The Milwaukee Mile office is closed, and all 12 staff members have been laid off at least temporarily. Whether the oldest auto racing facility in the country lives to see its 107th birthday is in grave doubt even among its biggest boosters.
"It depends totally if I'm able to get some investors," promoter Claude Napier said Thursday in a telephone interview from Texas.
"I knew I was going to be short of money."
Napier, president and chief executive officer of Wisconsin Motorsports, admitted to the Journal Sentinel for the first time that he had no other financial backers when he entered into a deal in February with State Fair Park, where the track is located.
Napier's organization owes NASCAR nearly $1.9 million for staging two races in June and owes the Indy Racing League an undisclosed amount for its weekend in May. The organizer of a spectator event in August - the track's final opportunity for a significant payday this season - said this week that he is ready to walk away from his commitment.
The Mile held its first automobile race in 1903, eight years before the first Indianapolis 500, and its infield served as the site of the 1939 National Football League championship game.
"I've got a hunch it's over," said Dominic Giuffre, a former promoter with his brother Frank. "It's too late."
The Giuffres, promoters at the Mile from 1983-'91, have expressed interest in returning to that role.
Napier was hastily awarded the contract to promote races after the previous group, Milwaukee Mile Holdings, negotiated a release from its deal. Napier was an executive with that group.
"Claude's a good guy," Giuffre said Thursday, blaming State Fair Park for not realizing Napier didn't have the experience or financing to run the racetrack. "I don't think he did anything intentionally wrong. He just got himself in a pickle, over his head."
NASCAR held its second-tier Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series races at the track June 20. Two days earlier, according to documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel, Napier signed an agreement with NASCAR that told vendors they should pay money owed the Mile directly to NASCAR.
It is "very uncommon" for NASCAR to stage a race without being paid in advance by the promoter, said Ramsey Poston, a NASCAR spokesman.
The races were already scheduled and television contracts in place when Napier took over. Given its dealings this year, NASCAR is not expected to grant credit to the track - no matter who operates it - to return for 2010.
The Indy Racing League ran on May 31, one week after the Indianapolis 500. It intends to announce its IndyCar Series schedule this month. The series was left in an uncomfortable position last year when it was forced to cancel for economic reasons a race scheduled in Detroit, and an insider said it would not run the same risk with Milwaukee this year.
Roy Kenseth, who has organized a stock-car race in August, said he would pull out of his deal if he were not paid $88,000 in the coming days. That race is to feature 2003 NASCAR champion and 2009 Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth, Roy Kenseth's son and a native of Cambridge, near Madison.
Napier reiterated Thursday that he continued to work with the sanctioning bodies on what they are owed.
One of the problems he ran into, Napier said, was that, in advance of the two races, "everyone wanted their money up front."
"Paying everything out in advance was tough," he said. "I need more support from the community."
Much of a racetrack's income comes from ticket sales and from sponsors, who pay to be included in the name of a race or to have their products advertised on trackside billboards and other places around the grounds. Money collected for tickets sold by the previous promoter, Milwaukee Mile Holdings, was not turned over to the new group, Fair representative Patrice Harris said, but the tickets were honored.
The Nationwide Series drew a crowd of about 35,000, comparable to recent years, and the IndyCar crowd was estimated at 28,000, up from 2008.
While Napier's Wisconsin Motorsports and NASCAR seek to work out their financial differences, M&I Bank, which holds Napier's account, filed a legal request in Waukesha County to keep M&I out of the fight.
A study by the Legislative Audit Bureau released last month - and not disputed by Napier in an earlier interview - indicated that Wisconsin Motorsports was on pace to lose money in 2009, "raising questions about the viability of racing at the Milwaukee Mile."
State Fair Park still owes more than $25 million for a 2003 reconstruction project that included building a new grandstand, money it had tried to recoup through its lease agreements with promoters.
If necessary, State Fair Park could step in and help organize some of the smaller events scheduled for the track this summer, such as a vintage Indy-car exhibition and a regional sports-car race, said Harris, director of public relations and communications for the park. It is not in position to take on the Kenseth race or the debt associated with the NASCAR and IndyCar weekend.
Even if NASCAR and the IRL were to decide not to return, the track could host racing at lower levels, she said.
Contact made this week
The Giuffres made their most recent contact with fair management this week, sending a letter to Chairman Susan Crane and members of the board. In it, they estimated the value of the track at $150 million, called the Mile "one of Wisconsin's crown jewels, and yet it is tarnishing the reputation of the state," and said its demise would be an "incalculable" loss to the state.
While the letter implored "Bring the Giuffres Back!" it did not offer a specific plan for the family to take over the lease. Even if it had, the fair is not in position to discuss a proposal as long as it has a contract in place, Harris said.
An e-mail response to Dominic Giuffre from Craig Barkelar, State Fair Park's deputy executive director, on Crane's behalf, said State Fair Park would "immediately contact you" should the status of the contract with Napier change.
The only way to save racing at the Mile, according to Giuffre, is to cut ties with Napier immediately, convince Gov. Jim Doyle to pay off the debt to the sanctioning bodies and install a new promoter. At this point, the only apparent candidate is the Giuffre group, which includes Eau Claire-based home-improvement magnate John Menard.
"I wrote to (Crane) Tuesday morning and said, 'You've got to get off your asses and we've got to take care of this now,' " Giuffre said. "We can't drag our feet."
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