Mike and Becky Hurley have taken over West Virginia Motor Speedway. The husband-and-wife team plan to create a 3/8-mile oval within the large, prexisting 5/8-mile.
“I met with a dirt company last Tuesday and we are building a brand-new racetrack,” Mike said. “It will be a 3/8-mile oval with progressive banking. Everything will be different, except we will use a small part of the old track, the front straight, where the scoring loop is.”
The Hurleys have been involved in the sport since 1988. They felt the timing was right to purchase the track.
“It was in 2017 that the kids left the house, and we got heavily involved in partnering with super late model drivers Kyle Hardy and Gregory Carrico,” said Mike. “While owning my business, life insurance kept me out of a race car. I became a car owner, with a multimillion-dollar shop and teams.”
Last year, Mike sold his company, Xceptional Wildlife Removal.
“That made me and my wife entrepreneurs with nothing to do,” Mike said. “Why not make racing our next business venture? We would love our jobs.”
The Hurleys first considered buying Elkins Raceway.
“We tried to purchase Elkins Raceway, but then this track fell into our laps,” Hurley said. “It’s a wonderful, historic facility. A group held the land that West Virginia Motor Speedway is on for 20 years, and our plans to purchase it have just been finalized.”
The Hurleys intend to revamp the 62 acres that the speedway sits on. Those plans include expanded pit parking, a revitalized parking lot for fans, renovated concessions, better lighting, and other fan experience enhancements. They hope to reopen West Virginia Motor Speedway by the end of August, depending on how long their improvements take to make. Former promoter Cody Watson will handle general management of the track, added Mike.
“We will have events later this season, but we will be planning an even bigger season of major events in 2026,” said Mike. “There is already a tremendous outpouring of enthusiasm for West Virginia Motor Speedway’s comeback. It will be a major racing destination.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
