Race Season on the Brink

By Rob McCurdy

May 21, 2010

MANSFIELD -- The season at Mansfield Motorsports Park could be over before it starts.

According to Kevin Ruic, a contracted promotional manager for the north side race track, events were called off Thursday.

"I got a call (Wednesday) night that he wasn't opening this season for personal reasons," Ruic said. "He said, 'I'm not closed, but I'm not opening up.' I've been told that he was putting it up for sale. I have no single reason why after all this time and with the season starting in a couple of weeks he decided that.

"This morning I called the sanctioning bodies and told them that events are off and that's it."

One sanctioning body that did not get a call was the ARCA Racing Series, presented by ReMax and Menards. It is scheduled to bring the Tim Richmond Memorial ARCA 200 to MMP on July 17 for a second straight year.

"I don't know anything about that. All I know is we're still rocking and rolling," race promoter Joe Mattioli said. "I talked to Mike (Dzurilla, the track owner) earlier in the week. I'm still working on bringing it."

ARCA spokesman Don Radebaugh said no one at the sanctioning body has heard about the race being canceled or the track closing.

Attempts to reach Dzurilla to clarify the situation at the Crall Road facility were unsuccessful.

After a special-events-only season in 2008, MMP canceled the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event for 2009. The track was open for just three events last season: ARCA's Tim Richmond Memorial, a street stockers national and a Labor Day weekend stunt and thrill show.

"I came in three weeks before Labor Day to put on the Labor Day show, and I gave him 11,200 adults and 6,000 kids," Ruic said. "It was going to be a barn-burner year."

The season was to start June 5 with the Bounty Series, a regional touring late model series, taking over the track with modifieds. The Main Event Series, an outlaw late model group, was to headline a June 19 show, while Ruic was bringing a July 3 monster truck show that may be shifted to the Medina County Fairgrounds.

After the ARCA race, the Bounty Series was returning Aug. 7 with supermodifieds racing on Aug. 14. The season was closing out Aug. 21 with the Main Event Series and Sept. 4 with another Labor Day weekend stunt show put together by Ruic.

"I have other clients," Ruic said, "but this one was going to be my favorite. I feel bad for him, and I don't know what happened."

In an extensive interview with the News Journal last month, Dzurilla was excited about opening for a full 2010 season and optimistic his plans for the facility -- which he called Phase 2 and included a drag strip, among other things -- would creep closer to fruition.

"A couple of years ago it became apparent to me that the foundation here was broken and you don't build on a broken foundation," he said. "What I did was spend one, two, three years fixing the foundation."

However, problems persisted.

According to the Ohio Division of Liquor Control, the track lost its permit to sell alcohol April 16. Dzurilla chalked it up to a paperwork issue and said he routinely paid his fees late because of a lack of income in the offseason. The fee is $2,344.

"I'm checking into those things right now to make sure it's the same way, and if not, fix it," he said in April.

According to public records at the Richland County Auditor's Office, MMP also owed more than $120,000 in delinquent property taxes in 2009.

"I've got an issue with taxes and I have to take care of it," Dzurilla said, adding he would go on a payment plan. "I'm going to take care of it. When you owe people money, it's a diversion, but the sooner I can take care of that, the sooner I can get back to looking at Phase 2 and this schedule."

Dzurilla lamented the fact the track is open for business only a few days a season.

"What business do you know can have expenses 365 days a year and have income seven days? There is no way you can make enough money on those seven events to only be able to work seven days. I would love a job where I only had to work seven days and made a lot of money," Dzurilla said last month. "What Phase 2 does is really give us the ability to have income 250 days a year."

When asked what he's learned in his near 10 years of running MMP, Dzurilla was candid.

"The more I try to get away from drama, the more it attaches itself to me," he said.

rmccurdy@nncogannett.com 419-521-7241

Keywords: mansfield motorsports park, race track, track