By ohnson 
During the off-season leading up to the 2016 season, Todd Moran and his team at Moran Racing Products were presented with an opportunity to take charge of the Caroga Creek Speedway in Ephrata, New York. Moran had no prior experience in promoting, meaning he was taking a risky bet on himself and the facility. However, it was a gamble that Moran felt compelled to take.
Caroga Creek is the track closest to his business. If he desired its success, he needed the track to thrive. Before his takeover, it had not. The track had endured numerous promoters over the past few years and was on the verge of permanent closure. Moran managed to negotiate an agreement with the ownership group, led by Gary Bishop, to lease the facility for the season.
The risk ultimately yielded a substantial reward. His first season in charge was overwhelmingly successful. The facility averaged nearly 70 karts per week, and their biggest event, the NYDKS (New York Dirt Kart Series), attracted an impressive 244 karts, along with a solid front gate crowd of over 500 people.
“I’ve never been a promoter, but I’ve been incredibly fortunate to travel across the country racing go karts,” Moran remarked. “We took a bit of the best from every track and attempted to implement it at Caroga Creek. We believed it would excel, and thankfully, it did.”
As he stated, those experiences enabled Moran and his company to adopt a distinct approach in running the facility. They established a different type of pay structure while also exploring various ways to make the facility profitable. They reduced the pit gate fees to $10 and returned 80 percent of all $20 entry fees collected each night. This is not a common practice in kart racing.
“I didn’t want to make a profit from the entry fees,” Moran declared. “Our profit is based on concessions, pit passes, and sales through MRP. There are alternative ways to generate income aside from adding more fees.”
One of the initial actions Moran and his team took upon taking control of the facility was to make improvements. This encompassed refurbishing the concession stands, repairing the fencing, adding new billboards, and replacing the old tires surrounding the speedway with hay bales.
“We completely renovated the entire facility,” Moran said. “We repaired or replaced the chain link fence. We removed 1400 tires that lined the track and replaced them with hay bales. We’ve added billboards and made modifications to the parking areas. We wanted to give the place a sharp look. It took some time, but we were able to accomplish a lot.”
Heading into the upcoming season, Moran plans to make alterations to the organization in the parking areas while also enhancing the lighting on the track and in the pits.
Once the facility was prepared, Moran made a decision that helped the track gain immediate credibility. Instead of managing the show himself, Moran chose to hire a race director to oversee the nightly racing events. He didn’t want to risk people thinking he was providing special favors to his MRP customers.
“We didn’t want there to be any appearance of favoritism at the track,” Moran noted. “We wanted to demonstrate to everyone that we offer a fair playing field for everyone in the industry. I grew up in this sport, and it was fun and fair. That’s how we want things to be at Caroga Creek.”
Even though 2016 proved to be a success both on and off the track, Moran already has numerous aspects he wants to enhance for the 2017 season. He understands that in order to maintain the right direction, continuous changes and evolution are necessary.
“I think there are definitely certain things we can improve,” Moran said. “We aim to conduct more in-depth technical inspections to maintain a level playing field. We also want to improve the track surface. It was decent at times throughout the summer, but I don’t think we got it right until the end of the year. It was remarkable. We will build on that and strive to make it more consistent this year.”
He continued, “Another area we will focus on is ensuring we start on time. We run an efficient show but had some issues with punctuality. I always believe we can do things better.”
Another area where Moran hopes to make progress is the speedway’s donation to The Melodies Center for Childhood Cancer and Blood Disorders at Albany-Medical Center. The target last season was $2,000, and thanks to the generosity of those at the speedway, they donated $3,620.
“It was an honor to collaborate with everyone at Albany-Medical Center,” he commented. “We had a goal and exceeded it. We are already working out the details of how we can collaborate with them again this year.”
Moran’s first season at Caroga Creek officially concludes this coming Saturday (2/11) at the banquet. Moran intends to hold an open forum once the ceremony is over to gather thoughts from teams regarding what they would like to see for the 2017 season.
Racing at the speedway will commence in early April, and this season, instead of leasing the track, he reached an agreement with the former owners and purchased the facility.
Moran admitted that the track’s success significantly benefited his small shop. He’s having one of his best winters ever as they build kart chassis, parts, and engines. They handle everything.
“At MRP, we’ve expanded and are growing rapidly,” he said. “We do all our own work. We manufacture our own fiberglass bodies and seats. We make our own nerf bars, spindles, and chassis. We also have our own motor program with Jeff Ferguson. We handle our own clutching. We began building chassis in 2012 and now witness 10 to 15% growth each year.”
Part of that growth stems from the success of the Chase Chassis that the company builds. Last season, the team achieved top honors with Ryan Swartz in the Kevin Ward Jr. Memorial race at Frozen Ocean Speedway, and more recently, they earned a top-five finish during the Gambler’s Classic for karts with driver Ryan Kendall.
“We take great pride in being able to compete at the level we do,” Moran mentioned. “We handle our own motor and tire programs. We do everything ourselves. We are capable of competing with some of the largest manufacturers in the country from our small shop in my basement.”
For 2017, MRP has an expanding list of Senior drivers supported by the organization, including Matt Chavis, Jeremy Slosek, Ryan Swartz, Alyssa Swartz, and Chase Moran in the Junior division.
Based on the indicators, MRP has a promising future ahead at Caroga Creek Speedway as well as in the karting business. 2016 was merely the beginning.