June 10, 2025 • 17 mins
Former NASCAR driver, Matt Tifft, dropped by the iHeart Radio studio to share his vision and plans for the Mansfield Speedway, which he recently purchased. Matt talked with WMAN's Aaron Hines and is excited to bring racing back to the historic venue on Crall road.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, we're excited this morning because we have the
(00:03):
new owner of the Mansfield Speedway with us in studio,
Matt tiff We all know that name, former you know,
driver with NASCAR. He's been at the Mid Ohio sports
Car Course, but we got him in the studio this morning.
First of all, thank you so much for coming in.
It's been some exciting news. I'm sure you're thrilled here right.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh yeah, We're so happy to be here in Mansfield
purchasing the Mansfield Speedway. It's such a storied facility that
has been unfortunately kind of left to die really, and
we made the decision after extensive research and looking around
to buy the property. And we are in a full
fledged restoration mode to bring it back to the greatness
(00:41):
that have once had and you know, really springboard this
into twenty twenty five from our construction plans. But what
I mean by the twenty twenty five piece is bring
this into the modern age of sports stadiums in racing today.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So as we're talking this morning with Matt Tifted again
just recently purchasing the track from the mill Iron Foundation,
well let's talk a little bit about that. I mean,
how did you I'm assuming did this kind of come
together kind of quick? When did you I know you
knew you told me you live in Cleveland, correct, When
did you kind of hear okay, this is for sale?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I mean it sounded like it kind of maybe happened
kind of quick. Yeah, to be honest, it was not
for sale. So the mill Irons did own it, and
we've had a great working relationship with them over these
past few months. But I was in North Carolina for
about ten years and we were doing all the NASCAR
racing and team ownership down in the Carolinas, and we
were having our first baby. So decided to move back
up to Cleveland because my wife's family and my family
(01:34):
were in that area, and ultimately I wanted to move
up here, but I grew up in Hinckley where it's
very rural, so there's a lot of land in Cleveland.
You know, there's not too much of that, So to
be honest, I was just looking for land to go,
you know, have some side by side ATVs whatever. But
as time went on, it was a zoning issue that
you know, noise issue. This couldn't put a Paul Warn here,
So I got really frustrated. I was like, you know what,
(01:54):
I just want to go look for a racetrack and
see what's sitting around. And I was driving one time
past the racetrack, I thought, what about Mansfield, Like what's
the deal with it now? Because I didn't I haven't
been up here in a while, and I thought, man,
that was such a cool facility and such a cool track.
So my cousin, MICHAELA Pallett, she's a real term and
I said, Michaela, can you find out who owns the
racetrack and just put a bug in their ear. So
(02:17):
Carl mill Iron and I and my wife and we
went and toward the property one day and just kind
of outed the idea of like, hey, would this ever
be something you're interested in, because obviously they have so
much business and influence in the Mansfield city. And so
we got together plan and presented it to them, and
we were fortunate enough for them to sign off on it,
(02:38):
for us to take ownership and control of it, and
now we're in the beginnings of an over two million
dollar restoration project of the facility.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And we're learning about this morning again. The new owner
of the Mansfield Speedway out on Crawl Road, Matt Tift
is with us, So before we get all the vision
and all of that, if people don't know a ton
about you, You've been a driver for a long time,
and NASCAR give us a little bit. You mentioned grew
up in the Cleveland area, but a little bit of
your background in driving.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah. So I'm twenty eight years old, so very young
for all this stuff I'm about to list here. But
started racing at the Barberton Speedway when I was about
eleven years old and eventually moved down to Charlotte, North
Carolina to go pursue a career in NASCAR. Basically, Charlotte
is to racing as what Nashville is two country artists,
So you've got to move there be in the hub.
So I went to school down there, eventually dropped out
(03:24):
of school because of a ride with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Before that, I raced for Ken Schrader, who was a
mentor for me. So drove for Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard
Childress Racing in the NASCAR Infinity Series, and then I
ran in the NASCAR Cup Series in twenty nineteen. Unfortunately,
at the end of my rookie year, I actually just
signed a three year extension, and I had a seizure
at the Martinsville Speedway, so that pretty much derailed my
(03:46):
professional NASCAR driving career. The end of twenty twenty, I
purchased a NASCAR charter, which essentially is a franchise in
another sport. So became the youngest NASCAR team owner in
the Cup Series and ran that for three years, and
then at the end of twenty twenty three sold the
team and my wife and I were expecting a baby,
so we, like I said, moved up this way and
(04:07):
kind of left the NASCAR world behind a little bit.
