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Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 5:37 pm
by joe henslee
Flatrock USA Announces Location

Project formerly known as the “Oak Ridge Motorsports Park” expands concept, finds home in Cumberland County
Rusty Bittle, developer and founding partner of Flatrock USA, announced Cumberland County, Tennessee as the location for a sprawling entertainment and leisure destination featuring a motorsports park designed by world renowned Tilke Engineers & Architects. The 773 acre tract is located off of I-40 at the Westel exit and was owned by the Plateau Park Partnership. The property has sat dormant for years after Roane, Morgan and Cumberland counties entered into a partnership to purchase and market the site for development.

“A Tennessee motorsports park is a legacy project for me,” said Bittle. “The State of Tennessee has a reputation for automotive excellence, we are leading the way on advanced transportation technologies like electric vehicles, lightweight composites and artificial intelligence. A motorsports park will help the state and Plateau build an international reputation for next generation transportation technologies and become a tourism destination for automotive enthusiasts.”

East Tennessee business leaders Kevin Clayton and William T. “Teddy” Phillips, Jr. join Bittle as lead investors in the project. Clayton is the CEO of Clayton Homes headquartered in Maryville, Tennessee, one of the largest home builders and manufacturers of manufactured homes in the United States. He is a long-time auto enthusiast and competitor in Ferrari Challenge and Skip Barber Race Series, as well as a Music City Grand Prix founding investor. Phillips is the CEO of Phillips & Jordan, a heavy/civil infrastructure contractor headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. Additionally, he is a Music City Grand Prix founding investor and lifelong car enthusiast.

“The Plateau Park Partnership was thrilled at the prospect of Flatrock locating to our site,” said John Davis, chair of the Plateau Park Partnership. “This property sat vacant since well before 2007, we had multiple prospects but the hilly terrain and lack of utilities to support a large manufacturing facility ultimately caused those prospects to walk away. The terrain is actually an asset for Flatrock and a leisure and tourism destination that leverages our state’s strong automotive industry will provide high quality economic development for the entire region.”

With the Plateau Park Partnership offering more than double the amount of land than the previous location option, Bittle was able to expand his concept from a motorsports park to a sprawling entertainment and leisure destination that combines world class amenities with a motorsports park. The destination will feature a six-mile track, designed by Tilke Engineers & Architects, that incorporates the rolling terrain of the site while retaining and displaying the natural beauty of the surrounding area. In addition, the track will feature a state-of-the-art paddock area to include race control, hospitality suites, meeting space for training and orientation, rooftop viewing, private garages, and a FIA Certified Kart Track for public use and corporate team building events.

Additional amenities will showcase the Cumberland Plateau as the ideal destination for a leisure traveler or homeowner. Those include an amphitheater, winery, landmark hotel and conference center, a destination restaurant with a brewery, Innovation Center and museum, retail center, clubhouse with amenities, campground, adventure activities, multiple types of residential properties, farming to provide many of the needed meats and produce for on-site restaurants, helipad and an observatory on the highest point of the property.

The latest announcement comes after the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) informed Bittle he would need to pay for a costly Environmental Impact Statement due to land use restrictions put in place when DOE transferred the property to the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board. Bittle originally selected several parcels at The Horizon Center in Oak Ridge for the project. The directive came 18 months after initiating the project and with no guarantees that final approval would be received. This led Bittle to identify new locations that were “shovel ready,” meaning zoning was in place to accommodate Bittle’s motorsports park concept, and 300+ acre parcels of contiguous property unencumbered by governmental bureaucracy.

“Multiple counties from across the state and some out of state parties were contacting me, enthusiastically advocating for their site as the best location for Flatrock,” added Bittle. “The best location for Flatrock is in Cumberland County, Tennessee and I look forward to being part of the Plateau community and contributing to the economic development of the region.”

A previous market study and analysis based solely on the track and paddock concluded the project would generate $93 million in its first five years and up to $110 million under a best-case scenario. The analysis was conducted by an independent consulting firm retained by Tilke Engineers & Architects, recognized as one of the most experienced companies when it comes to design, engineering, and construction oversight in the motorsports world. Bittle has retained Tilke to draft the concept for the park and design and manage construction of the park as the project progresses.

