PSM ICON BRYCE EYES NEW MOTORSPORTS COMPLEX
Motorsports has been a way of life for George and Jackie Bryce for more than 30 years.
Now the couple, who owns Star Racing Inc., in Americus, Ga., is working towards taking their involvement in the sport to an entirely different level.
The Bryces recently announced plans to build a $12 million motorsports facility in Americus, Georgia.
The plan is to build the Americus Motorsports Complex on 449 acres of land located across the street from South Georgia Technical College and the Jimmy Carter Regional Airport. The facility is supposed to include a quarter-mile concrete dragstrip, a 2.5-mile road course, a motorsports-related technology park, a training facility for driver’s education and law enforcement training, and a national motorcycle drag racing museum, according to George. Plans are to break ground on the facility in the later part of this year.
“Jackie and I have been racing forever,” said Bryce. “We spend $50,000 to $100,000 every year renting race tracks so we can do our business (with Star Racing). We conduct drag racing schools and we hold several other different types of racing events, and our lives have been made on drag racing. So, what we’re trying to do is build a motorsports industry location. We want to bring more businesses to the area. We have been talking about (building) this facility the last 10 years, but the talks have been real serious the last 12 months. There are a lot of good drag racing facilities near us like Silver Dollar Raceway, South Georgia Motorsports Park, and US 19 Dragway. What we would like to do is add value to those tracks by bringing in more motorsports-related companies which would provide a good shot in the arm for all racing in Southwest Georgia.”
According to George, the proposed facility is expected to attract as much as $75 million annually for the Americus community and create more than 200 full-time and part-time jobs over a five-year span.
“This project is going to be a joint effort by a lot of successful people,” George said. “This isn’t just going to be little George and Jackie, motorcycle racers. This is a huge opportunity for a whole bunch of people to get together, and it is very important the steps are taken in order (to make this happen).”
The first step occurred Tuesday when the Sumter County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to rezone the proposed site, 449 acres across from South Georgia Technical College, from R-R (Rural Residential District) to C-3 (Commercial Recreation District).
“Now, we need to acquire a permit from the community and get the commissioner to say we can do this,” George said. “We have also hired Paxton Waters, who is the world’s most renowned architect in the design and planning of motorsports facilities, and he is doing the site plans right now for us. Then, the engineering plans have to be drawn and then we have to go out and build a colorful sales brochure with a powerpoint presentation. After that, we have to go find participants and sponsors and people who want to move to our facility and then we have to secure the funding.”
George says funding primarily will come from sponsors and naming right sponsors, equity partners and private investors.
George is confident his facility will come to fruition despite the beleaguered state of the American economy.
“There’s always something wrong with race tracks,” George explained. “This one is too short, that one is too wet, this one has no parking, and that one runs off into somebody’s land. What we have is a unique opportunity here to start with a clean sheet of paper, and this is the first time in a long time where a brand-new facility is all encompassing. The economy is tough right now, but it also is the right time to build.”
George said the proposed Americus Motorsports Complex already has caught the attention of people in the industry.
“This one guy, who builds replica Porsche road race cars, sent me a letter saying if we build a track he will come and he will hire 15 employees and buy an 8,000-square foot building right on the track,” George said. “Nobody really even knows about the project yet and we already have one commitment letter. If we can get 40 more (people) like him to come, this thing will be like a home run, a triple play, a slam dunk and winning the Super Bowl, all in one.”
Presently, many drag racing teams are housed in Brownsburg, Ind., and most NASCAR teams are headquartered in Mooresville, N.C. Bryce, however, believes the Americus Motorsports Complex can be an even better motorsports spot than these two cities.
“Here’s the problem with Brownsburg and Mooresville, they are not on a race track,” Bryce said. “They are towns near race tracks. What we would like to do is develop our own Brownsburg or our own Mooresville type of motorsports clustering at our facility, at the airport, at the college, and at the race track. We want it (the facility) to be an all-inclusive, turn-key type of place where you can race and test right here. We’re going to have garages for sale and garages for rent at the facility and we’re inventing a deal called an autominium. An autominium is a two-car garage with living quarters on top. We are going to have those for lease, and rent and for sale on the facility.”
Geographically, Bryce also believes Americus Motorsports Park is a great fit for larger markets.
“Americus (Ga.) is in the dead center of a three-hour circle, which includes Atlanta, Augusta, Savannah, Macon, Columbus, Jacksonville (Fla.), Tallahassee (Fla.), Montgomery (Ala.) and Birmingham,” Bryce said. “In this three-hour circle, we encompass millions and millions of people in big cities. This is just a great opportunity for people to get involved in the motorsports industry.”
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