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New Management At Ace Speedway
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A one-person company that bills itself as a specialist in upgrading grassroots racing facilities has reached a deal to operate Ace Speedway in 2015.
Short Track Management of Winston-Salem, headed by and comprised of Bill Catania, announced an agreement with Ace owner Abraham Woidislawsky to take charge of the speedway immediately, a pact that includes an exclusive option for Catania to buy the track by the end of next year.
Brad Allen, Ace’s general manager during the last five seasons, had been part of a group that leased operations of the speedway from Woidislawsky. Catania said he now holds those rights and his company has become the only entity that can execute an ownership purchase on Ace through the end of 2015.
“We desire to own it. We certainly would like to buy it,” Catania said. “Short Track Management’s goal is to align ownership and operations, because when those are out of line, that’s when tracks fall into disrepair.
“I just have to prove to myself the track can be financially feasible. And I know that if I can get in there for four or five or six months, that’ll give me the basis to be able to move forward with the purchase.”
He said Ace, located in Altamahaw and the only auto racing venue of its kind in Alamance County, will continue as a Friday night race track, with its 59th season scheduled to open April 3.
Catania is a 38-year-old from Westfield, New York, a town in the western part of the state that’s nestled beside Lake Erie. He describes himself as the son and grandson of a racer. He raced, too, some while in college at Cornell, and has since built a profitable background in software and internet business ventures.
His coming on board creates a changing of the guard that hardly registers as a Christmastime surprise at Ace, perpetually a lighting rod for uncertainty and speculation in these type of matters under Woidislawsky, the Philadelphia real estate developer who bought the speedway for $2.1 million in 2006.
Allen, the Burlington native and former champion driver in the Modifieds division at Ace, has feuded publically with Woidislawsky and recent offseasons have been marked by Allen’s threats to leave the general manager’s job or his walking away and then returning.
Catania and Allen both said that they plan to meet in the coming weeks. It sounds as if there’s a possibility that Allen, a popular figure among Ace’s tight-knit community, could remain at the track in some type of administrative capacity.
“My goal is to change as little as possible in terms of staff,” Catania said, referring to Ace’s workers and track personnel. “I have no interest in changing those things. The people that have made the track successful as an operation, I want to keep them going and keep the history there.
“The things I think I can put my hands on and make better are increasing the attendance, increasing the driver count, rebranding and marketing, finding different ways to leverage the facility for revenue and profit, cost containment. Those are things that I focus on.”
Catania said he envisions growing Ace as a “multipurpose venue” while improving and boosting the profile of the go-kart track and tractor pull and mud bog areas that are in place on the 51-acre property.
He formed Short Track Management in April and quickly has become a player on the local level of minor league racing.
Ace is the third track Catania has acquired, joining Stateline Speedway, a dirt racing surface in Busti, N.Y., near the New York/Pennsylvania border, and Eriez Speedway, another dirt track in Hammett, Penn.
Catania said he has poured more than $750,000 of renovations and improvements into Stateline Speedway, which is his home track.
“I dove in and bought that and kind of saw the business opportunity,” he said. “There’s a lot of race tracks out there that really could use an infusion of capital. They’re good tracks, but they need to be spruced up, if you will.
“The flip side of that are tracks like Ace. They’re beautiful. They already have a great infrastructure. They already have the amenities. They just need sort of a rewrite of their business model. They need more strategy behind how to use the track better year-round.”
Short Track Management of Winston-Salem, headed by and comprised of Bill Catania, announced an agreement with Ace owner Abraham Woidislawsky to take charge of the speedway immediately, a pact that includes an exclusive option for Catania to buy the track by the end of next year.
Brad Allen, Ace’s general manager during the last five seasons, had been part of a group that leased operations of the speedway from Woidislawsky. Catania said he now holds those rights and his company has become the only entity that can execute an ownership purchase on Ace through the end of 2015.
“We desire to own it. We certainly would like to buy it,” Catania said. “Short Track Management’s goal is to align ownership and operations, because when those are out of line, that’s when tracks fall into disrepair.
“I just have to prove to myself the track can be financially feasible. And I know that if I can get in there for four or five or six months, that’ll give me the basis to be able to move forward with the purchase.”
He said Ace, located in Altamahaw and the only auto racing venue of its kind in Alamance County, will continue as a Friday night race track, with its 59th season scheduled to open April 3.
Catania is a 38-year-old from Westfield, New York, a town in the western part of the state that’s nestled beside Lake Erie. He describes himself as the son and grandson of a racer. He raced, too, some while in college at Cornell, and has since built a profitable background in software and internet business ventures.
His coming on board creates a changing of the guard that hardly registers as a Christmastime surprise at Ace, perpetually a lighting rod for uncertainty and speculation in these type of matters under Woidislawsky, the Philadelphia real estate developer who bought the speedway for $2.1 million in 2006.
Allen, the Burlington native and former champion driver in the Modifieds division at Ace, has feuded publically with Woidislawsky and recent offseasons have been marked by Allen’s threats to leave the general manager’s job or his walking away and then returning.
Catania and Allen both said that they plan to meet in the coming weeks. It sounds as if there’s a possibility that Allen, a popular figure among Ace’s tight-knit community, could remain at the track in some type of administrative capacity.
“My goal is to change as little as possible in terms of staff,” Catania said, referring to Ace’s workers and track personnel. “I have no interest in changing those things. The people that have made the track successful as an operation, I want to keep them going and keep the history there.
“The things I think I can put my hands on and make better are increasing the attendance, increasing the driver count, rebranding and marketing, finding different ways to leverage the facility for revenue and profit, cost containment. Those are things that I focus on.”
Catania said he envisions growing Ace as a “multipurpose venue” while improving and boosting the profile of the go-kart track and tractor pull and mud bog areas that are in place on the 51-acre property.
He formed Short Track Management in April and quickly has become a player on the local level of minor league racing.
Ace is the third track Catania has acquired, joining Stateline Speedway, a dirt racing surface in Busti, N.Y., near the New York/Pennsylvania border, and Eriez Speedway, another dirt track in Hammett, Penn.
Catania said he has poured more than $750,000 of renovations and improvements into Stateline Speedway, which is his home track.
“I dove in and bought that and kind of saw the business opportunity,” he said. “There’s a lot of race tracks out there that really could use an infusion of capital. They’re good tracks, but they need to be spruced up, if you will.
“The flip side of that are tracks like Ace. They’re beautiful. They already have a great infrastructure. They already have the amenities. They just need sort of a rewrite of their business model. They need more strategy behind how to use the track better year-round.”
