Upgrades coming to Summit Motorsports Park

NORWALK — Fox Sports' takeover of the television rights to NHRA drag racing from ESPN this season has produced a big spike in ratings — as well as increased visibility of the sport.This also means track owners around the country are stepping up their game — and Summit Motorsports Park owner Bill Bader Jr. is no exception.The longtime owner of the Norwalk track is entertaining the crews from FS1 this weekend — along with thousands of fans each day at the four-day 10th annual Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, which concludes Sunday as the halfway point of the season on the 24-race NHRA schedule."The move to FOX has been a huge deal for the sport with 400 hours of programming on the schedule, including many live finals events," Bader said. "The move to FS1 caused us to have to make some changes, and we did a $400,000 lighting upgrade. So now we have two-sided track lighting. It's like daylight out here … it's not an NFL stadium, but it's pretty close."But lighting upgrades are far from the lone improvements scheduled at the 53-year old drag strip, which first began hosting the NHRA event in June 2007."In that 2006-07 season we borrowed $7.2 million dollars, and that debt is scheduled to be satisfied in the first quarter of 2017," Bader said. "So the good news is we are going to aggressively begin to working on three or four things we have on the table right now."One of those projects is a new state-of-the-art restroom and shower facility on the west side of the park."It would allow us to remove all the portable ones from the seating bowl, the restrooms would be big enough for that," Bader Jr. said. "It would have changing stations, family restrooms, nursing stations. This facility is pretty spectacular. So that's one project we're looking at for potentially 2017."Bader said another project in the words is an improvement to the racetrack surface."It's very difficult to maintain a world-class racing surface with the freeze cycles and all the craziness of winter that is Northern Ohio," he said. "So the lighting was a nice improvement for participants, and the bathroom project will be a huge improvement for all of our guests. The surface is obviously more racer-driven."Also down the road at Summit is a grandstand resizing project — which would give fans a little more room in their seats."The problem in doing that is you lose net seats," Bader said. "I would really enjoy having about 5,000 more seats. That would be really beneficial, but this is something that is very important to us."The restroom project is going to cost roughly $1.8 million dollars, while both the track surface and grandstand project will each cost $1.5 million.Add in the lighting additions, and the racetrack is looking at more than $5 million worth of upgrades over the next few years."And there are other little things like eateries and pavilions, misting stations and playgrounds," Bader said. "Just little creature comfort features that help enhance the guest experience. If we had big pavilions, it could get people out of the sun with a place to eat. We're looking at permanent lights in the parking lots — I'd love to have paved parking lots. These are the types of things that are being looked at right now."After three straight years of the race being held on Fourth of July weekend, the race returned to its original late June weekend."We put a lot of our emphasis into rebranding the new date," Bader said. "We added some enhancements to our fireworks show Friday night, and Saturday we went back to a day show as opposed to creating that second long day. We have a decorator who is going to knock this place out with red, white and blue and a special paint scheme for the starting line."The national event is about the purist, metropolitan, sophisticated fan," he added. "What they want and what they are about is the racing. They want to see their favorite drivers. So we're going to do what we do with a clean and decorated facility, outstanding customer service, a great food court and midway attractions. We're going to control what we can control outside the racing surface."A Top Fuel dragster warms up before officially taking off down the Summit Motorsports Park track in Norwalk during the Summit Nationals qualifiers on Friday. Spectators watch the qualifiers for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park on Friday in Norwalk.Jessica and Masen, 9, from Mount Vernon buy merchandise during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk on Friday. As a Summit pro stock car races by, fans watch in the grandstand at the qualifiers for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park on Friday in Norwalk.Standing on the fence of the stands at the Summit Motorsports Park, spectators watch the qualifiers for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals on Friday in Norwalk. Warming up the tires of his pro stock car, driver Jeg Coughlin, Jr. prepares for the qualifiers at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park on Friday in Norwalk.Getting as close to the track as possible, fans stand at the fence to watch the qualifiers for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park on Friday in Norwalk.