A treacherous drag racing season for everyone thus far in 2020 dealt a sudden and unfortunate blow to Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, as the track, long considered one of the top drag racing facilities in the world, announced on social media that it was officially closing for the 2020 race season.
Track owner Bill Bader Jr. gave the official verification on Monday on Facebook, officially ending a year that never got started due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The final blow likely came after NHRA announced it was postponing the start of its season, cancelling its annual stop at the track.
The national race had become one of the top races on the circuit, drawing big crowds and a huge racer count. Bader also announced earlier this spring that the track’s annual Night of Fire, which draws the biggest one-day crowd at the track – and generally considered one of the top specialty races in the nation – had also been cancelled, as well as a number of other smaller races.
The track still had the likes of Street Outlaws: No Prep Kings, the PDRA, and NMCA still to come during the summer and fall this year, but that wasn’t enough for Bader to open the track in 2020.
“I came to the realization that with 83% of my revenue lost for the year, that it no longer made financial sense to attempt to open and run the risk of losing anymore money for the year,” Bader said in the Facebook post. “Instead, I thought, I need to cover up and live to fight another day. With my path now clear, I began the process of making calls to the parties who needed to know in advance of an announcement.”
He stated a formal announcement would be made on Wednesday, and certainly the racing community is hopeful the track is back in top form in 2021 without any long-term effects.
This story was originally published on June 2, 2020. 
