Blog by Johnson
Social media was stirring over a photo of famous rapper and car enthusiast Rick Ross posing at the defunct Middle Georgia Motor Speedway. The track which has been closed to racing since 1984, was featured in the second episode of Lost Speedways. Its history includes NASCAR Grand National Series wins by legends like Richard Petty, Bobby Allison and David Pearson. The track also holds a wild history of criminal enterprise which initially led to it being shut down, the full story is covered in the episode on Peacock and worth checking out.
Aside from his career as a hip-hop mogul, "The Boss" Rick Ross is known for his passion of cars, trucks, bikes, and all things badass. If this is news to you, you want to go to check out Rozay's Instagram account right now @RichForever. Ross just hosted his first annual car show at his private mansion in Georgia and after seeing his yard turned into a parking lot, it's no surprise he might be looking to acquire some property for his future endeavors.
The property is made up of 80-acres and aside from the half-mile racetrack, it also hosted the 1970 Atlanta International Pop Festival. We don't know how much truth there is to the rumors that Ross has purchased the property but with its history of motorsports, music festivals and car shows, it seems like it could be right up his alley. The property was listed for sale in 2019 by owner Tim Thornton for just $1.5 million.
Could this mean a return of racing at Middle Georgia? Probably not any time soon. It sounds like there's a ton of red-tape that would need to be traversed and plenty of renovations would be required to get the track into racing shape. If there is any hope it would come in the form of Ross, who has the passion for motorsports, a long history of successful business ventures and plenty of local political power if he wanted to cut through that red tape. If he turns the property into a successful venue via his car shows and maybe even music events, then renovating the race track may be a natural next step.
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