Gentlemen, stall your engines.

• Author: Schley, Stewart

THE END OF PIKES PEAK INTERNATIONAL RACEWAY MARKS a rare sports-business failure in a state that's known for its embrace of everything from outdoor soccer to indoor lacrosse. But it's also a sign that Colorado motor sports fans are more discerning than the folks who run NASCAR may have taken us to be.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

PPIR was sold by the New York investment banking firm Lehman Bros. in September to a wholly owned unit of International Speedway Corp., a Florida company whose racetracks include Daytona International Speedway and Alabama's legendary Talladega Superspeedway.

The cruel truth behind the transaction is that ISC is buying the track to shut it down. In a matter of months, the new owner will begin dismantling the track in Fountain that began its life in the mid-1960s as the Pikes Peak Turf Club. (Back then, when they talked about horsepower, they really meant it.)

Whether ISC chooses to try again in Colorado--there is some speculation about a new track being built closer to Denver--is uncertain. But for now the Florida company is putting its cash, and some of the reclaimed assets from PPIR, into other markets like Seattle, where ISC estimates a new track it's building eventually will employ 2,300 people.

It's doubtful that anybody comes out whole in this deal. Lehman Bros. purchased the $35 million, 42,000-seat facility in 2001 for a reported $16.8 million from its previous owner, a partnership of developer C.C. Myers Inc. and Apollo Real Estate Advisors. The selling price to ISC last month wasn't disclosed, but racing industry publications speculated the price may have been as low as $8 million--less than one-fourth of the original investment. You can bet nobody at Lehman's Seventh Avenue headquarters is getting a big holiday bonus on this one.

Meantime, track manager and PPIR president Rob Johnson made a game effort to turn the place into a top-notch motor-sports centerpiece that could pay its own way. Over the last nine years, PPIR has hosted 10 Indy Racing League races and eight NASCAR Busch Series races. Johnson and his staff also cultivated a series of localized private-club events and facility rentals that helped to pay the bills. Colorado Springs economist David Bamberger, who was enlisted by PPIR in 2002 to evaluate the track's economic impact, says the place was busy from late spring to early fall with more than 100 events.

But ultimately there was no way to manage around the biggest reason for PPIR's demise, which...