THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507150183
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
Norfolk car dealer Walter Wilkins is still looking for financial backers and a promoter to put on a fall grand prix auto race on a 2-to-2 1/2-mile course through city streets several blocks from the Oceanfront.
Wilkins, owner of Bay Chevrolet-Geo on Military Highway, gave a status report Thursday to members of the Resort Area Advisory Commission on efforts to secure a major race in Virginia Beach.
What Wilkins is seeking, apparently with the tacit consent of the city administration and the City Council, is public-private partnership to stage a Trans-Am race (featuring midsize cars such as Chevrolet Camaros and Ford Mustangs) under the sanction of the Sports Car Club of America sometime in mid-September.
Wilkins said he needs about $300,000 from the city and about $1.5 million in private investment to start up the project.
The sums would cover the cost of buying road barriers, fencing and bleachers required to put on an auto race, he said.
He is also seeking the help of major promoters to stage the race, but has met with little success in bagging the likes of Roger Penske of Penske Speedways Inc. and Miami promoter Ralph Sanchez.
``We're still talking to promoters,'' he told advisory commission members. ``If we can't get a top of the line one, we'll put together a management company with local backing.''
Wilkins said he is willing to ante up a `` six-figure'' contribution to help get the project under way.
National television exposure would be the major benefit for the city, Wilkins said, although a Trans-Am race probably would attract about 30,000 paying spectators to the city for the two- or three-day event.
City Finance Director Patty Phillips said a staff study indicates that total tax benefits to the city would fall in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.
Five race sites have been considered, Wilkins said, with the Pavilion Convention Center complex on 19th Street being the most likely at this stage of negotiations. Other sites looked at by Wilkins included Fort Story, Camp Pendleton, an unspecified site in Pungo and the Lake Ridge property, where the city is in the process of building a 20,000-seat amphitheater.
Deputy City Manager Oral Lambert told advisory commissioners that the city had set aside some money in its capital improvement program to study the feasibility of putting on the race. The views of the Resort Area Advisory Commission could weigh heavily on the City Council's decision to support or not support it, he added.
Income levels of race spectators depend upon the level of racing, said Lambert. A grand prix race in Miami last March, attended by a group of city officials, indicated a ``high end'' crowd, he said.
While advisory commission chairman Roger Newill and vice chairman David Hager doubted claims of benefits of television exposure provided by the races, other members felt the matter should be pursued.
``This is the 27th largest SMSA (Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area) in the country and we don't have a major event here,'' said commissioner C. Cheyney Cole. ``We can't discount something automatically just because it happens in the shoulder season.
``I think it makes sense,'' said fellow commissioner R. Dawson Taylor of Wilkins auto racing plans.
Wilkins will be back before the advisory commission next month with an update on racing project. Should the commission give its blessings, the package would be forwarded to the City Council. by CNB