Similar concepts in the Southeast have resulted in a positive economic impact for their host communities. The Greater Birmingham Visitors and Convention Bureau calculated the Barber Motorsports Park had an economic impact of $1.17 billion, including some $122 million dollars of tax revenue generated in state and local taxes during a ten year period from 2003-2012. Additionally, the Atlanta Motorsports Park in Dawsonville managed to sell $8 million in condos in a two month period during the global pandemic of 2020.

Flatrock will break ground this year with the motorsports park projected to be completed in phases, the first as early as next summer.

For the latest information about Flatrock, follow and like our Facebook page @FlatrockUSA
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Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 7:33 pm
by MARKP
I think this would be a great boost to the Harriman and Rockwood areas, and possibly as far as Crossville!

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2021 9:22 am
by benk
Anyone know the map numbers or GPS for where the track will actually be? My patience in clicking around for a 775 acre tract on TNGIS Maps is exhausted.

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2021 9:46 am
by Scoob
And in which time zone? The line is right through there...

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2021 10:52 am
by MARKP
Looks like this is pretty close. 35.89019836199244, -84.74702833826144

See also, https://www.plateaupark.org/

Pretty sure the property is "Site 1" in the link above. Central time zone.

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Thu Jul 22, 2021 8:34 pm
by ConeEater
Wonder what phase 1 will be when completed. Regardless, this is great news. Wish it was a LITTLE closer, but I'm not complaining.

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 2:49 pm
by PushinTheLimit
I've been keeping up with the updates on this since it was first announced for the Oak Ridge location. Now it looks to be about 25-30 minutes from my home. I would say it will be in the central time zone as the line is just a half mile or more back toward I-40 East. Looks be to just on the backside of the RV site on the Westel exit.

I've sent a Facebook message to Flatrock and to Bittle himself if there was anything I could do (from a drivers perspective) to be of help. I'd love nothing more than to see this place really take off and be a major thing. Cumberland County is becoming quite a small/regional motorsports town with our local dirt oval, dragstrip, lots of truck pulling and now a road course. I hope to swing by every now and then to check and see what progress is going on. I thought I had read they were breaking ground on some stuff this fall.

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:59 pm
by thrdeye
If this REALLY ends up being 6 miles in length, it would be 2 miles longer than Road America. COTA is 3.4 miles. Holy Crap.

I don't think there'd be a longer road course in the US.

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Mon Jul 26, 2021 5:50 pm
by MARKP
thrdeye wrote: Mon Jul 26, 2021 3:59 pm If this REALLY ends up being 6 miles in length, it would be 2 miles longer than Road America. COTA is 3.4 miles. Holy Crap.

I don't think there'd be a longer road course in the US.
Half a Nurburgring. :D

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Tue Jul 27, 2021 9:16 am
by PushinTheLimit
My understanding is that there will be multiple track configurations within the 6 mile total length. So I'll be curious what some of the racing clubs will use and with that they could probably have two courses going on at the same time I would imagine some days. Kind of like at VIR where car magazines will run the Grand Course (4.20 miles) which is rarely use and most clubs use the full course (3.27 miles).

With the terrain in that area, there should be some decent elevation changes around the course as well.

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Thu Nov 11, 2021 6:53 am
by ConeEater
I saw a news report that the new owners closed on the property this week. Hopefully that means they can get started moving earth ASAP

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 5:48 am
by jcox07
Looks like Flat Rock has started paving late last week. I hope to make a trip out there after I get back from solo nationals to get a tour of the facility....I will post up later to see if anyone wants to go along. JY

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 6:07 am
by Scoob
Yay! Can't wait to blast around that track.

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 6:33 am
by Buck05Sti
jcox07 wrote: Wed Aug 09, 2023 5:48 am Looks like Flat Rock has started paving late last week. I hope to make a trip out there after I get back from solo nationals to get a tour of the facility....I will post up later to see if anyone wants to go along. JY
Id be interested in checking it out

Re: Flat Rock USA to replace OR Motorsports Park

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 6:21 am
by bb_22
Does anyone know if they plan to actually open the track up to SCCA, NASA, HPDE groups, etc? Last I heard there was a 6 figure buy in fee and yearly dues to "join" and they weren't interested in hosting HPDE events. My understanding is it was a high end country club with a track on it. I went to the website to try to get direct info myself but when I saw it ask if I had my own plane I figured it wasn't worth wasting my time. Hopefully it's like AMP or something and they'll open it up to groups even though it's a private club.

I'd love to see the region run some Time Trials there or something - I spend most of my time on track vs autocross, would be nice to have another track close by. Even just having another place for autocross events would be nice for the region.