Capraras hand over Can-Am speedway

Can-Am Motorsports Park in LaFargeville has been sold for the third time since 2000.

Gerald "Tiger" Chapman of Cape Vincent purchased the facility from Watertown businessmen Billy and Charlie Caprara on Friday. Neither party would divulge the purchase price of the facility, which was sold to the Capraras in July 2003.

Billy Caprara said that he and his brother will remain in racing. They will continue to honor their lease with Walt VanTassel, owner of the Thunder Alley Speedway in Evans Mills.

The track at Thunder Alley will return to asphalt from dirt for the 2010 season. Can-Am features a dirt track.

"As we speak the dirt is being removed from the track," said Caprara Friday of Thunder Alley's track.

Chapman, a contractor with offices in Rochester, Syracuse and Cape Vincent, has been involved in racing as a driver and car owner.

"I have been competing in the street stocks, pure stocks and pro stocks for about 25 years," Chapman said Friday. "I drove a pro stock for a few years at the Canadaigua Speedway and have been a regular at Can-Am for the past four or five years."

Chapman said that Chip Burdick will remain as general manager at Can-Am.

The new track owner and Billy Caprara said they will work together to improve racing in the north country. Thunder Alley will continue to hold races on Saturday night while Can-Am will have weekly races on Friday night.

"We plan on supporting them," Billy Caprara said.

"We actually are not in competition with them," Chapman said.

Chapman said that he'd like to place the track in the hands of the drivers and race teams.

"We want to make racing fun and build up our fan support," Chapman said. "If the track pays the bills, then it will stay open."

Chapman said he was receiving plenty of e-mails and phone calls from friends after the sale became official Friday.

The new track owner said the speedway is really a family affair now.

"My wife Lynette has been 100 percent behind me in this endeavor," Chapman said. "My son, Tiger (John), at 12 years old has been competing in the mod-lites division, and my 13-year-old daughter, Amy, is really excited about the new venture."

Chapman said tentative plans call for the track to open on April 17.

"Right now we will be racing in the thunder cars, mod lites, pure stocks, street stocks, sportsman, IMCA modified, big block-modified and small-block modified.

Can-Am was built in 1974 by Les Brown of Evans Mills. Bob Thurston Sr. and the late Doug Atkinson and Thomas Coughlin became partners in the track beginning in 1975. The partnerships lasted until the early 1980s when Thurston bought out Atkinson and Coughlin.

Thurston sold the facility in late 2000 to Syracuse area businessman John Wight. The Caprara brothers purchased the speedway from Wight during the 2003 racing season.

Chapman will be officially introduced as the new track owner at tonight's Can-Am and Thunder Alley banquet at the Bonnie Castle Resort in Alexandria Bay.