It is not easy for a business to stand the test of time.
In order for it to have a chance, it must continue to embrace change, evolve continuously and engage its core audience. Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio, has a handle on that. It was started more than 50 years ago by the late Bill Bader Sr., who had a dream and a vision, which became his family’s dream and vision, and there is no doubt that they have matched his dedication and devotion through the decades.
Bill Jr., along with Jayme, Evan, Kelli, Bobbie and Deb Bader, are powered by passion and bolstered by the belief that they and their legion of loyal team members can put together, produce, and present races and events that excite and entertain every guest who comes through the gates. They want them to be inspired to come back to Summit Motorsports Park, with their multi-generational families and friends, for years to come, and they confidently put the Bader Money-Back Guarantee behind guest experience.
Specifically, Bill’s approach is to create races and events that continuously catapult to the next level. His mind is always on what his family and team members were able to accomplish in the past, and more importantly, what they can accomplish in the future, to ensure that the legacy lives on through the generations. And to him, bigger is always better.
His focus is firmly on the 2025 season and some of the famed facility’s biggest events, including the 19th Annual University Hospitals Cavalcade of Stars Summer Classic presented by Budweiser, which will see a Tuesday-Saturday two-race format for Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Regional and Divisional races, June 17-21; 19th Annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, featuring Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle, sportsman and GETTRX Pro Stock NHRA All-Star Callout and more, June 26-29, and 48th Annual Cornwell Tools Night Under Fire, spotlighting more than 60 performers and surprises along the way, Aug. 1-2.
The longstanding Edelbrock Super Series, which sees some of the most skilled bracket racers in the country racing for a share of a $67,750 points fund, always adds to the action. Additionally, highly anticipated new events for this year include the Chevrolet Performance Bowtie Nationals featuring GM Invasion, June 6-7, and the Summit Racing Equipment Fling at Norwalk presented by Total Seal, Aug. 27-31.
In this interview, Bill shares some insight on staging successful events, what racers and race fans can expect to experience in the months ahead, and more.
Summit Motorsports Park produces many substantial events each year. What is your approach to ensuring that they are as successful as they are?
There needs to be an understanding of what your guests want to see. It is easy to throw together a talent lineup based on assuming what your guests want to see, but you have to know what they want to see in order to be successful. You have to have your finger on the pulse of what is hot and what is compelling. I think that sometimes, promoters put on an event based on what they think will be a hit rather than what they know will be a hit, and that can set them up for failure. I also listen to guests. I get emails from them and talk to them at the event and after the event, and when they tell me what they liked and did not like, it helps us plan future events. You have to be able to take that to market and sell it the right away, and that is becoming a difficult task because there are so many different ways to market. In the old days, you bought radio and TV, and that was before websites and social media and smart phones and apps. The third part of this is planning and coordinating. You have to have a good plan in place for how the show is going to take place, from the moment guests come in to when they leave. People fail because they have not planned the event, and you have to execute at a high level.
It is not always smooth sailing behind the scenes, but guests comment on how seamless everything appears to be at big events. What does it take to make that happen?
We plan so thoroughly, and if you do that, there should really not be any surprises. You run through all of the scenarios. I believe one of the reasons I am successful is because I will run countless scenarios through my head of what can go wrong. If there is a bad forecast and we have heavy rigs coming in, we have a plan for that. You have to stay one step ahead. If you are in the middle of an event and you have 40,000 guests in the house and you have an ”Oh, crap” moment, you have to think and communicate and get people on the same page, and that takes time. You have to have a plan in place for those eventualities.
What inspired the new format for the 19th Annual University Hospitals Cavalcade of Stars presented by Budweiser?
The ideal time to pull off a large-scale event like the University Hospitals Cavalcade of Stars presented by Budweiser is really in the month of May, but the weather is so unpredictable, and if you have rain along with 600 rigs that are huge and weigh a ton on saturated grounds, it is not good, so we moved the event to June, but the date was not good because it was after Memorial Day. So, I came up with the double-race concept that we will have this year, and NHRA had to approve it, and they did. But since we don’t have the ideal date to draw spectators, we wanted to reinvent the wheel and come up with a strategy that will put the max number of cars in our park. We wanted to have racers tow one time and have the potential to race up to three times, so we will have the Lucas Oil Divisional and Regional, and many of the racers will stay over for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals the following weekend. With this format, the University Hospitals Cavalcade of Stars presented by Budweiser is not based on booked-in talent. It is based on finding a date that works for the tour and the drivers, and making this a huge event for them. Let us let the University Hospitals Cavalcade of Stars presented by Budweiser, become the Summer Classic. I am hoping to build on that. I believe this model is optimal and I am anxious to see where we can take it in year two, three, four, five, and so on. We will continue to build on it and feed it. How great would it be if a racer won these three races in a row?
What is in store for guests of the 48th Annual Cornwell Tools Night Under Fire?
This is our signature event, and this year, we will introduce things that guests have not seen before. To have a 16-car NHRA Pro Mod show is not something we have shown people before, and we have an incredible mix of Funny Car and Top Fuel drivers, including Ron Capps, Tim Wilkerson, Cruz Pedregon and Dave Richards, Antron Brown, Justin Ashley, Clay Millican, and Josh Hart. I am also excited about adding NHRA Pro Stock. We will have Greg Anderson, Dallas Glenn, Erica Ender,s and Jeg Coughlin Jr., and we want to build the Friday night experience, which is part of the Saturday ticket and does not require an additional ticket. We have stepped up our pyrotechnics efforts, and they will be shot from multiple locations throughout the park. The whole show will have more choreography, and I want to make it more of a theatrical production. I am also looking into ways to bring in some of the crazy stuff we used to do at this event years ago, so that guests will say they cannot believe what they just saw. We want to continue to feed this event.
What was the motivation to introduce the Chevrolet Performance Bowtie Nationals featuring GM Invasion to Summit Motorsports Park?
There are so many Chevrolet fans in the Midwest, and I hope that the owner of the event can recapture the magic of the Super Chevy Show. Promoter Chris Baker is really in tune. His experience is on the show field, and our experience is on the drag side, and hopefully, between him and us, we will hit a homerun with this event. I am very excited about the Chevrolet Performance Bowtie Nationals featuring GM Invasion.
What inspired you to partner with Peter Biondo to bring the Summit Racing Equipment Fling at Norwalk presented by Total Seal to Summit Motorsports Park?
I have the utmost respect for Peter Biondo and his Fling Bracket Race Series, not only because of the way he produces his events, but also because of his character and integrity. He is a fine person, and he has a rich tradition of promoting big-money races with expertise, so Peter Biondo and Summit Motorsports Park partnering to put on the Summit Racing Equipment Fling at Norwalk presented by Total Seal makes sense. Peter and I have been talking about this for a while, and we can share strategies to make it successful. The fact that I gave up producing the $40 Grand Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park so that we could bring this event in should tell you how much I believe in Peter and the Fling Bracket Race Series. It is a big deal, and we are excited about it. In fact, we are excited about the whole season.
