Green flag drops on indoor racing

Starting in mid-November, mini race cars will compete at 50 mph on a wooden track in the Richmond Coliseum. Mechanicsville-based Arena Racing USA has been running its miniature brand of racing at the Hampton Coliseum. That league will stage five races at the Coliseum.

October 6, 2010; 10:14 AM • by Richmond BizSense

This story first appeared on RichmondBizSense.com, Richmond’s leading source for business news.

Local race fans don’t have to wait until spring to watch stock cars zipping around a race track.

Starting in mid-November, mini race cars will compete at 50 mph on a wooden track in the Richmond Coliseum.

Mechanicsville-based Arena Racing USA has been running its miniature brand of racing at the Hampton Coliseum. That league will stage five races at the Coliseum.

This isn’t the first time Arena Racing has put on an event here. “The first time we did this was back in 1993, and we had 4,700 fans,” said Ricky Dennis, the founder and president.

Arena Racing brings in most of its revenue through ticket sales and sponsorships. Dennis said he’s got Chik-fil-a, Interstate Batteries, Dominion Auto Group and BB&T lined up as sponsors of the Richmond series.

Dennis said he wants to expand to 15 events here. Arena Racing has occasionally been mentioned as one of the future events at SportsQuest, a mega sports complex planned for Chesterfield County.

The Coliseum could surely use the business. It has been criticized as outdated and lost its hockey team last year when the Richmond Renegades shut down.

Dennis said he’s not scarred by the failure of minor league hockey at that venue.

“The Coliseum isn’t as bad as everyone says it is. And the hockey model is a tough model to make work. Arena Racing is very successful with 15 events, and we understand now how to put them together,” he said. “We’ve finally figured it out.”

Aaron Kremer is the BizSense editor. Please send news tips to editor (at) richmondbizsense.com.

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