The fur is flying. Despite an official announcement by the ADRL, Motor Mile Speedway owner David Hagan, has confirmed the ADRL has notified him they will not run as scheduled on July 4th.

Hagan isn't about to roll over and watch his date be transferred to Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas.

According to Hagan, a series of letters have gone back and forth between the parties involved, one from the ADRL alleging a breach of contract for providing an unsafe drag racing facility and one in return from Hagan, reminding the series they have a year remaining on their contract.

Hagan contends he has complied with all previous requests from the ADRL, however this latest move, one he deems as unprofessional, leaves him no option other than the courts. With the Fourth of July less than 45 days away, there is no chance Hagan can find a substitute event. And, in his eyes, there is absolutely no reason to even be put put in the position of having to look.

Motor Mile Dragway Plans to File Suit Over Race Relocation …

The fur is flying. Despite an official announcement by the ADRL, Motor Mile Speedway owner David Hagan, has confirmed the ADRL has notified him they will not run as scheduled on July 4th.

Hagan isn't about to roll over and watch his date be transferred to Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas.

According to Hagan, a series of letters have gone back and forth between the parties involved, one from the ADRL alleging a breach of contract for providing an unsafe drag racing facility and one in return from Hagan, reminding the series they have a year remaining on their contract.

Hagan contends he has complied with all previous requests from the ADRL, however this latest move, one he deems as unprofessional, leaves him no option other than the courts. With the Fourth of July less than 45 days away, there is no chance Hagan can find a substitute event. And, in his eyes, there is absolutely no reason to even be put put in the position of having to look.

“It caught us off guard,” Hagan said in an exclusive interview with CompetitionPlus.com. “I put in, last year, $140,000 worth of additional seating with Kenny's personal guarantee and verbal agreement to do a five year extension. Obviously, he can make whatever comments he wants to make about the acreage and things like that, but we have 148 acres there.”

Nowling told CompetitionPlus.com in an interview on Thursday that the acreage of the facility is not entirely conducive to the flat surfaces required by many of the leading teams expected to attend the event. It’s just one of the several factors, Nowling believes, which has left the ADRL with the feeling that they have outgrown the facility. Additionally, Nowling in an email with Hagan contends the National Guard, after reviewing video of last year's event does not want the series to race at the Motor Mile.

Multiple sources have told CompetitionPlus.com that the ADRL has been under extreme pressure from various racers, who had stated unequivocally that they wouldn’t race at Motor Mile Dragway out of concern that they couldn’t slow their cars to a stop before going off of the track.

Hagan contends their concerns are unfounded and says that his track, at 1550 feet of shutdown with a two percent grade increase, is among one of the longer on the current ADRL tour. The incline, Hagan says, is the equivalent of having 200 extra feet.

“The IHRA is going to have a nitro event at our track if we put in another 600 feet,” Hagan said. “I certainly think that if a nitro car only needed 600 more feet for them to be very safe, he needs to talk to racers like Todd Tutterow and see if he is afraid to race at our track. I realize they did have a couple people turn over at our event last year, but race car drivers wreck every weekend.”

Hagan believes his track has gotten an unfair rap because of the recent testing crash involving Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson, who ran his Dodge Stratus into an earthen berm in an attempt to scrub off speed when his parachutes failed to deploy. This accident reportedly intensified the racer concerns about racing the ADRL event.

“What isn’t being talked about is how Johnny Gray made nine passes on that day,” Hagan said, noting that Johnson purposely spun his car sideways and never exceeded 170 mph in the eighth mile.

Hagan said he doesn’t feel lengthening his race track is necessary. He believes Nowling just wants to move his race elsewhere and Hagan said he doesn’t have a problem with that, but a deal is a deal.

“I have no issue if Kenny doesn't want to race at our track,” Hagan said, adding, “He made an agreement and a commitment and a contract. He should have simply been a businessman, sat down, worked out the details, settled with us, returned our vehicles and gone on with his life. I have no issue with that.”

The fact that Nowling is using three vehicles supplied by Hagan's dealership is becoming a sore spot very quickly.

Hagan stated that Nowling initially broached the subject of moving the date via email, offering instead to run an all-star event at the track in 2010.

“He wanted me to agree to just let him do this to us and then return in 2010 and have an all-star event at our track,” Hagan said. “He is contractually obligated. He never asked us to do anything different. There was a question back in February about a small light pole. We told him whatever we had to do there, no problem. He made the comment that his sponsors said that they would not race there. He said that the generals had been viewing tapes from our event last year, and they said absolutely not, that they would not hold an event there.”

Hagan said he intends to fight the move in the courts, unless the ADRL reimburses him for the money he stands to lose by not hosting the 2009 event. He plans to file a lawsuit against the ADRL, Nowling personally over the contractual and verbal agreements and if Heartland Park in Topeka hosts his even on July 4th, they could become a third party in the litigation.

Hagan has already notified Heartland Park officials of his intentions.

“My disappointment, more than anything, is finding that Kenny Nowling is not a man of his word,” Hagan said. “I don't want to be negative. I just think what he has done is wrong.”
 

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