“We are finished after that last race in October, just can’t seem to make it financially viable without some significant improvements that we can’t afford. Add the horrible weather cycle we have had the last couple years.”Rod Zolman
News file photo
A long line of cars get ready to run the one-eighth mile track at Pacemaker’s Dragway Park in 2017. Financial constraints have forced owner Rod Zolman to announce the track will close after the final race of the season, the weekend of Oct. 25-27.
MOUNT VERNON — The future of Pacemaker’s Dragway Park, a fixture on the west side of Mount Vernon for over 60 years, is uncertain after track owner Rod Zolman announced Thursday that financial losses have forced him to cease operations when the current season ends. Pacemaker’s will hold its final event on the last weekend of October. After that, the gates will close on the historic eighth on a mile track.
Zolman cited several factors for the closure. Among them are overhead, the cost of upgrades and the weather.
“Not that I know of,” Zolman said. “The property is owned by the (Larry) Nelson family in Columbus. So it’s been a rental situation since 1956. That’s what makes it so difficult to put the money into it to keep it viable for the community.”
Some of the things that Pacemaker’s would need to do to modernize, they are restricted from doing. The agreement between Pacemaker’s and the local township restricts them from adding permanent buildings to the site.
“There are restrictions put on us by the township that keep us from putting in things like permanent restroom facilities.” Zolman said. “Those are things that other tracks have. As a result, we spent nearly $13,000 on port-a-pots last year.”
What makes the closing so sad for racers and other members of the community is that, under Zolman’s ownership, the historic track enjoyed newfound popularity. Zolman increased the prize money and he introduced Pacemaker’s to a wider audience. For the very young, he had Powerwheels racing, which was a hit with parents and grandparents. He brought in street racers from all over the region, attracting them with prize money and a safe track to race on. He brought in sponsors and contracted with Velvet Ice Cream, which was served on a specially constructed patio. He brought in celebrities like BoostedGT from the Discovery Channel’s Street Outlaws. Last spring, Pacemakers hosted the very successful Knox Grudge Race, featuring local celebrities, to raise money for the Foundation for Knox Community Hospital.
Bill Hoskinson, a Newark resident, who is a popular racer at Pacemaker’s, has donated much time and money to the improvement of the track. The best memories he has of Pacemaker’s are bound by family ties.
“I had my first Super Pro class win at Pacemakers in 2001,” Hoskinson said. “My oldest son also won his first Super Pro class at Pacemakers, driving the same car.”
With the Hoskinsons, it has been more than just racing.
“My son and I helped promote the popular Cash Days at Pacemaker’s,” Hoskinson said. “We donated thousands of dollars in excavation and drainage work to help build the new patio and the Velvet Ice Cream stand last year.”
Like everyone else in the Pacemaker’s racing family, Hoskinson remains hopeful.
“I hope someone will step forward to run the track next year,” Hoskinson said. “I’d be willing to help, anyway I can, to make Pacemaker’s a great place to race.”
Pacemaker’s first opened in 1956 and is the second oldest dragstrip in continuous operation in the United States. During its time, Pacemaker’s has seen many changes and so have many area racers.
Dave Vasbinder, a longtime racer who is now retired, wandered into a then brand-new Pacemaker’s as a high school teenager in 1956.
“I sneaked in and one of the officers of the track club caught me,” Vasbinder said. “He said to me, ‘Look, you’ve got a choice. Either you go to jail for trespassing or you go to work here. I’ll give you something to do.’”
Vasbinder did many different jobs in the early days of the track, including being the flagman at the finish line – a dangerous job.
“At the time I was there it was dangerous,” Vasbinder said. “I didn’t think much about it. I was young and crazy. Then, the track was narrow – really narrow. I got hit with some pieces of stuff, but no major shrapnel got me.”
In those fledgling days, the track was run by a club. Vasbinder became part of the club in the early 1960s. He served as track president, vice president and treasurer. The news of the track’s closure is a bitter pill for people like Vasbinder, who put their lives into Pacemaker’s.
“It’s a tough business to be in anymore,” Vasbinder said. “You have to have a lot of money in reserve to cover the bad times. These other tracks in operation, now, have got a lot of money people behind them.”
Travis Mazza, a former resident of Mount Vernon, still races and lives in Washington, D.C. Even 20 years after moving away, Pacemaker’s, like family, is a tie that binds.
“I’m in shock,” Mazza said. “When I come back to Ohio, visits to Pacemaker’s have always been so wonderful, whether I was able to visit the track or see friends around the town or county that I met growing up in Mount Vernon, and going to the track as a little boy with my dad. I still see a lot of those people. I’m friends with them on Facebook.”
Knox County real estate agent Becky Payne met her husband, Matt, at Pacemaker’s over 31 years ago.
“I was brought up racing,” Payne said. “My family’s last name is Merkle and they are very big in racing. I remember going to Pacemaker’s as a kid. It’s so sad. I love that place.”
Payne, whose husband races a 1964 Chevrolet Nova, tried her hand at racing for a couple of years.
“When I dated Matt, I decided I was going to race,” Payne said. “I had never raced in my life. I raced two years in a row and, both years, I qualified for the team that they would bring to Indianapolis and I was the only girl. That was fun to be able to say I did it.”
Mount Vernon resident Kit Morgan races and his daughter, Kaitlyn, has been in the junior dragster division for several years.
“My initial reaction is that it breaks my heart,” Morgan said. “It really does. I’ve been going there as long as a lot of the racers I know. My daughter races out there more than I do. I go out there and play. It’s close to home and it’s an institution in Mount Vernon and Knox County. My favorite memories are going out there and watching my daughter progress from the little cars to the bigger cars.”
Jeff Rudrick is part of a multi-generational racing family that goes back to those early days at Pacemaker’s. His father, Bob, and his uncle, Dick, got him into racing.
“I just got back into racing a few years ago,” Rudrick said. “I did it, back in the ’80s and ’90s. I started going back to Pacemakers and helping Rod every once in a while. It isn’t going to be the same. It will be like an empty feeling. What I like the most about Pacemaker’s was the friendly family environment out there. It was a family away from home. You never felt like a stranger. Nobody was a stranger. When racers were in need, they all came together to help each other – on the track or off the track.”
