Volvo/Lotus Parent Geely Takes Over The Utah Motorsports Campus

Geely’s been buying up just about everything it can get its hands on. And now it’s added another property to its portfolio, right here in the United States.

The Chinese automaker has bought the Utah Motorsports Campus, a sprawling race track in Tooele County. The 511-acre site, which opened in 2006 as Miller Motorsports Park, includes a 4.4-mile race track, a 0.9-mile kart track, an off-road course, rock-crawling course, rallycross track, and a smattering of support buildings on site.

“We are really excited about the future of UMC, and we have significant plans for the facility,” said the facility’s chief executive Willem Geyer. “We are studying the viability of adding various race tracks, entertainment venues and supporting infrastructure that will not only solidify our position as one of Utah’s major entertainment facilities but also ensure that UMC will be a profitable venture for the first time in its history.”

Following initial negotiations that started over three years ago, Geely bought the facility from the Tooele County government, which assumed ownership after the initial ten-year lease to the Larry H. Miller expired in 2015. Any existing contracts will be honored under the terms of the sale, but “may be subject to changes” in 2019. Among the tenants on site is Ford’s driving school, which may have to find a new location now that one of its competitors has taken over.

The site joins an ever-growing roster of entities under Geely’s expanding umbrella, which also encompasses Volvo, Polestar, Lotus, Proton, the London Taxi Company, the new Lynk & Co brand, the Terrafugia flying-car brand, and the largest private stake in Mercedes-Benz parent company Daimler. Geely is also in the process of opening ten similarly sized tracks in China, the first of which – the Ningbo International Circuit – opened last year. It also owns and operates the FIA Chinese Formula 4 Championship, and we won’t be surprised to see China’s largest privately owned automaker add more assets to its portfolio in the coming years.