I still have an agency kind of formed in there
a bit. But that is a very very short version
of how we got back up to Ohio.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Now Matt tiffed again joining us new uder the Mansfield Speedway.
You still do some driving, you're telling me right.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Correct, Yes, So I d have a dirt late model
here in Ohio and Pennsylvania sometimes up in Michigan, and
then I have a asphalt late model that I'll jump into,
so very similar to NASCAR style cars, but you know,
same thing as kind of Mansfield once was where the
local races go on Saturday nights. I just go do
it to have fun, get to work with some great
sponsors and teams over there. But my hunger for racing
(04:42):
is always there. It's always going to be there. So
even with them in the Speedway, my racing amount will
go down quite a bit. I race thirty to forty
times right now a year, but that's going to go
down quite a ways because we need to put our
focus into making sure everybody who comes to the track
has a great time, and that's going to be our
main focus.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, let's talk about the track here again. Mansfield Speedway
new owner with us in studio, Matt tiff So if
people are not aware, and we'll share this info too.
You have a YouTube channel and you know, you and
your wife, I believe, taking you know, some videos walk
us through. You mentioned a lot of work needs to
be done at the track. I think the last time
I think any racing was done was it maybe twenty
nineteen or something like that. So walk us through kind
(05:20):
of what that facility looks like right now and maybe
a little bit of what you envision.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah. So after twenty nineteen, they pretty much dismantled the racetrack,
saying it was no longer a racetrack. And you know
afterwards there was a factory that was coming in, so
they took a bulldozer knocked out turns three and four,
the walls over there, there was catch fencing around the racetrack.
There were light poles, safer barrier, concrete walls there that
were sold off, all two different racetracks, so basically really
(05:46):
stripping this place down. The mill Irons donated about five
thousand grand stands to the Shelby High School. A lot
of it was taken away, so really we were kind
of left with the shell and open, kind of a
sketchbook of what to do with the place. And yeah,
check it out on YouTube is the at Matt tiff
tifft YouTube channel. We go through an entire walk through
the property showing it off. I mean, it looks like
(06:08):
I don't know if anybody down here used to go
to Joga Lake. It looks like that where it was abandoned.
You know, the earth was taking it back over, very creepy,
very eerie. But the bones were still there and the
infrastructure that Mike Grazilla back on the two thousands, back
when NASCAR had truck races here, what they built into
this place and why I was so attracted to it
is because of the area obviously being so close to
(06:30):
Cleveland and Columbus here in Mansfield, but also the fact
of the history that was there and just the facility
that was built around this place. It is just begging
for somebody to come back and run it the correct way,
and we're really excited to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Gab. We're hearing this morning from Matt Tip to get
a new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. Former driver we
mentioned still drives. But as you talk about what you envision,
you mentioned there's there's a lot of work that needs
to be done. I'm sure, video boards, different things. What
do you kind of hope and is it's you know,
you mentioned kind of a you know, a blank canvas
where you can go in and kind of really cool
(07:03):
twenty twenty five, going to our twenty twenty six next year.
What do you kind of envision what would you like
to see here at the track?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, I mean, we we've got to think about you
know what, I take a page out of baseball right
because a lot of these stadiums they're removing seats putting
experience based things in there. So coming out of turn
four where they took down the grand stands there. We're
going to be putting a beer garden in there and
having a picnic area there with some AstroTurf. We're going
to have areas for you know, corn hole and maybe
some putt putt over there. We're gonna put some new
(07:29):
grand stands in. We're going to put in more hillside seating,
so if you want to bring your camping chair out
there with you and bring a case of beer, you know,
come on out there with it. So we wanted to
make it to where it's as fan friendly as possible.
But you know, beyond just the structure itself, we want
this racetrack to have events that you know, kind of
go all across the car culture scene. So we'll have
car shows with drifting shows in there. We'll have typical
(07:51):
dirt races. We're also going to be creating what we're
calling Throttle Circus, so it's essentially going to be the
Savannah Bananas version of racing. So creating a racing show
which has really never been seen before. So that's something
we're really excited about because you don't have to be
a racing fan to come out to see that. You
bring your kids they're gonna go fall in love with
the characters and the cars, and the drivers will kind
of be in on it as far as playing up
(08:12):
into their role as the heroes or villains in there.
The other piece we're really looking forward to is the
off season part which we're going to be having a
two million led light holiday light show around the property.
