Atco Dragway sold but the buyer is still a mystery
What the South Jersey dragway property will become is still an open question.
Atco Dragway’s owner says he has sold the property, according to Waterford Township Mayor Tom Giangiulio, Jr.
The mayor disclosed the news at Wednesday night’s township committee meeting.
But Giangiulio said Leonard Capone Jr., the raceway’s seller, would not divulge the name of the buyer, nor did Capone claim to know what the purchaser intends to do with the property. The only other detail Giangiulio seemed to have was that the new owner is a private buyer from Florida.
“The settlement has already occurred,” the mayor said. “We have no idea as to what will be done with the property or the time frame when anything will occur. This was a sale of a piece of property that was purchased in a private transaction.”
» READ MORE: Atco Dragway's grandstands go on sale. What’s next in the dismantling of a drag-racing dream?
Neither Capone nor his lawyer, James Maley, could be reached for comment.
The public learned of Atco Dragway’s abrupt and surprise closing the evening of July 18 when the announcement was posted on the raceway’s Facebook and Instagram pages. It came on the heels of a busy weekend during which Atco Dragway hosted the 29th Pan American Nationals, which the closure announcement hailed as “the biggest and best ever.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, Giangiulio said Capone had sold the dragway before the Pan American event.
But the mayor stressed that township officials had no involvement or other knowledge about the sale. He said they learned about the dragway’s closing on Facebook.
“It was a shock to us as much as to you,” he said at the municipal meeting.
The news of the 63-year-old dragway has stunned racing fans. Atco was the oldest dragway in New Jersey. Only Island Dragway in Great Meadows is still operating.
In 2020, Insurance Auto Auction, an Illinois-based company with offices nationwide, put in an application with the New Jersey Pinelands Commission to redevelop the 180-acre property as an automobile auction facility. The Pinelands Commission didn’t approve that application, but it allowed the township to review it.
The Waterford Township Joint Land Use Board reviewed the development and rejected it, based on environmental and other concerns.
As of last week, no new applications for the property had been made to the Pinelands Commission. Any use but as a dragway would require commission review and approval, said a spokesman.