Bruno, the managing partner, will step down from his position effective November 15, 2015; media director Justin St. Louis and marketing director Dick Therrien will do the same. Airborne Park Speedway recently completed its 62nd season and operated under sanction from the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series in 2015. Plans for a weekly competition format and schedule in 2016 are not presently known, though stock car special events and competition go-kart racing plans are under development.
An automotive and racing equipment swap meet and car show on Sunday, October 25 will continue as planned. The Airborne Park Speedway 2015 Banquet of Champions will also go on as scheduled, to be held on Saturday, November 14, at the Rainbow Wedding and Banquet Hall in Altona, NY.
For the ownership parties, increasing commitments to family and other business interests factored into the decision; all three members also own and manage separate businesses. Fuller owns and operates Fuller Excavating in Keeseville, NY and the Harmony Golf Club in Port Kent, NY; Atkins owns and operates Northline Utilities in Au Sable Forks, NY and manages an American-Canadian Tour Late Model racing team for his son and driver, Brandon Atkins; and Bruno owns and operates three Bruno’s Towing & Auto Repair facilities in Rutland County, VT and Devil’s Bowl Speedway in West Haven, VT.
Fuller purchased Airborne Park Speedway in 2007 and made major facility improvements including the construction of two VIP suite towers and a new track surface. “I’m encouraged by the progress that the track made in 2015 and I want to see it continue to thrive as a race track in the future,” Fuller said. “Mike Bruno and the team that ran the track this year proved to me that racing will absolutely still work as a business, and they have left Airborne in a much better place than it has been in for many years.”
Atkins, a former racer, became part of the Airborne Park Speedway ownership group in 2009. “We met or exceeded every goal that we set together this year and we saw many positive indicators for the future of racing at Airborne,” he said. “This decision has more to do with time than anything else. Airborne turned a big corner in 2015 and became financially viable for the first time in many years, and that is due to the efforts of Mike Bruno and the staff that he put in place this past year. Now it is important that we select the right person or group to come into Airborne and keep the racing tradition alive and bring the venue to the next level.”
Bruno, a former champion driver at Airborne, joined the ownership group and was named the track’s general manager in November 2014. “We all love Airborne and this decision has been hard on all of us, but there came a point when reality set in,” Bruno said. “I am very proud of what we accomplished in 2015, but at the same time none of us want to sacrifice time with our families or turn our attention away from our own separate businesses. Our internal conversations about this started a while ago, but I think that the recent passing of racer Leon Gonyo only strengthened our desire to spend more time closer to home.”
The current ownership group agrees that it is important for a new prospective owner or leaseholder to operate Airborne Park Speedway as a stock car racing facility with a local focus. The facility is available for sale, lease, or event-ready rental.
“Plattsburgh loves racing, and the people of the North Country have been devoted to Airborne for more than 60 years,” Fuller said. “The race teams, sponsors, and fans have been our biggest supporters, and we did not want to leave any of them guessing about our roles at Airborne for the future. It was important for us to be honest with them about this decision as early in the off-season as possible.”
Airborne Park Speedway is located on Broderick Road in Plattsburgh, NY, one mile south of Exit 36 on the Interstate 87 Northway. Visit www.airborneparkspeedway.com for more information, or call (518) 647-4444. Airborne Park Speedway is on Facebook at Facebook.com/AirborneParkSpeedway and on Twitter at @AirborneSpeed
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