Tom Otto said he wants to make Atco Dragway “great again.”
The 33-year-old union construction worker grew up around the track after his father brought him there when he was a toddler.
He still vividly remembers nights headlined by Benny the Bomb, literally blowing up his heap of bolts on the track. Or Doug “Danger” Senecal, a wanna-be Evel Knievel, soaring through the air on a motorcycle.
Those headliners were in addition to rubber-burning, smoke-churning drag races, including folks who wanted to “tune-n-test” the family car in a need for speed.
Problem is, the future of this 60-year-old dragstrip stadium, touted as the oldest in New Jersey, appears to be as a sprawling auto auction.
“Everyone is disappointed that it’s not going to be a racetrack if this other thing goes through,” said Dolores “Lori” Toussaint, long-time owner of the former New Atco Diner and a former mayor of Waterford Township where the dragstrip is located. “We’d like to see it stay that way. It’s part of Waterford. It’s something different that isn’t in every town.”
But Toussaint, still a member of the local economic development committee, said the pending sale of the 180-acre site to Insurance Auto Auctions, an Illinois based company with 190 similar sites in North America, including the former Englishtown Raceway in Old Bridge, New Jersey, is not something township government can do anything about.
“I understand how people feel and I’m with them, I would like to see it remain a racetrack,” Toussaint said. “But he wants to sell and if the buyer doesn’t want to buy a racetrack and wants to do something else, it’s really not a township issue at this point.”
The racetrack owner is Leonard Capone Jr. A request to him for comment this week was not immediately returned.
Toussaint said IAA will still need to come before the township for a zoning use variance but that would not likely block the pending sale. The track is still operating, but is open just to racers and no spectators because of COVID-19 restrictions.
IAA also submitted an application to make $1.8 million in renovations on the site to the state Pinelands Commission, which administers environmental conservation in the area, including the track and most of Waterford which sits in the Pinelands reserve.
Multiple requests for comment from IAA this week were not returned.
Otto, who still races his ’86 Chevy Camaro at the track and a legion of other drivers and race fans, is waging a campaign to Save Atco Raceway, including a Change.org petition with nearly 8,000 signatures. The organizers plan to send the petition to Gov. Phil Murphy.
“A lot of people want to see the track stay and don’t want to see it become an auto auction like Englishtown,” Otto said this week.
Otto said Capone Jr., once raced funny cars there. He said Capone’s father worked at the track when it opened in 1960. Capone bought the track in 2012 and Otto thinks it has been in decline ever since.
Otto is leading a group of local racing devotees looking for another buyer who wants to continue to operate the track. But Toussaint said she doesn’t think it will be easy.
“That should have happened a long time ago,” she said. “It’s been a nightmare for this guy. I feel so bad for him. The previous owner just did what he wanted to do and this guy is paying for it.”
Toussaint blames the Pinelands Commission for part of the problem.
“The Pinelands Commission made life completely miserable for the man,” said Toussaint, who said Capone sent copies of letters he sent to the Pinelands Commission to the township economic development committee. “How do you survive under those conditions? Having those things happen to you is horrible.”
Toussaint said the Pinelands Commission and, at times local zoning officials, have levied fines against the track for improvements that were not approved or other violations, according to correspondence the township has.
A request for comment this week from the Pinelands Commission was not immediately returned.
Meanwhile, Otto and others are determined to be heard before the IAA change of use request, filed in May, is heard by the Pinelands Commission.
“This racetrack is a staple of southern New Jersey,” the Change.org petition said. “I urge those who have been, or even know somebody who has been to Atco to sign so we can let the Pinelands Commission know just how much the dragstrip means to us! Don’t let it get turned into a parking lot!”
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Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.
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Atco Dragway set to become auto auction site, but local race fans still fight to stop it - NJ.com
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