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From today's Muskogee Phoenix:
New buyers may open speedway by year's end
By Liz McMahan
Phoenix Staff Writer
Thunderbird Speedway may be open for racing again as early as year's end, said Charlie Fulton, who submitted the only bid for buying the historic racetrack Wednesday afternoon. Fulton and his brother, Tommy Fulton, bid $87,500.55 for the 32.09 acres at the east end of the Muskogee Fairgrounds, which includes the racetrack and grandstand.
The Fultons said they are ready to go to work immediately on renovations, but the purchase must first be approved by the fair board, the city's finance committee and the City Council. The fair board meets March 8. The council vote likely will come at the March 26 meeting.
Janey Cagle Boydston, who is chairman of the fair board and the finance committee and a city councilor said she expects no opposition to the sale price.
There was no appraisal on the property, said Shirley Simpson, city purchasing agent.
Boydston said the fair board had no estimate of what the property should bring. They were just hoping to get a good bid from someone who would reopen the facility and draw the crowds at the Muskogee track.
"Everyone's very anxious to get the race track open again," Boydston said. "It's great for tourism, people come from a long way off to see the races."
Thunderbird Speedway was built in the late 1950s on a track that originally was built in the 1910s for horse racing, Fulton said. It is one of the only half-mile tracks in the region.
Muskogee resident Ross Staggs said Thunderbird Speedway has a national reputation, largely because it is a half-mile track. Most of the other dirt tracks are three-eighths or one-quarter mile.
"That's the last half-mile track in this part of the United States," Staggs said. "It's just different (racing on a longer track). It's bigger, you can get up more speed. The track's wider, there's more passing. It's just better racing."
Thunderbird is the track were locals such as Charlie Randolph Sr., Tommy Laster and Dan Leatherman established reputations as winners. It also has hosted the likes of Indianapolis 500 winners Mario Andretti and Johnny Rutherford, who made promotional appearances there.
Fulton said he and his brother likely will take the track's original name — Thunderbird Speedway — instead of the more recently used Muskogee Speedway.
They plan to spend $100,000 or more for renovations that should begin very soon, he said. The racing facility is in very bad shape, Fulton said. Vandals have stripped all the wiring from the concession stand and vandalized the grandstand.
The $10,000 box seats he and Harold Leep installed several years ago when they had the racetrack leased all have to be removed, he said.
"It needs a facelift all the way, from one end to the other," Fulton said.
The grandstand has a capacity of 4,200. Fulton said he doesn't expect it to be full every Friday night but hopes to draw at least 1,000 spectators for weekly races and as many as 4,000 for special events. Racing categories will be IMCA modifieds, factory stock and super modifieds. He also hopes to have weekly sprint car races since most of the sprint car tracks in the region have closed.
Boydston said the fair board expects to enter a contract with the Fultons to allow them to use fairgrounds parking during the races.
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