So the entire access road behind the racetrack coming in
from the entry off the crawl Road, we'll circle around
to a walk through a light show in Santa's Village
(08:33):
there behind the back straight away the entire track will
be lit up. We'll have a video replay board on
the back straight away there to go sit and watch
el for whatever it might be back there. But we
want it to be where this track is also able
to hold concerts and make it to where it's not
just a racetrack. And because we have one hundred and
eighty acre property, if I just bought this to be
a racetrack and run weekly races in twenty twenty five,
(08:54):
you can't make it. We have to diversify and we
really want this to be where there's something for everybody
at this track.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Awesome to hear all the great plans for Matt Tiff
to get a new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. It
really sounds like you've put a lot of thought into
this already. People, you know, last week maybe just hearing
the news that hey, Matt's going to buy the racetrack. Boy,
it sounds like this is maybe something have you been
thinking about, or Boy, this sounds like you've got a
lot of great plans already.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I have hundreds and hundreds of hours around this. I've
not slept very much the past two or three months.
I guess really three months now before we even had
the green light on the property, and we were just
digging through ideas and really researching, you know, between baseball
what worked for the Savannah Bananas going to their ballparks.
I've been looking at NASCAR tracks and what they started
to instill, you know, into their fan experiences and WWE
(09:40):
going to Monster Jam, and really just trying to take
a whole cohesive look in the ecosystem of live sports
and motorsports to see what's working today. How can we
bring this to our short track and make it to
where it can live on a national stage or it
can live in a local place and be able to
be flexible, but every fan who comes there is can
be able to make great memories and have a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Well, there hasn't been racing in Mansfield at the Speedway
since twenty nineteen, but Matt tiff the new owner, how
soon could people be wondering? There's a lot of plans here.
I mean, what's kind of the rough timeline for you here?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Well, as of this past week, we have begun construction,
so we are rolling. We had to get power restored
and some water back on for number one on there.
If you see the YouTube video, we pretty much had
a water park in our maintenance building, so that's going
to take a lot of restoration in there. But we
are hoping to have some private events here in the
fall of this year. Just on the racetrack itself. We
have to work on timelines with our structural engineers on
(10:33):
the grand stands, but the ideal scenario would be to
where if we don't have a twelve month winter like
we've had this year in twenty twenty six, to where
we could open up in late April or early May,
depending on how that weather forecast looks.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, I know, excitement wise for the track in terms
of community events. I think people have to love to
hear that they think of racing and how awesome that is.
But you could have so many things and make that
thing almost year round, right.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Absolutely, And we are not going to be just a
race track, whether it might be someday a renaissance fair.
We have the July fourth fireworks show come back, or
food truck nights. We can do driving nights. I mean,
there's so many things to where I mean shooting the
back hundred acres there. We can have a paintball field.
I mean there's I'm not saying we're gonna do all
those things, or we could do all those things and more.
But the point is we have so much flexibility with
(11:18):
this property to where we really want to listen to
what the community wants, whether that's putting in a dragstrip,
if we do a go kart kids track. We want
to make sure that we are adaptable and be able
to do this economically to where we don't run ourselves
out of money, but do it where we are listening
to the demand of people from Mansfield, from Cleveland, from Columbus,
from Cincinnati to come here to our racetrack and be
able to use it for the purpose that we all
(11:40):
see fit and we can go be adaptable and do that.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Well, I got a question on that. We get a
few more things before we let them go. Great conversation
this morning. Matt Tiff the voice you hear who is
the new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. If somebody wants
to reach out you mentioned, Hey, they have an idea
that they have a question. Whatever can they do that?
I don't know. Can they comment through the YouTube a
social media how do they make content?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah? So we have the Mansfield Speedway Instagram, Twitter pages there,
but then also we have the Matt Tiff This is
Matt Tiff t have a weird last name spelling there,
but all across every social media platform there. So you know,
if you want to see something at a racetrack, shoot
us a DM shoot us a message or comments on
the YouTube videos there and we are one hundred percent
(12:22):
open years. We have a plan you know what we'd
like to do internally, but you know, if there's enough
demand for something. For example, we pose the question of
dirt or asphalt for this racetrack. It's gotten millions of
views on there across the different platforms and we have
overwhelmingly heard that people want this to be a dirt racetrack.
