Whenever you see the Powerball numbers reach eight- or nine-figure sums, as a motorsport enthusiast, it’s hard not to drift off on a flight of fantasy about how to spend the winnings. For many of us, building a racing team from scratch or investing in an existing team would be a dream. Just think what this owner or that owner might do if he or she didn’t have to take pay drivers. Or how about investing in a select few drivers in whom you truly believe?
For some of us, all that human interaction would be too much. Instead, we’d start collecting vintage race and rally cars – that Holman-Moody Ford Torino Talladega we’ve always drooled over, or a Penske PC20, BMW CSL, Ferrari F187, Lancia Stratos, Lancia Delta Integrale, Lotus 72, Reynard 95i, etc.…
Most ambitious of all, however, would be to build a race track, and turn it into a business that will one day give you a return on investment, but in its early stages is just a labor of love. And that’s what Rusty Bittle – a developer and entrepreneur rather than a lucky lottery winner – is developing in Cumberland County, Tennessee.
Flatrock Motorsports Park and Motorclub will feature a 3.5-mile Circuit Club track, a 2.67-mile Grand Prix track and a combined configuration ‘endurance’ track that is nearly six miles long. The layouts have been designed by Tilke GmbH and are FIA Grade 2, which allows anything except Formula 1 to race there, and they are blessed with plenty of elevation changes.
Tim Chandler, VP of marketing at Flatrock explains: “Twenty-something years ago when Rusty really started thinking about building a course, he was specifically looking at building a small kart course, because he was in kart racing. But from there his vision grew.
“Three years ago, the venue was going to be in Oakridge, Tennessee, and he was looking at a much larger racetrack, but it wasn’t working out and there were complications with government, and it was going to cost millions and millions more, and there weren’t even guarantees he would get approval.
“So Rusty started looking for other locations. And about 40 miles outside Knoxville, on the I-40 between Knoxville and Nashville, he found an amazing piece of property that was to be an industrial park. It was going to be the home of the VW plant in Tennessee [which instead was built 75 miles southwest in Chattanooga].
“This piece of land is set in 773 acres nestled in the Tennessee Hills, on a plateau, but less…
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