Brian Mitchell

Returning to a track he promoted 10 years ago, Brian Mitchell has purchased Moulton (Ala.) Speedway from Amanda and Keith Steele and is hurriedly making preseason improvements at the 3/8-mile oval where he's bringing back the Super Late Model Bama 100 and emphasizing a revival of the Crate Racin' USA 604 division.

The 47-year-old Mitchell of Russellville, Ala., who also previously operated Tuscumbia's North Alabama Speedway and assisted the reopening of Pine Ridge Speedway in Guntown, Miss., last season, has renamed the track Xtreme Speedway and is eager to invest in the first facility he's owned outright.

"Everywhere I've been, it's always not belonged to me, so you feel like what you're spending on a place is in vain, except for general maintenance," said Mitchell, who completed the purchase Thursday. "We're fixing up something that belongs to us."

Mitchell's main projects are adding 200 loads of clay, graveling the pits, removing infield poles and erecting new 70-foot poles outside the track with LED lighting, adding inside retaining walls in the corners and removing what's been a potentially dangerous track exit at the end of the backstretch. The backstretch wall will be reconstructed and continued around turns three and four, replacing the previous guardrail in the corners. Cars will enter and exit the track at the existing turn-four opening and new fencing will be installed above the turns three and four wall to protect the pits.

"We've got three weeks to get all this done," Mitchell said. "It's a lot of manpower, a lot of equipment. If we don't get this done before we open, it'll be next year, so we're just going to fix it all."

Practice is scheduled for March 15 ahead of a bi-weekly Saturday night schedule with a few Thursday races. CRUSA-sanctioned 604 and 602 Crate Late Models are among divisions and Mitchell hopes to pay $800- or $1,000-to-win win for the 604s because "one of my biggest missions is to restore that class," he said. "I just know we'e going to try to get the pay up there and make it worth their while."

Xtreme Speedway has a single Super Late Model event scheduled, but June 7's $10,000-to-win Bama 100 marks the return of a long-dormant race that was once a popular draw in northwest Alabama.

The Steeles, who owned and operated the Moulton oval for four years, announced they believed Mitchell would "take the track to new heights" and he's not wasting any time getting started.

"We're wide open," Mitchell said.