How a bold investor turned a nearly-scrapped Illinois raceway into NASCAR’s newest stop

About 50 years ago, as a kid riding a dirt bike, Curtis Francois whetted an appetite for speed that steadily progressed to motorcycles and then to racing cars professionally.

“Really, I guess I had a need for speed at an early age,” Francois said.

That lifelong love for racing along with his experience as an entrepreneur and real estate developer have melded into Francois’ own metro-east motorsports playground known now as the World Wide Technology Raceway.

Francois, the owner and CEO of the track where he raced Indy Lights long before he bought the place, will host the top stock car drivers in the country in the sold-out NASCAR Cup Series race in the inaugural Enjoy Illinois 300 at 2:30 p.m. Sunday in Madison.

“We promise a world class event and I think fans will be blown away,” Francois said.

NASCAR legend Richard Petty, St. Louis rapper Nelly and more than 30 other musical acts will be part of the weekend.

It will be the first time the highest level of NASCAR racers will compete in a sanctioned event in the St. Louis area.

Those drivers and the 80,000-plus fans who flock to the speedway over the three-day weekend will see what Francois has been building since he took over the track in 2011 after the previous owners had shut it down.

Francois said he is already well into a nearly $100 million investment plan for the speedway that features a 1.25 mile oval track formerly known as Gateway Motorsports Park. The first phase of $50 million has been completed with an additional $15 million invested in the second phase.

The Enjoy Illinois 300, along with the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Saturday and pre-race events on Friday, is expected to produce an estimated $60 million economic impact for the region, according to a Maryville University study.

“That’s something that we’re proud of and I think it will make a difference for the community,” Francois said.

Landing NASCAR’s top drivers

Francois described getting the rights to host the NASCAR Cup Series as something opposite of a racer peeling out from the starting line.

It was “built on a measured pace” to show racers that his group would deliver what was promised.

“So we didn’t take huge swings back in 2012 when we reopened,” Francois said. “We never took too big of a bite.”

Highlights of his early ownership include hosting dragstrip events for the NHRA and hosting both INDYCAR Series and the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on the oval super speedway.

The truck race has been a staple on the track’s annual schedule since 2014 and will return at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.

NASCAR announced last year that its top racers will compete at the St. Clair County track and Francois said he looks forward to hosting “many more” NASCAR Cup Series races in the coming years.

“World Wide Technology Raceway has been on our radar for several years now,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR senior vice president for Racing Development & Strategy.

Kennedy said NASCAR leaders have been impressed by the “great energy from the fanbase” attending the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series since 2014.

“I know the fans are certainly going to show up,” he said.

Indeed, the 57,000 grandstand tickets for the Enjoy Illinois 300 race on Sunday have been sold out. There are tickets available for Saturday’s truck race and a pre-race event on Friday when Petty, 84,will drive the ceremonial first NASCAR Cup Series car laps. If you can’t make it to the races, both events will air nationally on FS1.

The investment in track improvements are designed to keep race fans happy, Francois said.

He’s also bought additional land to increase the size of the track grounds from about 170 acres to about 700 acres. This means fans can park on World Wide Technology property. The track also has 1,200 spaces for campers to park.

Francois had this to say about his philosophy of hosting race fans: “Make sure that when fans show up that they see that we care about them and that is making sure that from the time that they pull into the gates, to the time they’re in their seat, or at the time they’re leaving, they’re entertained, they feel good value for their investment and that they are treated to something that makes memories that last a lifetime.”

Racetrack development

While Francois raced professionally in a variety of cars and races, including the 24 Hours of Daytona, he still had to work a “regular job.”

“Much to my frustration I would have preferred to be racing a whole lot more,” he said, “but I was very busy.”

In his non-racing days, Francois, 57, said he spent 10 years developing franchises for Dent Wizard and more than two decades developing subdivisions in the metro-east.

“I had the racing experience and then I had the real estate experience,” Francois said. “I also was doing primarily all of my real estate business in the metro-east. Next thing you know, we have this opportunity that comes along.”