I honestly was not expecting that. I thought it might
be more fifty to fifty. But as of right now,
(12:43):
I will confirm for the foreseeable future it will be
a dirt racetrack. If there is a long term commitment
from a series like NASCAR or you know, something like
Formula Drift, maybe we look at asphalt. But as of
right now, the response has overwhelmingly been do not pave
this race track. But the good thing is we do
have a paved inner circle there. The inner quarter mile
(13:05):
track is paved, so we can hold NASCAR racing schools
in there. We can put asphalt Figure eight shows down there,
legend car races, go kart races. That makes us one
of the most unique facilities in the country because we
have not only an asphalt slash concrete track but also
a dirt track. So it makes us very versatile having
both tracks there.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, that was one of my questions, was it going
to be there or asphalt? All right? Perfect, So before
I let you go again, Matt Tip, the new owner
of the Mansfield Speedway, is in with us a lot
of exciting news what have you. I mean, it sounds
like you've heard a lot of great feedback from fans
you know that you live in this area that you know,
maybe go to the Middle Ohio sports car course, they
used to go to the speedway, and they're so excited.
(13:43):
I even read a few things online like local elected officials,
different different people have been commenting.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Right. Yeah, it's been absolutely overwhelmingly positive across all this.
And I'll be honest, the amount of traction we've gotten
from the release of the news of this property has
been bigger than anything I can ever remember doing in
my career. I mean, this far surpasses when I announced
I was doing the Daytona five hundred racing in them.
It's unbelievable. I raced in Pennsylvania last weekend and it
(14:10):
was all anybody could ask about. Everybody at every racetrack
I go to is asking about Mansfield Speedway and that
is just so cool. And you know, I think the
greatest part about it is we're being very transparent with
how we're doing this build and we're going to be
sharing finances on there. We're gonna be sharing the progressions,
the successes, the failures, everything in there. We want to
have people really get it behind the scenes, look at
(14:31):
what it takes to run a sports facility at Motorsports Facility.
But it's just been so positive and like you mentioned,
you know, remarks from the mayor, the Chamber Commerce, the
Economic Development Group, the tourism groups, they've all been so fantastic.
And we're having our groundbreaking ceremony here coming up this
next week and a lot of those folks will be
out there with us. But you know, we want this
to be where people feel good about having a racetrack
(14:53):
here and we open that up for you know, people
to come into our town here in Mansfield and bring
you know, jobs and you know, spending their dollars at
our restaurants and stores and hotels. That is the greatest
thing we can do is offer those jobs and opportunities
and bring back business to the Mansfield area.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I know the Mayor's quote was a substantial investment for me,
and so I know you're going to meet with the
mayor as I let you go again. Matt tiff new
owner of the Mansfield Speedway. You mentioned you know you
still drive, but you know drove a NASCAR I mean,
how much has that helped you and I were actually
talking before we turned the microphones on. You know, you've
been you know, in the car, on the track, and
then from the owner side of things, it's kind of
(15:31):
like you've been all over the country. What works, what
doesn't work. I'm sure that has to help you formulate
this kind of plan.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I think it's such a unique perspective because a lot
of people come in that are just buying the track
to make money off of it or taking it over
because their dad had it before them, and they're just
learning the ropes. I mean, I'm still going to learn
every bit of this process, but I have to build
my team to where things from track prep and crowdflow
and things like that are done well in concessions blah
blah blah, But when it comes to the fan experience
(15:58):
and the competition part of it, there's nobody better suited.
Because that's all I've done for the past eighteen years
is race at thirty or forty tracks a year, and
so I've seen what works, I've seen what doesn't. And
you know, from the competition side of it too, you know,
we hear from competitors all the time of what they
like from tracks and what they don't. So we want
this to be, you know, the most comprehensive group effort
(16:19):
to be told of what do we want people to
see here? And I think that gives such a unique
perspective because I've seen it all. I've seen the worst tracks,
I've seen the best of tracks in there, and so
that really gives us an advantage to say we are
going to create the best fan and driver experience possible. Again,
we're not going to be perfect. There's going to be
things we adjust, but it's a really cool thing to
(16:40):
be able to have in my back pocket of that experience.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, fantastic news is I know a lot of people
are excited. Matt tiffed our guests this morning. Who is
the new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. Well, I know what,
we'd love to have you back in once you get
a little bit further along, maybe some updates and things
like that real quick. Give them again how they can
follow along, especially that YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, absolutely so. Just search Matt Tiff tifft and find
all the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube everything there. We
got them all and we'll be doing weekly updates as well.
So we're gonna have a lot of construction updates from
the track. We're also making a lot of fun content
out there. I believe we're playing car soccer here in
a few weeks in the fields of our tracks, so
you'll see some stupid stuff out there too, but just
(17:21):
having a lot of fun out there with it. But
we're so excited to open this up in twenty twenty
six and have you all out there again.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Matt tiff new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. Thank you
so much for coming in and sharing the news. We
appreciate your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Thank you so much.
