Track Owner Curtis Francois Happy With Rebuilding Process at Gateway Motorsports Park

The Gateway Motorsports Park just concluded their third annual race weekend since returning to the NASCAR fold in 2014 with its new ownership. The track, which left the NASCAR scene for a short period of time between 2010 and 2014, has been slowly regaining strength since its return.

The track played host to a number of racing series through the years. Some of those include IndyCar, ARCA, XFINITY, Camping World Truck and other forms of motorsports. IndyCar announced over the winter that Gateway would become an official testing site in 2016 and could quite possibly host an IndyCar race in 2017, while the track owner says nothing is imminent.

“We envision more racing. Every year we have been able to increase the amount of offerings we have and we’re working very hard to position the race track to be attracted to all sanctioning bodies,” track owner Curtis Francois told SpeedwayDigest,com. “As part of that, while we’re looking and talking to IndyCar and talking about more NASCAR races, while there’s nothing Imminent or in the works, I would love to see other sanctioning bodies feel like we do a great job.”

In an interview with SpeedwayDigest.com in 2014, Curtis Francois, from the St. Louis area, said he purchased the Gateway Motorsports Park because he, himself, is a die-hard motorsports fan and wanted to bring back a great facility that went under with no fault of itself. He also expressed how excited he was about giving the great facility the energy, financing and care that the place deserves. The owner and former racer has certainly lived up to those expectations.

“Without a doubt each year we are getting better at the process and we’re building a larger fan base. I’m loving the process,” continued Francois. “I’m loving to see how many people are supporting us in the community as fans are now looking forward to this. The annual race is beginning to be a place holder on their calendar going forward and I expect to see it continue to grow.”  

One of the things that needed worked on going into the major project was the track surface and restroom facilities all around the 1.25-mile facility. Once these things were fixed, they started working on getting the safer barrier walls back into order as the track went four years without being touched. All of these things showed the NASCAR fans and competitors that the new ownership cared for everyone in attendance.

Christopher Bell scored his second career Camping World Truck Series win on Saturday at Gateway. Bell led the 160-lap event two different times for a total of 38 laps. The Drivin’ for Linemen 200 saw nine cations and three different red flags. The series will have the weekend off before returning to action next weekend at Kentucky Speedway.

Brett Winningham
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