• 55:59
  And you go, oh, well that's always been so and so's weekend.
• 56:02
  They've run that.
• 56:03
  Oh, we don't care.
• 56:04
  We'll take it.
• 56:05
  You know?
• 56:05
  Is that really the direction you want to go in?
• 56:08
  Probably not.
• 56:09
  How can we.
• 56:10
  The investments we make, how do those investments improve the
• 56:14
  product that we are selling?
• 56:16
  It's a business to the groups that rent from us and make
• 56:19
  that the shore of the business.
• 56:21
  So the people who are currently using the racetrack, we need to be sure that
• 56:25
  our investment builds on what they want, and then we can add the other stuff, but
• 56:29
  we can't have it where it's taken away.
• 56:31
  I mean, that, that's the base of your business.
• 56:34
  And so we need to be sure our investments are building that up.
• 56:37
  And somewhere between the lines.
• 56:38
  I think I heard garages in there.
• 56:40
  Is that right?
• 56:40
  Is that, is that what I'm, there's a couple different drawings for several
• 56:43
  different things that, um, yeah, actually, you know, it's one of those
• 56:47
  things you don't wanna get, you don't wanna get ahead of yourself, and people
• 56:50
  are, oh, we're getting this and we're getting that, and we're getting that.
• 56:52
  It goes back to what I said earlier about, you know, what does
• 56:54
  the Motorsports community need?
• 56:56
  We might think it's really cool.
• 56:57
  Oh, we need to have a atrium with tropical birds.
• 57:02
  That would be really cool.
• 57:03
  Into barber now, I, I can tell.
• 57:05
  Yeah.
• 57:05
  Yeah.
• 57:05
  Yes, exactly.
• 57:07
  Is that what our, the, the community needs the racing community, so
• 57:10
  it's kind of a two way street.
• 57:11
  And I think what we do need though is to get Shenandoah minimum added to iRacing.
• 57:16
  'cause I don't know if a lot of folks realize Summit Point, Maine is in I
• 57:19
  racing, and it is used a lot in the PCA sim racing series in the virtual
• 57:24
  Mars series that they were very heavy with during COVID as, as we mentioned
• 57:28
  earlier, and things like that.
• 57:29
  So when does Shenandoah get added to I racing?
• 57:31
  We actually talked to those folks within the last six months or so.
• 57:34
  Well, the other thing on Summit is the iRacing version of Summit.
• 57:38
  It's the, the prepaid version.
• 57:39
  But we've talked to 'em also about getting out here and doing some of the.
• 57:42
  Other tracks because you know it was great during COVID 'cause people had a chance
• 57:46
  to get into that who maybe hadn't before.
• 57:49
  Some people can't stand it.
• 57:50
  Other, I say it's an important part of getting people involved.
• 57:54
  Pretty funny story from just 2020.
• 57:56
  Yeah.
• 57:57
  Last year.
• 57:57
  So we have Joe Gibbs's grandson, Ty Gibbs gonna come out.
• 58:01
  He another guy.
• 58:01
  We're gonna test their ARCA cars.
• 58:03
  'cause they were gonna go run the Daytona Road course for the first time.
• 58:06
  He gets out here and he goes, man, I gotta tell you, this is one of my favorite.
• 58:10
  Road courses, I'm like, oh, Ty didn't realize you had been out here before.
• 58:13
  He is like, oh no, no, no.
• 58:14
  I mean, IRA thing.
• 58:16
  He had done tons and tons of laps on the track before he ever rolled
• 58:20
  in in his arc car and laid down some pretty decent laps out here.
• 58:23
  So it's an important part of the overall picture.
• 58:27
  There's other things that Summit Point offers that people
• 58:29
  may not be familiar with.
• 58:30
  Now, you touched on it just a little bit and you mentioned Fat Friday at the track.
• 58:35
  That's a carryover from Bill Scott racing back in the day, BSR.
• 58:39
  And you also now have the Summit Point Driver's Club.
• 58:42
  Do you wanna expand upon that and tell what people, what that's all about?
