Miller Motorsports Park, a gorgeous race track in Utah, is up for sale. That much we knew, but what we didn’t know was who was going to happen to it. But a new report from a local news station says that Geely Automotive – yes, that Geely, the Chinese company that owns Volvo – is going to buy it.
UPDATE: It turns out that the report from KUTV wasn’t quite correct. The new buyers will be another Chinese outfit known as MyTime Racing, who plan to continue to operate and maintain the track. Read more about it here. The original post follows below.
Geely buying the place is much better than some of the alternatives, like a complete shutdown of the facility, or a prison moving in.
I’m going to say, right off the bat, that the report from KUTV is a bit bizarre.
Multiple sources confirm to 2News Tooele County has entered an agreement with a Chinese company to sell the multi-million dollar race track. Those sources identify the company as automotive manufacturer Geely Holding Group.
This comes as a shock to others who wanted to buy the track, run it, and develop it.
It only quotes anonymous sources when it comes to the news of the buyer (not that there’s anything wrong with anonymous sources! I’ve used them before and will almost certainly use them where necessary in the future), but most of the article is made up of on-the-record quotes from developer Andrew Cartwright, who has reportedly lost out on the bidding.
But we also put a call into Tooele County, and spoke with Tooele County Commissioner Shawn Milne. He told us that it’s not actually a done deal yet, but the county and a buyer which he declined to name are “very close” to the finish line. And furthermore, the plan was always to not lose any existing jobs, and add a few more if possible.
The goal is to get the deal done so that it’s ready to be announced at a Commission meeting tonight at 7 p.m.. We’ll update you as soon as there’s something official on the table.
As for Cartwright, he told the TV station that his intention was to keep everything at the track, all while adding office buildings, condos, homes, and jobs. Now, Cartwright claims Tooele County commissioners say its going to Geely, which simply plans to put a “manufacturing facility” there.
Cartwright’s words seem to imply that Geely wouldn’t provide jobs, but it’s a bit weird considering even the most basic “manufacturing facility” would involve some sort of job creation.
Cartwright went onto claim that “something doesn’t add up,” because Geely offered a lower bid than his own, but DEFINITELY NOT because he lost out on the bidding.
Faced with all of this weirdness, we put messages into Volvo to find out what the deal is, since a “manufacturing facility” could mean a new test track, it could be a factory, or it could just simply be Volvo Motorsports Park.
We put in a call to Volvo, but they haven’t gotten back to us yet. More on this crazy story as it develops.
Photo credit: Art Bromage
Contact the author at ballaban@jalopnik.com.
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