LOL. New Egypt was tough, mostly due to having a successful track running Fridays, East Windsor, only 15 minutes away and the two stalworths, Wall and Flemington, running Saturday nights. In a nut shell, that was it's only obstacle. Wednesdays in the mid 70's until the mid 80's worked well for New Egypt for pretty much one reason, Richie Evans. Of course there was 15 other great drivers racing, but because of the NASCAR Modifieds point structure at the time, you had to run as many shows to gain points towards the national championship. Richie Evans would show up every Wednesday, because it was the only track running. The points changed in the early 80's to the Gatorade Circle of Champions, so Evans and the travelers would only show up for the Circle shows. Than the point structure changed in 1985 to almost what we have now, a travelling series. Now they would show up once or twice a year and coupled with Richie's passing in 1985, New Egypt's decline was in full motion. 1986 to 1990 were tough years. Mudhops and other events helped it along until 1990 when it closed down. We reopened it in 1991. Ran some special Modified races and back to Wednesday nights through the summer. We had very good shows because we were always on a time constraint running Wednesdays. Did Ok at best. Go Karts saved us at the end of the year. Post Reagan years were pretty bad. Came off booming 80's to a recession in the early 90's, hard to run a race track also coupled with Bank issues. I remember the day getting out of New Egypt. The bank that held the mortgage called me in and said "you're lease was not paying enough." I stopped the conversation by handing her the keys and said "Good luck!" Thank goodness for the Grasso family rescuing it. You asked!
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