• 58:45
  So, so Friday at the track is, you know, we talked about that,
• 58:48
  my track time, that's kind of your first entree into here.
• 58:52
  And then Friday at the track just allows folks to get more on track
• 58:55
  time and what's nice there, it gets a little bit more serious there.
• 58:58
  And you can come in as a novice, we put you up with an instructor
• 59:01
  and you work with the intermediate.
• 59:03
  And so it's one way to kind of go through the ladder.
• 59:06
  Um, and there are other ones, each of our partners, not each,
• 59:09
  but a lot of our partners.
• 59:10
  Offer similar programs, but Friday at the track has been
• 59:13
  around for such a long time.
• 59:15
  But if you simply say, man, I've never thought about doing this.
• 59:17
  I'm interested.
• 59:18
  Come out, do the little introductory piece and then whether it's
• 59:21
  Friday at the track or one of the other people get involved there.
• 59:24
  'cause everybody's gonna set you up with an instructor and you're gonna
• 59:27
  walk through it at your own pace.
• 59:29
  You know, before I worked here, the two things I heard most
• 59:31
  about was Summit Point, carding.
• 59:32
  And Freddy hit the track.
• 59:33
  It became just a, a standard piece of what we do with Freddy at the track.
• 59:38
  So the driver's club, a lot of tracks started adding driver's clubs and then
• 59:42
  a while back, driver's clubs started.
• 59:44
  They started building tracks just as driver club tracks.
• 59:47
  And each driver's club, depending on the track, has a very,
• 59:50
  very different feel to it.
• 59:52
  Some places the driver's clubs are strictly what I'll call the
• 59:56
  gentleman, gentle lady driver's club.
• 59:58
  So I'm dentist, I retired, I bought insert exotic car here, Cadillac, CTSV Coop.
• 1:00:05
  I'm just gonna clarify that for you.
• 1:00:06
  And so that now you say, Hey I'm, I wanna join the driver's club and do that.
• 1:00:10
  Some other driver's club are more competitor driven, where it's
• 1:00:14
  guys who want to come out and they would use the club and you know,
• 1:00:17
  work on their competitive driving.
• 1:00:19
  Ours is really unique 'cause it's a combination of the two.
• 1:00:22
  So you've got folks out here who full bore race cars, but you also have
• 1:00:27
  that person who just wants to come out several times a year, drive the
• 1:00:31
  car the way it was intended to drive.
• 1:00:33
  So ours is a little unique in that there's room for both people.
• 1:00:37
  We have those folks who just.
• 1:00:38
  Wanna drive the exotic car fast and we have the other folks who come out
• 1:00:42
  and they want to bring their race car and get a lot of track time.
• 1:00:45
  So it's a little bit of both, but it's a nice experience too,
• 1:00:47
  'cause you come out and the drivers all get together for lunch.
• 1:00:50
  So there's a social element to it as well.
• 1:00:53
  But you'll see, just like I said, when you first get involved, different clubs
• 1:00:56
  have different personalities and styles.
• 1:00:58
  You'll find the one that works for you as you go from track to track.
• 1:01:01
  You'll see each one of their drivers' clubs has a little bit different
• 1:01:04
  flavor depending on where you go.
• 1:01:07
  Are there any additional perks to being part of the Summit Point Drivers' Club?
• 1:01:11
  Yeah, so some of our other events, so whether it's a a Friday, the track
• 1:01:14
  or a seat time or an open practice, there's some perks there on some of
• 1:01:18
  the pricing and that type of thing.
• 1:01:20
  We wanna start adding some other pieces to it, which ties into adding some
• 1:01:24
  of the other physical amenities here.
• 1:01:26
  At the track.
• 1:01:27
  So that becomes part of it as, as well.
• 1:01:29
  'cause it should have any good club like that should have a
• 1:01:31
  good social aspect to it, because that's an important part of it.
• 1:01:35
  We just need to add some of the infrastructure to do some more of that.