All right, we're excited this morning because we have the
(00:03):
new owner of the Mansfield Speedway with us in studio,
Matt tiff We all know that name, former you know,
driver with NASCAR. He's been at the Mid Ohio sports
Car Course, but we got him in the studio this morning.
First of all, thank you so much for coming in.
It's been some exciting news. I'm sure you're thrilled here right.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Oh yeah, We're so happy to be here in Mansfield
purchasing the Mansfield Speedway. It's such a storied facility that
has been unfortunately kind of left to die really, and
we made the decision after extensive research and looking around
to buy the property. And we are in a full
fledged restoration mode to bring it back to the greatness
(00:41):
that have once had and you know, really springboard this
into twenty twenty five from our construction plans. But what
I mean by the twenty twenty five piece is bring
this into the modern age of sports stadiums in racing today.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
So as we're talking this morning with Matt Tifted again
just recently purchasing the track from the mill Iron Foundation,
well let's talk a little bit about that. I mean,
how did you I'm assuming did this kind of come
together kind of quick? When did you I know you
knew you told me you live in Cleveland, correct, When
did you kind of hear okay, this is for sale?
Speaker 2 (01:12):
I mean it sounded like it kind of maybe happened
kind of quick. Yeah, to be honest, it was not
for sale. So the mill Irons did own it, and
we've had a great working relationship with them over these
past few months. But I was in North Carolina for
about ten years and we were doing all the NASCAR
racing and team ownership down in the Carolinas, and we
were having our first baby. So decided to move back
up to Cleveland because my wife's family and my family
(01:34):
were in that area, and ultimately I wanted to move
up here, but I grew up in Hinckley where it's
very rural, so there's a lot of land in Cleveland.
You know, there's not too much of that, So to
be honest, I was just looking for land to go,
you know, have some side by side ATVs whatever. But
as time went on, it was a zoning issue that
you know, noise issue. This couldn't put a Paul Warn here,
So I got really frustrated. I was like, you know what,
(01:54):
I just want to go look for a racetrack and
see what's sitting around. And I was driving one time
past the racetrack, I thought, what about Mansfield, Like what's
the deal with it now? Because I didn't I haven't
been up here in a while, and I thought, man,
that was such a cool facility and such a cool track.
So my cousin, MICHAELA Pallett, she's a real term and
I said, Michaela, can you find out who owns the
racetrack and just put a bug in their ear. So
(02:17):
Carl mill Iron and I and my wife and we
went and toward the property one day and just kind
of outed the idea of like, hey, would this ever
be something you're interested in, because obviously they have so
much business and influence in the Mansfield city. And so
we got together plan and presented it to them, and
we were fortunate enough for them to sign off on it,
(02:38):
for us to take ownership and control of it, and
now we're in the beginnings of an over two million
dollar restoration project of the facility.
Speaker 1 (02:45):
And we're learning about this morning again. The new owner
of the Mansfield Speedway out on Crawl Road, Matt Tift
is with us, So before we get all the vision
and all of that, if people don't know a ton
about you, You've been a driver for a long time,
and NASCAR give us a little bit. You mentioned grew
up in the Cleveland area, but a little bit of
your background in driving.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yeah. So I'm twenty eight years old, so very young
for all this stuff I'm about to list here. But
started racing at the Barberton Speedway when I was about
eleven years old and eventually moved down to Charlotte, North
Carolina to go pursue a career in NASCAR. Basically, Charlotte
is to racing as what Nashville is two country artists,
So you've got to move there be in the hub.
So I went to school down there, eventually dropped out
(03:24):
of school because of a ride with Joe Gibbs Racing.
Before that, I raced for Ken Schrader, who was a
mentor for me. So drove for Joe Gibbs Racing, Richard
Childress Racing in the NASCAR Infinity Series, and then I
ran in the NASCAR Cup Series in twenty nineteen. Unfortunately,
at the end of my rookie year, I actually just
signed a three year extension, and I had a seizure
at the Martinsville Speedway, so that pretty much derailed my
(03:46):
professional NASCAR driving career. The end of twenty twenty, I
purchased a NASCAR charter, which essentially is a franchise in
another sport. So became the youngest NASCAR team owner in
the Cup Series and ran that for three years, and
then at the end of twenty twenty three sold the
team and my wife and I were expecting a baby,
so we, like I said, moved up this way and
(04:07):
kind of left the NASCAR world behind a little bit.
I still have an agency kind of formed in there
a bit. But that is a very very short version
of how we got back up to Ohio.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Now Matt tiffed again joining us new uder the Mansfield Speedway.
