Monday’s auction of the 411 Raceway and equipment ended the long red flag period on the property and has put racing in Sevier County up to a yellow caution. Doug Sopha took the property on a high bid of $341,000 including auction fees in light bidding.
Sopha owned the raceway in the early ninties. The track was converted from dirt to paved surface before he sold the property to Roger Flinnekan in 1993. Flinnekan managed the property for six years before selling out to the now defunct Galaxy Entertainment in 2000. The 1993 sale was on a par value with Sopha’s high bid Monday for the 25.7 acres, but Galaxy purchased the 3/8 mile track for a package deal of almost $600,000 in 2000.
Galaxy creditor, Bank of America, representatives were on hand to watch as Furrow Auction Company out of Knoxville auctioned off the property and several vehicles and an equipment package in just over twelve minutes. The entire auction brought in about $360,000, $36,000 was the ten percent add on charge that goes to the auction company.
“I didn’t plan on buying it,” said Sopha. “I came to see what it would go for, I really thought it would bring in more money than that.”
Within minutes of the sale, as interest moved to some of the dune buggies to be sold, several local racers were already wandering up to Sopha inquiring if would reopen the track and when the first race would be. He made no definite commitments other than to say, “I’m really not sure. We want to do something new, we just don’t know exactly what or how at this point.”
Auctioneer Sam Furrow laid out some of the problems with the track before opening the floor to bids. A lawsuit is still filed by DJ Construction over materials and work done at the site. A main drainage pipe that runs under turn one and two has also collapsed. Attempts to clear the drain last week revealed the problem as mud and dirt washed out of the drain and across Seymour Business Park into the Cherokee Hills entrance. Water was once again standing on the infield by Monday’s auction. The health department has also filed notice that there is not an approved septic system on the property. The tank was being emptied once a month by Galaxy, as it is not big enough to handle the facilities currently in place for fan attendance.
Sopha indicated that he did hope to have family-oriented events at the venue in the future. He will not be seeking NASCAR’s weekly race sanctioning, but indicated that hosting such an event was not out of the question. Indicating that the track’s future was not solely up to him Sopha said, “A lot of this will depend on the racers and community support and involvement for this to be a profitable business. If it can’t work and make money than maybe this should be a subdivision.”

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