• 1:01:39
  It's, uh, either subscription or tiered pricing model and a lot of those details
• 1:01:43
  are gonna be on the Summit point website.
• 1:01:45
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:01:46
  Yeah.
• 1:01:46
  Or just, or, or just.
• 1:01:47
  Give us a call or come out one day, we'll walk you through the process
• 1:01:51
  depending on what you want to do and how you want to, uh, experience the club.
• 1:01:55
  There's a few different ways to get involved.
• 1:01:57
  You know, one thing that's neat about our club is most of the new members come
• 1:02:00
  as recommendations from current members.
• 1:02:03
  We'll say, Hey, my buddy Fred, I've known Fred for a long time, we wanna recommend
• 1:02:06
  him to join the, the driver's club.
• 1:02:07
  So that's cool too 'cause it kind of keeps that comradery.
• 1:02:11
  And that social aspect really, really strong.
• 1:02:13
  And along with future proofing Summit Point, I have to tip my hat
• 1:02:17
  to Summit because it was one of the first tracks I saw that added the
• 1:02:21
  capability to bring in EVs at the track.
• 1:02:25
  I have noticed there are Tesla charging stations and other charging stations
• 1:02:28
  at the track, and I personally had been able to instruct in some of those
• 1:02:32
  vehicles because that capability exists.
• 1:02:35
  So what do you think about the EV revolution or the
• 1:02:38
  evolution as we come in, right?
• 1:02:40
  And what's it gonna bring to Summit Point?
• 1:02:42
  What are you thinking on on that front?
• 1:02:44
  You know, I said it's very important that we keep this very accessible.
• 1:02:47
  The larger group of vehicles that we can draw from, the better we'll be in the
• 1:02:53
  long run to see the, uh, the EVSR guys.
• 1:02:56
  Out here, you know, racing with SCCA in the Mars series is really, really cool.
• 1:03:01
  In fact, the folks, uh, motor Week, uh, Maryland Public Television
• 1:03:04
  came out here and shot a really great piece about those guys.
• 1:03:08
  Uh, we just had a meeting the other day to see what we can do
• 1:03:11
  with some of our charging stations to take those to the next level.
• 1:03:14
  'cause again, nothing's ever static.
• 1:03:16
  There's always an, you buy the latest and greatest and it's really
• 1:03:19
  cool for about a minute and a half.
• 1:03:21
  So, how we can upgrade those facilities as well.
• 1:03:23
  But, you know, I, I think if you ever get in a situation where you're.
• 1:03:27
  Limiting the people that you can do business with, you're
• 1:03:30
  limiting your opportunity to grow.
• 1:03:32
  You know, they were great when they came in last year and they got with
• 1:03:35
  our, um, EV guys and ev there you go.
• 1:03:37
  But the other EV and our fire and all and went over the car with them
• 1:03:42
  so they felt very comfortable if they had to respond to an incident.
• 1:03:44
  So it's a plus across the board.
• 1:03:47
  And you got in front of one of my fact or fiction questions, which was
• 1:03:51
  whether or not Motor Week U utilizes Summit Point for some of its episodes.
• 1:03:55
  And that is an absolute fact.
• 1:03:57
  They've been using it for quite a long time.
• 1:03:58
  That is a fact.
• 1:03:59
  They've been here a couple times this year.
• 1:04:02
  We always like when they come out here and, and join us 'cause they, you know,
• 1:04:05
  you think about the, uh, history, that show has an incredible history and
• 1:04:09
  to have them here pretty much in our backyard, we're always happy to have them
• 1:04:13
  and try to work with them when we can.
• 1:04:14
  Put it this way.
• 1:04:15
  I met Jim Davis when he and I were both much younger, so, but he was
• 1:04:20
  definitely, you know, that local hero, like 75 and 80 Summit point.
• 1:04:24
  They're doing all their testing and I always thought it was the coolest thing.
• 1:04:26
  Again, it's a small world and it's all tied together and it's awesome
• 1:04:29
  that Summit Point is part of that.
• 1:04:31
  'cause Motor Week is a nationally televised Oh yes.
