In the past few weeks, two area speedways, Freedom Motorsports Park and Stateline Speedway, made major announcements regarding their respective futures.
Citing a need to make changes to better balance his personal, racing and business life, Freedom owner/promoter Bob Reis has put the Delevan-based ⅓-mile dirt oval track up for sale.
Also, on Oct. 30, Orlando, Fla.-based businessman and former Western New York native Bill Catania Jr. purchased Stateline Speedway, a dirt track located in Busti, south of Jamestown and near the Pennsylvania border.
Although Freedom Motorsports Park experienced success this season under new general manager Cody Egner, owner/promoter Bob Reis has put the Delevan-based ⅓-mile dirt oval track up for sale.
This is Catania’s second time at the helm of Stateline. He owned the facility from May 2014 to July 2015 before leaving Stateline for legal and business reasons.
Reis will continue to plan for a full 2025 racing season at Freedom in the event that his track does not sell by next spring. He plans to feature the same divisions and limited event schedule of this season.
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If sold before then, however, than the racing plans of Freedom’s future will be in the hands of the new proprietor.
Reis further stressed that he is not interested in forming any lease or rental agreements from any party to run Freedom. He only will accept outright serious track purchase offers.
“After much thought and consideration I feel that it is in the best interest of my family and that we provide the opportunity for someone else to take ownership to grow and expand a staple in the Western New York racing community,” Reis said.
Reis has pretty much run Freedom as a solo act since he purchased the track 10 years ago. He said he has tried his best to balance the time spent running Freedom along with operating his other non-racing businesses and personal life.
In an effort to better balance his responsibilities, Reis brought in son-in-law Cody Egner in February, appointing him Freedom’s general manager to help take much of the promotional pressure off of Reis’ plate.
In addition to operating Freedom, Reis has also been a race car driver for several years. After a few years’ absence from behind the wheel to concentrate on his responsibilities at Freedom, Reis returned to driving competition in 2024, campaigning in a few selected NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events.
“My own racing is not really the reason I’m getting rid of the track. I’ve raced my whole life. I was not really happy not racing, but I had the gratification of keeping Freedom going,” Reis said. “It’s time for me to lessen the stress in my life. My kids played a large part in this decision because Cody sees now how hard it is to run a race track. …
“We’re not killing it financially at Freedom for sure. We just feel like it’s time for another party to take Freedom and put some new ideas and stuff they want to do into the place to take it to the next level.”
Reis said that while the obvious preference would be to sell to a party that would keep the property still operating as a race track, he will entertain sales offers from interested non-racing businesses seeking to purchase Freedom’s property for use for something other than racing.
New clay was recently added to Freedom’s track surface, and Reis vows to continue to invest in facility upgrades at Freedom until the track is sold.
“My thinking is that there’s not going to be a lot of people beating my door down to buy Freedom,” Reis said. “I’m going to continue to run Freedom as if it isn’t for sale until I sell it. If it sells, that’s great. If the right person comes along and wants to purchase the place, that’s great. If they don’t come along, we’re not going to allow this track to sit idle. We will race. …
“Let’s face it that in today’s economy, with the way tracks are around here, if someone came along and told me they wanted to do something (different) and they have the money in hand, I would have to look at it.”
The history of Freedom’s racing program under Reis has had its ups and downs, the downs most notably coming from the impact of the Covid pandemic.
“I’ve run this track for 10 years,” Reis said. “It’s been a difficult road to travel. My first year in 2015 we did really well but there were some circumstances that led up to that. But then after that, for various reasons every year after that, we seemed to be on the decline.”
Catania buys Stateline
Catania has purchased Stateline from owners Jim and Jean Scott and Chip and Ronda Turner.
“I started pursuing this purchase deal in the first week of September of this year,” Catania said. “For me it’s something I’ve wanted to do ever since I lost Stateline in 2015.”
One of the factors in buying Stateline now, Catania said, was that the Scotts decided to sell the property across the street.
“There was a residence and some land and they split that off and sold it, which dropped the price of the speedway to a more reasonable price. It just put it in a range now where I could work with and still make sure I have plenty to invest and operate so I began to negotiate the sale at the beginning of this past September.”
Catania complemented the Scotts and their fellow owners on how well they took care of Stateline and how they made vast improvements there over the past nine years.
Catania also spoke about the difficulties in his life that made it hard for him to keep operating Stateline when he briefly owned Stateline from 2014-15. He had already agreed to buy four other tracks and was going through a divorce, saying now he was “spread way too thin.”
Catania was scheduled to have a transitional meeting last week with the Scotts and Turners.
“I’m putting 100% of my focus into Stateline Speedway,” he said. “I’m not buying any other tracks this time. I’m just going to make Stateline as good as I can make it.”
Following Catania’s departure in 2015, the Scotts purchased Stateline along with partner Brian Horner. In 2018, Horner sold his ownership shares to Dave Turner. In 2020, Turner died, leaving his shares to Chip and Ronda Turner.
