When you look at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in the tiny town of Loudon, N.H. today, it’s hard to believe what it was like just six years ago. Today, stands a mile-oval track and adjoining road course, 98,000 seats and a facility that has been re-tooled and shined with the race fan of today in mind. The man behind this transformation to a property that hosts two major NASCAR event weekends each year – Executive Vice President and General Manager, Jerry Gappens.
I spoke with Jerry in an interview this week on the fan amenities and changes that he and his staff have made at the speedway, the project to get night racing at NHMS, and the perception of racing and race fans in New England.
Greg Davis, Frontstretch: Since SMI (Speedway Motorsports Inc.) purchased the track from Bob Bahre back in 2008, each year there has seemed to be additional amenities for the fans added to the racing facility. Is there anything in the works for this year?
Jerry Gappens: Yeah, actually. I certainly have to commend our Chairman Bruton Smith. One of the things that he’s known for is putting money right back into the facilities for fans and all our guests, including corporate guests as well. For this year we’re working on a new Turn 3 Hospitality Area, trackside. It will be setup for July (for a soft-opening) with some tents and these recycled containers that are turned into bar [areas].
The whole concept there is that people wanted more of a trackside view as opposed to the old traditional hospitality area that was behind the grandstands, then they would go up into the grandstands and watch [the race]. So that’s going to be new this year, the Turn 3 Hospitality Area, right on the end of the Laconia Grandstand.
And then another new thing we’re doing, fan related, is the Champions Pavilion, and it will feature a hospitality experience for our fans that have spent $750 or more as a part of their account for the races (seats, pit passes, etc.) they will have exclusive [access] to this area with food and a DJ. It’ll be right behind the main grandstands and it’ll be a great place to sit, get out of the sun and relax.
This year we also decided to honor our first responders this year at the race as well. We’ve got a program where we’re reaching out to companies and our individuals that can basically buy tickets to send our first responders and their family members to the race here in July. And we make the tickets very affordable for somebody to buy them and support it. Our sister track in Charlotte has done that the last couple of years for the military during Memorial Day weekend and it’s worked really well. So we launched that a couple of weeks ago.
We had [NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver] Kasey Kahne come up and he went through the NH Fire Academy training and got to kind of play the role of a firefighter there for a couple of hours there, and helped bring awareness to [our first responders]. As the largest sports and entertainment facility in New England if we can help recognize and bring awareness to some really good things, there are enough bad things out there that we see every day.
So these types of things we can do, and it’s a worthwhile project and a feel-good story for us, and it’s also very well deserved to have them come out and be part of it.
Davis: It was first reported back in Sept. 2013 that the track was working together with the Town of Loudon to get lighting installed at the Magic Mile for night racing. How is the progress coming with the project, and when can we expect the first race under the lights at New Hampshire?
Gappens: I would love to have that now, but unfortunately there is no new update on that front. I’ve had several conversations with NASCAR officials and with our television partners, that take over in 2015, there at NBC Sports requesting that our July race be moved to a Saturday night, and its been a longer process than I ever imagined. I sent a letter to Steve O’Donnell (Sr. Vice President of Racing Operations) at NASCAR three days after last July’s race asking them if they would entertain the idea. And it’s still being looked at.
I guess what they’re doing is they’re looking at the schedule for 2015 and beyond and see how this adjustment would fit in that schedule and the programming. And then if NASCAR gives the green light to be open to be run on a Saturday night, we would work with the town and some of the individuals that had contested [night racing] with Bob Bahre back when he first built the track (25 years ago). We would then meet with the local officials and see if they would consider us upgrading the event to primetime.
Davis: People all across the nation know that New England has some of the most loyal and ‘diehard’ sports fans anywhere, with the Patriots, Celtics, Bruins and Red Sox here. But when it comes to auto racing that same notion holds true. Can you talk a little bit about the NASCAR fan base in New England and how it’s helped to grow NHMS to what it is today?
Gappens: Yeah, absolutely, the fanbase that you speak of and the support they bring is the reason that New Hampshire Motor Speedway has been here, hosting two of these prestigious NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events each year. And next year, we’ll celebrate the 25th anniversary. And I promise that it will be a tribute and a thanks to our fans. Personally, I certainly make an effort to meet as many fans as I can during race weekends, and at events that we do across the region each year. And [the fans] come from all walks of life. They all have a great passion for the sport and some great human interest stories.
For example, there’s a sheetrocker from Maine his names Todd, and he’s known as the “ToddFather” out in the N1 camping lot. He’s the unofficial mayor that that campground. But during the week he’s a sheetrocker, and then two times a year he becomes the mayor of a campground here on site. Another example, there’s a group of guys from Canada that had converted a 53’ trailer that was previously used for TV, movie and commercial shoots, and they took this thing, after coming to a race, decided they wanted to camp here and made it into almost a small house on property.
And then there’s a large contingent from Vermont that comes down with about 15 RVs they all camp in the same area every year. And so just getting out there and meeting these people, they’re all amazing, and that’s one of the best parts of my job. And I got to say, when I moved up here from Charlotte in 2008 to take my position as the General Manager here, my first race I was really overwhelmed at the passion of New England race fans. I don’t think a lot of people around the rest of the country really understand that there is an avid fanbase here, and that’s very evident by how they support the track.
Davis: Finally, there have been so many great moments over the years at NHMS. Is it possible to boil it down to just one major NASCAR moment that sticks out to you since you’ve been GM of the Speedway?
Gappens: Yeah, there are, and in a couple of different areas. First of all, as a fan, the moments leading up to the command to start engines is one of the most special moments in all of sports. You think about NASCAR fans and NASCAR events, and I don’t think there’s anything more Americana than that. And you think about the evocation, national anthem and command to fire engines, and you’ve got 100,000 people in the place and it’s just an electric atmosphere – the anticipation of it.
On the competitive side on the track, I would say it would have to be the 2009 Sylvania 300 where Mark Martin and Juan Pablo Montoya were in an epic battle right there at the end of the race. There was a three-lap shootout and they were swapping the lead back and forth. And I was down at victory lane, getting ready to greet the winner, and the thing that amazed me was that the crowd was on their feet those last 10 laps of that race.
And they were so loud that you could hear the crowd over 43 screaming racecar engines. And of course Mark Martin won it, and he was kind of an elder statesman, driving for Hendrick at the time, and it was a really great battle. The crowd just responded like I’ve never seen a crowd to respond to a race.
Personally for me, it’s been visiting the campgrounds each race and meeting and developing relationships with our fans. And then from a professional standpoint I think it’s been watching our team here grow and develop in to making our facility so much better than it was when we bought it in 2008.
About the author
Greg has been with Frontstretch since 2014. A life-long NASCAR follower armed with an extensive sport and digital marketing background, Greg assists the marketing team and helps to manage relationships with some of the website's sponsors. From time to time his work appears on Frontstretch, focusing on the business side of racing and how financial partnerships are affecting the sport. He and his family reside in southern Connecticut.
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