• 1:04:33
  Show.
• 1:04:34
  Even though it's based here in Maryland.
• 1:04:36
  As we kind of wrap up, I have a fun question for you
• 1:04:38
  to answer for our audience.
• 1:04:40
  We're gonna eliminate some variables here.
• 1:04:42
  We're gonna assume it's on Summit Point, Maine, but if there's any one
• 1:04:45
  car that you could drive on Summit Point, Maine, what would it be?
• 1:04:50
  Ooh.
• 1:04:50
  Probably to take a lap around there in one of Bill Scott's old open wheel cars.
• 1:04:56
  Just you can tell I'm a big history guy.
• 1:04:59
  But that would be really cool to drive one of Bill's open wheel
• 1:05:02
  cars for a lap around Summit.
• 1:05:04
  The poster on the wall car.
• 1:05:05
  What's that for you?
• 1:05:06
  Oh, speed Racer's Mach five.
• 1:05:09
  All right.
• 1:05:10
  And to go with that sexiest car of all time.
• 1:05:13
  Ooh, that is tough.
• 1:05:16
  Not a gremlin.
• 1:05:18
  Wow.
• 1:05:18
  That I've never, I usually get that for ugliest car of all time.
• 1:05:21
  Gremlin, you know what I probably the uh, uh, split rear window vet.
• 1:05:27
  Probably gotta be right up there.
• 1:05:28
  63 Stingray.
• 1:05:29
  Yep.
• 1:05:29
  That'll do it.
• 1:05:30
  Yeah, that'll do it.
• 1:05:31
  Well, Edwin, I can't say enough good things about Summit Point.
• 1:05:34
  And obviously the folks that are in our area that know Summit Point
• 1:05:38
  resonate with this, they can feel both of our passions about how we
• 1:05:41
  love the track, how it's grown, how it's changing, and how it's gonna be
• 1:05:44
  here for hopefully another 52 years.
• 1:05:47
  So I can't thank you enough for doing what you're doing and, and keeping
• 1:05:51
  Motorsport alive at Summit Point.
• 1:05:52
  And so, in summary, I want tell everybody Summit Point
• 1:05:56
  Motor Sports Park is just that.
• 1:05:58
  It's a full on campus, multiple tracks.
• 1:06:01
  It's a motor sports park and it hosts a variety of activities and there is
• 1:06:05
  truly something for everyone to explore.
• 1:06:09
  At Summit Point.
• 1:06:10
  You really need to look into how to make.
• 1:06:12
  Part of you.
• 1:06:14
  So for more details on Summit Point, please be sure to visit summit point
• 1:06:19
  raceway.com or follow them on Facebook and Instagram at Summit Point Raceway,
• 1:06:25
  or get in touch with Edwin directly at motorsports@exetorcorp.com.
• 1:06:31
  So, Edwin, again, I can't thank you enough.
• 1:06:33
  This has been super awesome and I'm, I'm happy you're able to tell this story
• 1:06:37
  and we look forward to working with you and with all the other partners
• 1:06:40
  that you mentioned, S-C-C-A-P-C-A, et cetera, for the next 50 years and beyond.
• 1:06:44
  So this is super exciting.
• 1:06:46
  So I just need folks to do one thing for me and it'll be perfect
• 1:06:50
  next time you come to the track.
• 1:06:51
  Invite a friend who's never been to come with you, that'll make
• 1:06:55
  all the difference in the world.
• 1:07:01
  If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM, be sure to
• 1:07:04
  check us out on www.gt motorsports.org.
• 1:07:08
  You can also find us on Instagram at Grand Tour Motorsports.
• 1:07:11
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call
• 1:07:16
  or text us at (202) 630-1770 or send us an email at Crew chief@gtmotorsports.org.
• 1:07:24
  We'd love to hear from you.
• 1:07:26
  Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here.
• 1:07:28
  We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted
• 1:07:31
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• 1:07:37
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• 1:07:42
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• 1:07:45
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• 1:08:09
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• 1:08:14
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