Motorsports businessman Charles Roberts is leading an investment group that has purchased Crate Racin’ USA, also known as Durrence Layne Racing, from the sanctioning body’s founders Mike and Heather Vaughn. Roberts is well known in the industry as a fan, sponsor, tire dealer and track owner.

The sale was previously announced as being sold to an anonymous investment group.

“There isn’t a person on earth that I would feel more comfortable in selling a successful racing business that Heather and I started 15 years ago than Charles Roberts,” Mike Vaughn said.

Vaughn founded Crate Racin’ USA in 2005 as he saw the need for a dirt late model series where the race cars were exclusively powered by the economical steel-block aluminum-head Chevrolet Performance 604 circle track engine, also known as a crate engine because of the container the engine was shipped in.

What started as a single traveling series has blossomed into two touring series and a four-division weekly racing series that competes over a 27-week season at 30 different race tracks across the country.

With the 2019 racing season already underway, Roberts said all of the current personnel employed by the Vaughns would remain in place.

Event and weekly track agreements are being finalized and will be announced by the sanctioning body in the coming days.

In related news, Durrence Layne Racing has announced two additional tracks have signed agreements for weekly racing sanctions.

The Durrence Layne Chevrolet Late Model division, the Durrence Layne Performance Parts Street Stock division, and the Durrence Layne Chevrolet Modified Sportsman division will each be featured on both Thunderhill Raceway (Summertown, Tennessee) and Tennessee National Raceway (Hohenwald, Tennessee) schedules in 2019.

For more information and rules about the Durrence Layne Racing Divisions, visit the series website.