That “opportunity” was buying the racetrack along the border of Madison and St. Clair counties near the intersection of Illinois 203 and Interstate 55-70. Most of the property is in St. Clair County.

“I was very well prepared,” he said of the 2011 purchase. “I did not have a crystal ball that made all that happen. It just happened to be that way.”

Francois said he drew upon his experience as a driver at the various tracks where he has raced.

“And so from behind the wheel I was getting a look at racetracks. ...” he said. “I had no idea at the time but it was certainly formative to getting involved with this racetrack.”

After buying the track, Francois worked to increase the size of the property to improve parking.

“When I took over in 2011, I recognized that we had to identify and solve the challenges in the past,” he said. “One of those challenges was there simply was not enough ground contiguous to the site to park fans and really to effectively handle traffic ingress and egress.”

Francois said he first wanted to obtain ownership of the land under the track.

“It was not an easy problem to solve,” he said. “There were 14 different parcels underneath this race track.”

And those parcels were controlled by seven different owners.

Francois said it was a “complicated” process and “was not for the faint of heart to jump in” and take over the then-closed track. The land owners had already agreed to have the grandstand demolished with the intent of selling its parts as scrap metal.

“It was really important conversations that I had with those ground owners to really explain my vision but ultimately I needed to own the ground if I was going to get involved with this and try to make a go of it,” Francois said.

He said without their cooperation, the track would not have prospered as it has.

Francois said overall he’s conducted 25 to 30 different closings on the property for the track complex.

To complement all the property improvements, Francois has been able to attract sponsors interested in supporting the track and its races.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has taken notice of Francois’ investment in racing and the metro-east, and this week lauded the $60 million in economic impact a Maryville University study projected will be generated in the region by the Enjoy Illinois 300 and its related events.

“Entrepreneur-ship is what he is the definition of,” Pritzker said. “The idea of taking a chance others might not have been willing to take, having a vision of the track and the area and then making the investments necessary to make it all come true.

“He’s been a great ally for local people and is also very committed not to just this success but to the years ahead for the track and entire region.”

Francois, who grew up in Kirkwood, Missouri, gave particular notice to the support of two area businessmen: David Steward and John Bommarito.

Steward is the founder and chairman of St. Louis-based World Wide Technology, which provides technology services to businesses. His company bought the naming rights for the racetrack.

Bommarito is president of the Bommarito Automotive Group which has car dealerships across the St. Louis metro area. He signed on to sponsor events and races at the track, including Richard Petty Day on Friday and an IndyCar Series race in August.

Francois’ future

Ten years has elapsed between the first events scheduled at Francois’ racetrack and NASCAR’s debut performance in the St. Louis area. Much has happened in the interim.

Francois said he has worked to schedule racing-related events at the track year-round. One of the popular activities is the racing events at the Kartplex that draws families full of racing enthusiasts.

“We’ve got so many different things going on that we’ve built this grassroots fan base,” Francois said.

Those longtime fans, as well as area residents who have never been to the NASCAR Cup Series event, will get to see what Francois is building.

“It’s just going to be an opportunity for this area, for the metro-east to say, ‘Hey, you know what? We’re putting our flag in the ground and we’re a great place to visit,” Francois said.

And Francois said he wants to keep improving the track for years to come.

“We will always be looking and striving to be one of the top race tracks in the country from the standpoint of that we are nimble, we continue to lean into all types of developments that help the fans enjoy the races,” he said.

“That is our mantra. It’s been that way for the last 10 years. And I think over the next 10 years, you’re going to continue to see great changes that enhance the opportunity for people to enjoy racing.”

But for this weekend, Francois has his eyes on a more immediate target:

“The first thing that I’m looking forward to is seeing is the Cup cars charge into my Turn 1 for the very first time,” he said.

“I think that’s going to be just a moment for myself and my family that will really validate the last 10 years, of all the work and the sacrifice and the investment that we’ve made.”