By John Moore as seen in PowerBoat News
Darryl Cuttell has put 12 racetracks up for auction, including Rockingham Speedway, Atlanta Dragway and Memphis International Speedway. Auction house Tranzon Atlas is handling the sale, and sealed bids are due by 5pm Central time on November 17.
The sale was first reported by Drag Illustrated, which published a statement from Cuttell. He aims to complete the sales by the end of the year.
Darryl Cuttell, in a statement published by Drag Illustrated:
“I have made the decision to exit the racing business.”
Tranzon’s listing for Heartland Motorsports Park names the seller as Darana Motorsports Holdings, LLC.
All 12 properties are offered on the same terms. The buyer pays a 10 per cent premium on the high bid and a 10 per cent deposit, with closing within 30 days. Each property is sold as-is, where-is, with no contingencies. None of the listings gives a reserve or a guide price.
The tracks
Atlanta Dragway, Commerce, Georgia, 343 acres
Darana Raceway, formerly Kil-Kare Raceway, Xenia, Ohio
Dragway 42, West Salem, Ohio, 298 acres
National Trail Raceway, Hebron, Ohio, 230 acres
Heartland Motorsports Park, Topeka, Kansas, 622.96 acres in 29 tracts
Memphis International Speedway, Millington, Tennessee, 342 acres
Darana Motorsports Park, Milan, Michigan, 317 acres
Empire Dragway, Leicester, New York, 272 acres
Piedmont Dragway, Julian, North Carolina, 98 acres
Virginia Motorsports Park, Petersburg, Virginia, more than 500 acres
Rockingham Speedway, Marston, North Carolina, 243 acres
Darana Motorsports Park, Benson, North Carolina, 112 acres, including the former GALOT Motorsports Park
Maple Grove Raceway, which Cuttell bought in 2025, is not part of the sale. Drag Illustrated reports that it closed on August 17.
Cuttell bought the International Hot Rod Association in 2025 and built its track portfolio at speed. The sale announcement does not mention IHRA.
His powerboat interests have already gone. On August 7, IHRA sold the F1 Powerboat Series back to its founders, Tim Seebold and John Schubert. The IHRA Offshore Racing Series has ended.
The court case
The track sale comes as Cuttell fights a federal lawsuit filed by SpaceXAI’s companies x.AI, CTC Property and MZX Tech in the US District Court for the Western District of Tennessee. Powerboat News reported on the original complaint in September. The defendants are Cuttell, his contracting company Darana Hybrid and Cuttell Motorsports, which trades as IHRA. The case has moved on since then.
On September 4, Judge Brian C. Lea merged it with a suit Darana had brought against CTC and MZX, and made SpaceXAI’s case the lead.
On September 17, SpaceXAI filed a 68-page amended complaint. It still estimates damages at $500 million or more and seeks punitive damages. It adds a section arguing that Cuttell should be personally liable. It alleges that Darana and IHRA are among more than 60 Cuttell-affiliated entities sharing offices, staff and advisers. It also cites his 50ft catamaran, the former Spirit of Qatar, which it says runs in combined Darana and IHRA branding, as an example of company resources going to personal hobbies.
The amended complaint also adds a claim over a separate case Darana filed in the Circuit Court of DeSoto County, Mississippi, on August 6. Powerboat News has read that complaint, which Darana filed as an exhibit in the federal case. It seeks $432,455,431.16 for work at four data centre sites in Southaven and Olive Branch. It says the work was done under a verbal agreement with an xAI employee. SpaceXAI says the work fell under the main contract, which requires disputes to be heard in Memphis.
The defence
On October 1, the defendants filed two partial motions to dismiss, one for Darana and one for Cuttell and IHRA.
Both motions’ supporting memoranda describe the case in the same terms:
This is a payment action, a very expensive one, but a payment action nonetheless.
They argue that SpaceXAI has split a single contract dispute between CTC and Darana into several duplicate claims. They also argue that the fraud claim gives no specific facts showing fraudulent intent, and that MZX is not a party to the contract.
On Mississippi, they argue that lien claims over property in that state can only be heard there.
Cuttell’s motion argues that he signed the contract only as Darana’s chief executive, so he cannot be personally liable for it. It says the fraud claim does not identify anything he said himself and that he did not file the Mississippi suit. The memorandum states that Darana denies the allegations.
Neither motion challenges SpaceXAI’s trademark claim against IHRA and Cuttell.
On October 6, the court entered a protective order. Its text is not publicly available.
None of the allegations on either side has been tested in court, and the judge has not ruled on the motions.