Need for speed: DeFuniak motorsports complex could have global impact
By TOM McLAUGHLIN 315-4435 | @TomMnwfdn tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com
Walton County, FL
Walton County officials have sounded positively giddy at times when discussing the interest a crew of wealthy businessmen has expressed in locating what’s billed as a “motorsports entertainment complex” there.
And why not?
The six entrepreneurs, described in one correspondence as “Fortune 500 CEO’s from a variety of industries,” are thinking beyond big.
Their “Stable of Speed Track Project” has the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues and create thousands of jobs, according to a concept outline produced by the group.
The motorsports complex could “attract world class racing teams to locate their global operations within our motorsports footprint,” a letter drafted by DeFuniak Springs Mayor Bob Campbell and Walton Economic Development Alliance Director Steve Jaeger said.
The letter was written but never sent to the Triumph Gulf Coast board in an apparent bid for economic development funds.
It also discusses the Stable of Speed coalition’s commitment to investing in job growth and education by creating a “unique automotive and technology center.”
The center “will allow area school systems and military installations to engage in training exercises,” the letter said.
Email correspondence and documents obtained by the Northwest Florida Daily News through public records requests indicate the scope of the motorsports complex project could go even beyond what Campbell and Jaeger discussed in their letter.
Terms like “luxury and exotic auto mall” and “intrastate airline concept” appear in the discussions between Stable of Speed executives and Walton officials.
Project ‘moving and changing so quickly’
Jeffrey Osborn, the President and CEO of Stable of Speed, cautioned against the overexuberance he’s seen expressed in media accounts about the motorsports complex.
Some officials seem to be speaking from their “own personal enthusiasm and hope,” he said.
“There have been a lot of inaccuracies about who’s involved and what their roles are,” he said.
Osborn said the motorsports complex project “has been moving and changing so quickly” that even information found in correspondence sent two months ago “is going to be largely out of date.”
He noted the group he’s working with has not limited its search for a development location to Walton County or even Florida.
“We are looking all over the South,” he said, before conceding, “We will likely end up in the Panhandle region.”
Osborn added plans being developed also could be regional in scope as opposed to focused in a single county.
Osborn said from what he’s seen, Walton County residents appear receptive to the concept of a motorsports complex that would include a facility where events up to and including NASCAR and IndyCar racing could take place.