Badlands Motor Speedway Cancels ‘The Race’, Schedules Auction Instead

The latest publicity stunt to try and return sprint car racing to the former Huset's Speedway in Brandon has been scrapped less than a week before it was supposed to take place.

A notice on the Badlands Motor Speedway website says plans for what was being called 'The Race' have now been canceled due to lack of participation.

The event was being billed as an opportunity for one driver to have the chance to take ownership of the track with a victory at the August 13 event.

The plans called for a minimum of 18 cars to pay a $200,000 entry fee, leaving the winner with the option of taking control of the track or walking away with the cash - $3.6 million.

In the end, only three drivers signed up to race.

Track owner Chuck Brennan is now pivoting from 'The Race' to a May 2020 auction, which a press release says:

...will not be to auction off the land, track, and business. This will be to auction off the hundreds of assets at the track. Literally, everything from the bleachers to the buildings, vehicles, concession equipment, billboard system, elevators, furnishings, Musco lighting systems, sound, lights, electronics, down to the dirt from the track if someone wants to buy it. It will ALL go and then the facility will finally be decommissioned.

The release also revealed that the price tag to buy the speedway outright has undergone 'a substantial price reduction', although a new price has not been listed.

In the hopes of finding a buyer, Brennan says he's willing to finance up to 50% of the purchase price at seven percent interest.

Apparently leasing the track is also an option.

The track says a finance group will purchase the track if a suitable partner can be found to pay $60,000 per month on top of a  substantial down payment and security deposit.

Brennan purchased Huset's Speedway, which opened in 1954,  from the Rubin family in 2015 and changed the name to Badlands Motor Speedway.

Less than two years later, Brennan closed the track after South Dakota voters voted in a new law limiting the interest rates Brennan's Dollar Loan Centers and other payday loan companies could charge