You still do some driving, you're telling me right.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Correct, Yes, So I d have a dirt late model
here in Ohio and Pennsylvania sometimes up in Michigan, and
then I have a asphalt late model that I'll jump into,
so very similar to NASCAR style cars, but you know,
same thing as kind of Mansfield once was where the
local races go on Saturday nights. I just go do
it to have fun, get to work with some great
sponsors and teams over there. But my hunger for racing
(04:42):
is always there. It's always going to be there. So
even with them in the Speedway, my racing amount will
go down quite a bit. I race thirty to forty
times right now a year, but that's going to go
down quite a ways because we need to put our
focus into making sure everybody who comes to the track
has a great time, and that's going to be our
main focus.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
Well, let's talk about the track here again. Mansfield Speedway
new owner with us in studio, Matt tiff So if
people are not aware, and we'll share this info too.
You have a YouTube channel and you know, you and
your wife, I believe, taking you know, some videos walk
us through. You mentioned a lot of work needs to
be done at the track. I think the last time
I think any racing was done was it maybe twenty
nineteen or something like that. So walk us through kind
(05:20):
of what that facility looks like right now and maybe
a little bit of what you envision.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah. So after twenty nineteen, they pretty much dismantled the racetrack,
saying it was no longer a racetrack. And you know
afterwards there was a factory that was coming in, so
they took a bulldozer knocked out turns three and four,
the walls over there, there was catch fencing around the racetrack.
There were light poles, safer barrier, concrete walls there that
were sold off, all two different racetracks, so basically really
(05:46):
stripping this place down. The mill Irons donated about five
thousand grand stands to the Shelby High School. A lot
of it was taken away, so really we were kind
of left with the shell and open, kind of a
sketchbook of what to do with the place. And yeah,
check it out on YouTube is the at Matt tiff
tifft YouTube channel. We go through an entire walk through
the property showing it off. I mean, it looks like
(06:08):
I don't know if anybody down here used to go
to Joga Lake. It looks like that where it was abandoned.
You know, the earth was taking it back over, very creepy,
very eerie. But the bones were still there and the
infrastructure that Mike Grazilla back on the two thousands, back
when NASCAR had truck races here, what they built into
this place and why I was so attracted to it
is because of the area obviously being so close to
(06:30):
Cleveland and Columbus here in Mansfield, but also the fact
of the history that was there and just the facility
that was built around this place. It is just begging
for somebody to come back and run it the correct way,
and we're really excited to do that.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
Gab. We're hearing this morning from Matt Tip to get
a new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. Former driver we
mentioned still drives. But as you talk about what you envision,
you mentioned there's there's a lot of work that needs
to be done. I'm sure, video boards, different things. What
do you kind of hope and is it's you know,
you mentioned kind of a you know, a blank canvas
where you can go in and kind of really cool
(07:03):
twenty twenty five, going to our twenty twenty six next year.
What do you kind of envision what would you like
to see here at the track?
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, I mean, we we've got to think about you
know what, I take a page out of baseball right
because a lot of these stadiums they're removing seats putting
experience based things in there. So coming out of turn
four where they took down the grand stands there. We're
going to be putting a beer garden in there and
having a picnic area there with some AstroTurf. We're going
to have areas for you know, corn hole and maybe
some putt putt over there. We're gonna put some new
(07:29):
grand stands in. We're going to put in more hillside seating,
so if you want to bring your camping chair out
there with you and bring a case of beer, you know,
come on out there with it. So we wanted to
make it to where it's as fan friendly as possible.
But you know, beyond just the structure itself, we want
this racetrack to have events that you know, kind of
go all across the car culture scene. So we'll have
car shows with drifting shows in there. We'll have typical
(07:51):
dirt races. We're also going to be creating what we're
calling Throttle Circus, so it's essentially going to be the
Savannah Bananas version of racing. So creating a racing show
which has really never been seen before. So that's something
we're really excited about because you don't have to be
a racing fan to come out to see that. You
bring your kids they're gonna go fall in love with
the characters and the cars, and the drivers will kind
of be in on it as far as playing up
(08:12):
into their role as the heroes or villains in there.
The other piece we're really looking forward to is the
off season part which we're going to be having a
two million led light holiday light show around the property.
