A group of race-industry veterans has signed a 3-year lease of the North Wilkesboro Speedway with an exclusive option to buy the track. Principals in the deal tell the Winston-Salem Journal racing will return next October 3rd with the USARacing Pro Cup Championship Series. The USARacing's schedule for next season, with the date in North Wilkesboro, was announced in a drivers' meeting at the current season's last race Saturday night in South Boston, Va.

Speedway Associates' president, Alton McBride Jr. tells the paper they have been working quietly on the deal for three years. "We're in this for the right reasons," McBride said. "We're in this because our life is motorsports." Bruton Smith, the billionaire owner of North Wilkesboro Speedway, has said a number of times that he would take $12 million for the track, which closed in 1996.

The Journal reports the principals had not planned to make an announcement yet, but when the new USARacing schedule was released Saturday and included North Wilkesboro, word started spreading fast. McBride said they will announce more detailed plans within the next couple of weeks.