Shelby Club Rates Racetrack a Winner
By Patrick Buganski
The Daily Journal
thedailyjournal.com

Millville, N.J. (August 18, 2008) – The New Jersey Motorsports Park received the biggest thumbs up it could possibly imagine from the Shelby American Auto Club weekend.

The three-day event provided the park its largest turnout to date, and the club also announced its intention to hold its annual convention at the Millville facility for at least the next three years.

The crowd at the track was noticeably larger than the previous week, when the 2.25-mile Thunderbolt Raceway hosted the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association for its first major spectator event.

"We don't know what the numbers are but we know it's huge," Don Fauerbach, a motorsports park official, said Sunday. "Friday was great, yesterday was great and today was awesome."

The Shelby American Auto Club convention, which drew between 700 and 800 vehicles, features some of the most collectible cars under the Shelby name. It boasted numerous cars with price tags in excess of $1 million on the track.

"It's just the whole Shelby thing," said Charlie Beard, a spectator who came Sunday from Baltimore with his friend Matt Manning. "We're sort of Shelby aficionados. We just haven't been to one (of the conventions) in a couple of years, and it's a pretty inexpensive trip to come up for the day. To watch these guys, it's awesome."

The Shelby weekend was the park's second major spectator event, and it's the last one before the Grand-Am series -- the park's grand opening event -- rolls into town Aug. 28-31.

"Each aspect, from registration to distribution, we're getting things down and ironing them out," said Joe Savaro, one of the track's principle owners. "We're ready."

The facility received rave review from the Shelby club.

"I've heard the words "world class" many times this weekend," said Jay Talbott, a Shelby club board member. "Even though they're still in the building stages, they're doing a wonderful job."

The group Saturday night announced plans to ink a multiyear deal to use the park for its convention, which, previously has not been held at the same place two years in a row.

The group used its first two days at the Millville track to decide whether the facilities were up to par.

"We've decided to make this our home track," Talbott said.

The reasons for the commitment were both financial and logistical. According to Talbott, turnout is greater for events held on the East Coast.