June 28th, 2001

Rausch Creek Motorsports Park will not be open in 2001 for spectator events.

To avoid further confusing announcements about the opening of the roadcourse, the management at Rausch Creek has decided to cancel the remainder of this year's events.

Originally slated to open in May of this year, Rausch Creek has Experienced a variety of events that factor into the decision to postpone what was to be the inaugural year. Our original construction schedule had us paving the roadcourse in the fall of 2000. Serious safety issues had to be addressed prior to the commitment of a final design, and those issues prevented us from paving at that time. Then, with the long winter, we realized we would be very hard pressed to meet the date for our May opening. A variety of smaller delays, including smaller design changes and machinery breakdown, have also contributed to the postponement of our inaugural year.

Andrew Stutzman, General Manager, had this to say, "We found ourselves pressured by the original dates we had set to open, and felt as if we may be making small compromises just to get the track open. The last thing we want to do is compromise anything, let alone the safety and longevity of Rausch Creek, so we decided to back off from such ambitious goals, and allow ourselves the time to complete the project so that it exceeds our expectations, instead of just meeting them."

Quinn Lickman, Construction Manager for Rausch Creek, added, "We are maintaining close to the same pace (construction) we have all along, only slowing down to make sure all the small details are completed We honestly just underestimated the amount of material we had to move to build the track. The actual time it will take to pave the track is relatively short compared to the time needed to complete the construction of the verges and safety zones. In addition, we must be very careful how we address the drainage issues for the track. It is important that we find the perfect balance between providing more than adequate run-off, and draining the water away from the track properly. While the racers and spectators will enjoy the elevation that Rausch Creek has to offer, it does increase construction difficulties."

The construction is still proceeding and we are looking forward to having the surface paved by late summer. This will allow us to host some practice days and official testing that are required to hold larger, future events in 2002.

Andy