THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, February 11, 1995 TAG: 9502100651
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: NASCAR '95: Season Preview
SOURCE: BY BOB ZELLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Look out. Paul Sawyer is building again.
The 78-year-old president of Richmond International Raceway is celebrating his 40th anniversary at the track with so many new projects it's hard to keep track.
``After the March race, we're going to tear out all the steel retaining walls around the inside of the track and replace them with concrete, because by September we'll have the new lights,'' Sawyer said during a recent interview at the track.
New lights?
``We've got the new ones from Musco. They're 36 inches tall and 24 inches wide.''
They're the new, improved version of the ground-level lights Musco Corp. introduced at Charlotte.
``If you'll notice on the front straight we've built a new scoring tower, and this other new box is the new control tower,'' said Sawyer, who lives in Virginia Beach. ``That'll be ready in four or five weeks.
``By September we're going to cut the top (story) off of the old scoring tower in the infield so that all the buildings in the infield will be the same height. That's to improve the sight lines.
``And after the March race, the whole infield will be paved. There will be no more dirt in the infield at all. And then, of course, we're adding 18 rows to the top of the Henrico grandstand (on the backstretch). That's 8,113 more seats.''
That's not all. Sawyer has purchased 268 acres behind the speedway for more parking. And by September he'll have a tram service to shuttle spectators to the Henrico grandstand via a tunnel under Carolina Avenue, which passes behind the speedway.
``Hopefully, if nothing bad happens, by September 1996 we'll have this whole thing enclosed and it will look like a stadium,'' Sawyer said. ``That's what our plans are. That'll give us 100,000 to 101,000 seats.''
The raceway currently has 72,584 grandstand seats.
``I've got more seats than Talladega,'' he said.
But it's obviously not enough to meet demand.
``We're sold out for the March Winston Cup race,'' Sawyer said this week. ``This is the quickest we've ever sold out for the March race.
``I'm surprised that it's grown this fast,'' he added, reflecting on his 45 years in racing. ``We get people here from 38 or 40 states. I've got room for 10 more corporate suites and I've already got six sold.
``It's the competition. People like to see the competition. If people wanted to see speed, they wouldn't see Richmond, Bristol, North Wilkesboro, Martinsville, Dover or Rockingham. This sport was build on competition from the beginning, years ago on the old dirt tracks.'' MEMO: Although the Pontiac 400 Winston Cup race on March 5 is sold out, there
are plenty of tickets left for the Hardee's 250 Grand National race on
March 4. Tickets for the fall races, including the Miller 400 on Sept.
9, go on sale April 29. For more information, call (804) 345-RACE. by CNB