So the entire access road behind the racetrack coming in
from the entry off the crawl Road, we'll circle around
to a walk through a light show in Santa's Village
(08:33):
there behind the back straight away the entire track will
be lit up. We'll have a video replay board on
the back straight away there to go sit and watch
el for whatever it might be back there. But we
want it to be where this track is also able
to hold concerts and make it to where it's not
just a racetrack. And because we have one hundred and
eighty acre property, if I just bought this to be
a racetrack and run weekly races in twenty twenty five,
(08:54):
you can't make it. We have to diversify and we
really want this to be where there's something for everybody
at this track.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Awesome to hear all the great plans for Matt Tiff
to get a new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. It
really sounds like you've put a lot of thought into
this already. People, you know, last week maybe just hearing
the news that hey, Matt's going to buy the racetrack. Boy,
it sounds like this is maybe something have you been
thinking about, or Boy, this sounds like you've got a
lot of great plans already.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I have hundreds and hundreds of hours around this. I've
not slept very much the past two or three months.
I guess really three months now before we even had
the green light on the property, and we were just
digging through ideas and really researching, you know, between baseball
what worked for the Savannah Bananas going to their ballparks.
I've been looking at NASCAR tracks and what they started
to instill, you know, into their fan experiences and WWE
(09:40):
going to Monster Jam, and really just trying to take
a whole cohesive look in the ecosystem of live sports
and motorsports to see what's working today. How can we
bring this to our short track and make it to
where it can live on a national stage or it
can live in a local place and be able to
be flexible, but every fan who comes there is can
be able to make great memories and have a lot
of fun.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Well, there hasn't been racing in Mansfield at the Speedway
since twenty nineteen, but Matt tiff the new owner, how
soon could people be wondering? There's a lot of plans here.
I mean, what's kind of the rough timeline for you here?
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Well, as of this past week, we have begun construction,
so we are rolling. We had to get power restored
and some water back on for number one on there.
If you see the YouTube video, we pretty much had
a water park in our maintenance building, so that's going
to take a lot of restoration in there. But we
are hoping to have some private events here in the
fall of this year. Just on the racetrack itself. We
have to work on timelines with our structural engineers on
(10:33):
the grand stands, but the ideal scenario would be to
where if we don't have a twelve month winter like
we've had this year in twenty twenty six, to where
we could open up in late April or early May,
depending on how that weather forecast looks.
Speaker 1 (10:45):
Yeah, I know, excitement wise for the track in terms
of community events. I think people have to love to
hear that they think of racing and how awesome that is.
But you could have so many things and make that
thing almost year round, right.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Absolutely, And we are not going to be just a
race track, whether it might be someday a renaissance fair.
We have the July fourth fireworks show come back, or
food truck nights. We can do driving nights. I mean,
there's so many things to where I mean shooting the
back hundred acres there. We can have a paintball field.
I mean there's I'm not saying we're gonna do all
those things, or we could do all those things and more.
But the point is we have so much flexibility with
(11:18):
this property to where we really want to listen to
what the community wants, whether that's putting in a dragstrip,
if we do a go kart kids track. We want
to make sure that we are adaptable and be able
to do this economically to where we don't run ourselves
out of money, but do it where we are listening
to the demand of people from Mansfield, from Cleveland, from Columbus,
from Cincinnati to come here to our racetrack and be
able to use it for the purpose that we all
(11:40):
see fit and we can go be adaptable and do that.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Well, I got a question on that. We get a
few more things before we let them go. Great conversation
this morning. Matt Tiff the voice you hear who is
the new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. If somebody wants
to reach out you mentioned, Hey, they have an idea
that they have a question. Whatever can they do that?
I don't know. Can they comment through the YouTube a
social media how do they make content?
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Yeah? So we have the Mansfield Speedway Instagram, Twitter pages there,
but then also we have the Matt Tiff This is
Matt Tiff t have a weird last name spelling there,
but all across every social media platform there. So you know,
if you want to see something at a racetrack, shoot
us a DM shoot us a message or comments on
the YouTube videos there and we are one hundred percent
(12:22):
open years. We have a plan you know what we'd
like to do internally, but you know, if there's enough
demand for something. For example, we pose the question of
dirt or asphalt for this racetrack. It's gotten millions of
views on there across the different platforms and we have
overwhelmingly heard that people want this to be a dirt racetrack.
I honestly was not expecting that. I thought it might
be more fifty to fifty. But as of right now,
(12:43):
I will confirm for the foreseeable future it will be
a dirt racetrack. If there is a long term commitment
from a series like NASCAR or you know, something like
Formula Drift, maybe we look at asphalt. But as of
right now, the response has overwhelmingly been do not pave
this race track. But the good thing is we do
have a paved inner circle there. The inner quarter mile
(13:05):
track is paved, so we can hold NASCAR racing schools
in there. We can put asphalt Figure eight shows down there,
legend car races, go kart races. That makes us one
of the most unique facilities in the country because we
have not only an asphalt slash concrete track but also
a dirt track. So it makes us very versatile having
both tracks there.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Yeah, that was one of my questions, was it going
to be there or asphalt? All right? Perfect, So before
I let you go again, Matt Tip, the new owner
of the Mansfield Speedway, is in with us a lot
of exciting news what have you. I mean, it sounds
like you've heard a lot of great feedback from fans
you know that you live in this area that you know,
maybe go to the Middle Ohio sports car course, they
used to go to the speedway, and they're so excited.
