By Doc Lehman
Long time dirt Late Model veteran driver Kevin Gundaker and his father, Gordon Gundaker, are the new owners of Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, IL, revealed the driver turned promoter Friday afternoon to Dirt America Online. The Gundaker’s, who own G&G Motorsports, have purchased the track from Bob Wente and will assume control of the track in time for the 2005 racing season. Tri-City Speedway is located one-half mile south of I-270 on Illinois Route 203 south (exit 4), just 10 minutes north of downtown St. Louis, MO.
“After a lot of consideration G&G Motorsports, which is myself and my father, Gordon Gundaker, we have purchased Tri City Speedway in Granite City, IL. We actually tried to purchase it about five years ago but Bob Wente didn’t want to sell it at that time. But within the last six weeks or so Bob called and asked if we were still interested, which we were, and it just took a little while to work out all the details. And we worked them all out.”
Gundaker stated that no major changes would take place other than they have decided to run on Sunday.
“We’re going to keep everything the same,” commented Gundaker. “It will still be called Tri City Speedway, everyone knows it as that. All the horror stories about people making it a shopping mall, well, we have made a long-term commitment to stay as a race track and function as a race track.”
“Right now we’ll definitely run the Late Models, Modifieds and a Sportsman class, those three classes for sure. We do have a commitment with the World of Outlaws to run one of their dates, a Sprint Car show, and we have a UMP SUMMERNATIONALS show. There is also a tentative World of Outlaw Late Model date as well. We’re even thinking about bringing in a couple other things like maybe the MARS series. There are still a couple open dates that we will fill and we want to bring more to the table and add to what is there.”
Gundaker also feels running in Sundays will offer race fans a good show with plenty of quality cars and teams.
“There are four area Saturday night tracks and we feel with no one else running on Sunday nights we’ll have a better entertainment package for the whole area,” said Gundaker, who is also high on the Tri-City Speedway staff that is in place. “At this point we’ll pretty much keep the same staff on. We haven’t really covered a lot of those issues yet. Were not in there to shake the walnuts out of the trees, we just want to keep on rolling there.”
The veteran racer’s decision to purchase the track also, admittedly, had some sentimental and nostalgic undertones. Tri City Speedway is where Gundaker turned his first competitive laps nearly 32 years ago.
“I think it was more me than my Dad,” responded Gundaker upon being asked why he purchased the racetrack. “This racetrack goes back a long ways. In 1973 this is where I made my first lap. I raced there for two or three years before I ever ventured to another facility so it has a lot of historic value to me personally. A lot of good racers came from here. Rusty Wallace started there, Ken Schrader, Kenny and Mike Wallace, there has been just a bunch of people that have come through at one time or another. There are a lot of roots there for me.”
Gundaker indicated that further news and announcements would be forthcoming. For further information contact G&G Motorsports at: 636-329-1122.
©2004 Doc Lehman/Dirt America
Used with permission of DAO/LMS
Long time dirt Late Model veteran driver Kevin Gundaker and his father, Gordon Gundaker, are the new owners of Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, IL, revealed the driver turned promoter Friday afternoon to Dirt America Online. The Gundaker’s, who own G&G Motorsports, have purchased the track from Bob Wente and will assume control of the track in time for the 2005 racing season. Tri-City Speedway is located one-half mile south of I-270 on Illinois Route 203 south (exit 4), just 10 minutes north of downtown St. Louis, MO.
“After a lot of consideration G&G Motorsports, which is myself and my father, Gordon Gundaker, we have purchased Tri City Speedway in Granite City, IL. We actually tried to purchase it about five years ago but Bob Wente didn’t want to sell it at that time. But within the last six weeks or so Bob called and asked if we were still interested, which we were, and it just took a little while to work out all the details. And we worked them all out.”
Gundaker stated that no major changes would take place other than they have decided to run on Sunday.
“We’re going to keep everything the same,” commented Gundaker. “It will still be called Tri City Speedway, everyone knows it as that. All the horror stories about people making it a shopping mall, well, we have made a long-term commitment to stay as a race track and function as a race track.”
“Right now we’ll definitely run the Late Models, Modifieds and a Sportsman class, those three classes for sure. We do have a commitment with the World of Outlaws to run one of their dates, a Sprint Car show, and we have a UMP SUMMERNATIONALS show. There is also a tentative World of Outlaw Late Model date as well. We’re even thinking about bringing in a couple other things like maybe the MARS series. There are still a couple open dates that we will fill and we want to bring more to the table and add to what is there.”
Gundaker also feels running in Sundays will offer race fans a good show with plenty of quality cars and teams.
“There are four area Saturday night tracks and we feel with no one else running on Sunday nights we’ll have a better entertainment package for the whole area,” said Gundaker, who is also high on the Tri-City Speedway staff that is in place. “At this point we’ll pretty much keep the same staff on. We haven’t really covered a lot of those issues yet. Were not in there to shake the walnuts out of the trees, we just want to keep on rolling there.”
The veteran racer’s decision to purchase the track also, admittedly, had some sentimental and nostalgic undertones. Tri City Speedway is where Gundaker turned his first competitive laps nearly 32 years ago.
“I think it was more me than my Dad,” responded Gundaker upon being asked why he purchased the racetrack. “This racetrack goes back a long ways. In 1973 this is where I made my first lap. I raced there for two or three years before I ever ventured to another facility so it has a lot of historic value to me personally. A lot of good racers came from here. Rusty Wallace started there, Ken Schrader, Kenny and Mike Wallace, there has been just a bunch of people that have come through at one time or another. There are a lot of roots there for me.”
Gundaker indicated that further news and announcements would be forthcoming. For further information contact G&G Motorsports at: 636-329-1122.
©2004 Doc Lehman/Dirt America
Used with permission of DAO/LMS
