MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. — Myrtle Beach Speedway’s days as a race track may be numbered.
According to a report from myrtlebeachonline.com, track owner Bob Lutz has entered into a contract with a land developer. The deal is contingent on a rezoning request that would allow the developer to turn the speedway and its property into a commercial and housing development.
Lutz said the speedway will continue to operate its racing schedule until the rezoning proposal is passed.
“I have a developer that has an interest in the property and that interest is contingent on getting it rezoned for what he wants to use it for,” Lutz told myrtlebeachonline.com. “We all know that’s a long process and sometimes they go through and sometimes they don’t. So we are operating the facility on a normal basis as if nothing’s going to change.
“If it does then we come out with the revised schedule or plans with the speedway… It is not shutting down, that’s what I want people to know. There is not a date we’re going to shut the facility down and close it.”
The .538-mile asphalt track located on U.S. 501 North, opened in 1958. Lutz purchased the track with partners Shark Investments LLC in 2012, and later became the sole owner of the facility.
“It is so expensive to operate a facility like that, we continue losing money year after year and just at some point you have to say we tried with everything we possibly could and realize that without people in the stands you’re never going to be able to survive,” Lutz told myrtlebeachonline.com. “So the people that say, ‘Why is it going away?’ and ‘We wish it would stay,’ I wish those people would support us week after week and we wouldn’t have to do this.”