by Eric Schrader Granville, Pa.
Redline Raceway which has been running for the last 8 years will no longer be in action on Friday evenings. This announcement came Thursday afternoon from owner promoter Barry Matthews.
The Matthews family, Barry, his wife Barby, their sons Barry Jr, his wife Jody, and Brock with his wife Billie along with other family members and several close friends have put many hours of work and spent an uncounted amount of time and money in the Granville facility. Most work has been done by the family themselves trying to save what expenses that they could. Even doing this the facility had a very hard time standing on its own. With the local economy what it is it is very hard to keep the facility above water.
Economically the track just cannot pay its own expenses as costs of everything just keep rising. There are some that will be very happy with this decision and many that will not. This was one of the hardest decisions that Barry and Barby has had to make and it was not done in haste.
The Matthews have tried everything that they could to keep the facility going but too many problems keep lurking up faster than they can solve them. From a fan and racers point of view it may appear that all was well and good for the track. But many underlying circumstances led to the very hard fought decision to close the facility.
The Matthews family, myself and my family, the track workers all thank everyone who supported the raceway throughout the years. Most of the racers will be truly missed. To all of you fans, your support has been greatly appreciated.
Although the track did not have many sponsorships to those sponsors that did come on board, thank you very much for your support. Also a big thank you to the tracks media sponsor "WIGGLE" 100, and WTTC the Bridge for all the years of advertising for the facility.
Again this was not a decision made in haste, many of you that may be upset do not realize perhaps everything the family has to put up with. I will not go on as to what every problem is but I will tell you that they do have to put up with a lot more than any of us realize both on and off the track.
From the Matthews family and my own again thank you everyone for your support throughout these past eight years. For those of you who did not get a chance to get to the races you missed out on a great time on Friday evenings.
Thanks again Eric, and we will see you at the races, maybe someday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