(13:43):
I even read a few things online like local elected officials,
different different people have been commenting.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
Right. Yeah, it's been absolutely overwhelmingly positive across all this.
And I'll be honest, the amount of traction we've gotten
from the release of the news of this property has
been bigger than anything I can ever remember doing in
my career. I mean, this far surpasses when I announced
I was doing the Daytona five hundred racing in them.
It's unbelievable. I raced in Pennsylvania last weekend and it
(14:10):
was all anybody could ask about. Everybody at every racetrack
I go to is asking about Mansfield Speedway and that
is just so cool. And you know, I think the
greatest part about it is we're being very transparent with
how we're doing this build and we're going to be
sharing finances on there. We're gonna be sharing the progressions,
the successes, the failures, everything in there. We want to
have people really get it behind the scenes, look at
(14:31):
what it takes to run a sports facility at Motorsports Facility.
But it's just been so positive and like you mentioned,
you know, remarks from the mayor, the Chamber Commerce, the
Economic Development Group, the tourism groups, they've all been so fantastic.
And we're having our groundbreaking ceremony here coming up this
next week and a lot of those folks will be
out there with us. But you know, we want this
to be where people feel good about having a racetrack
(14:53):
here and we open that up for you know, people
to come into our town here in Mansfield and bring
you know, jobs and you know, spending their dollars at
our restaurants and stores and hotels. That is the greatest
thing we can do is offer those jobs and opportunities
and bring back business to the Mansfield area.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
I know the Mayor's quote was a substantial investment for me,
and so I know you're going to meet with the
mayor as I let you go again. Matt tiff new
owner of the Mansfield Speedway. You mentioned you know you
still drive, but you know drove a NASCAR I mean,
how much has that helped you and I were actually
talking before we turned the microphones on. You know, you've
been you know, in the car, on the track, and
then from the owner side of things, it's kind of
(15:31):
like you've been all over the country. What works, what
doesn't work. I'm sure that has to help you formulate
this kind of plan.
Speaker 2 (15:37):
I think it's such a unique perspective because a lot
of people come in that are just buying the track
to make money off of it or taking it over
because their dad had it before them, and they're just
learning the ropes. I mean, I'm still going to learn
every bit of this process, but I have to build
my team to where things from track prep and crowdflow
and things like that are done well in concessions blah
blah blah, But when it comes to the fan experience
(15:58):
and the competition part of it, there's nobody better suited.
Because that's all I've done for the past eighteen years
is race at thirty or forty tracks a year, and
so I've seen what works, I've seen what doesn't. And
you know, from the competition side of it too, you know,
we hear from competitors all the time of what they
like from tracks and what they don't. So we want
this to be, you know, the most comprehensive group effort
(16:19):
to be told of what do we want people to
see here? And I think that gives such a unique
perspective because I've seen it all. I've seen the worst tracks,
I've seen the best of tracks in there, and so
that really gives us an advantage to say we are
going to create the best fan and driver experience possible. Again,
we're not going to be perfect. There's going to be
things we adjust, but it's a really cool thing to
(16:40):
be able to have in my back pocket of that experience.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yeah, fantastic news is I know a lot of people
are excited. Matt tiffed our guests this morning. Who is
the new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. Well, I know what,
we'd love to have you back in once you get
a little bit further along, maybe some updates and things
like that real quick. Give them again how they can
follow along, especially that YouTube channel.
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, absolutely so. Just search Matt Tiff tifft and find
all the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube everything there. We
got them all and we'll be doing weekly updates as well.
So we're gonna have a lot of construction updates from
the track. We're also making a lot of fun content
out there. I believe we're playing car soccer here in
a few weeks in the fields of our tracks, so
you'll see some stupid stuff out there too, but just
(17:21):
having a lot of fun out there with it. But
we're so excited to open this up in twenty twenty
six and have you all out there again.
Speaker 1 (17:26):
Matt tiff new owner of the Mansfield Speedway. Thank you
so much for coming in and sharing the news. We
appreciate your time this morning.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Thank you so much.
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