Operating - Currently for Sale
Grattan
Grattan Township, MI
2.0
Miles
10
Corners
40 ft
Avg width
$15M
Ask · watch
“If you can master Grattan Raceway you can drive anywhere.”
Track management · still hot · $15M sign on the door
How to read this record
- Status — Operating / Closed / For sale describes the venue’s public state, not a campaign.
- Category — Road courses live under Road Courses. Dirt ovals and clay plants live under Dirt Courses.
- Three desks — Operator runs race days. Landowner holds the deed or lease. Land-use body is the city or township that zones the parcel. They are often three different names.
- Postal city ≠ government — Mailing brands (Clarkston, Rossburg, New Weston, etc.) are not always the zoning desk. Trust the town box on this page.
- Specs — When club figures and reviews disagree (turns, mileage), we print both. We do not invent a single number.
- Gifts — A donation to Save Tracks Dot Org Foundation funds this cited record. It does not buy land and is not a gift to the operator or landowner. (Example: OCSC at Waterford is a 501(c)(4) — gifts there are not 501(c)(3) deductible.)
- Corrections — Tip or source fix → Contact (topic: Correction / source).
Grattan Raceway Park is an operating two-mile club road course on Lessiter Road in Grattan Township, Kent County — postal brand Belding, not the city. E.J. Faasen walked a Christmas-tree farm in a Jeep and paved where the trees were too big to drive over. The family still runs the gate. The same site that sells track time also carries a sale listing. That dual status is the record.
Why this track matters
Pennsylvania already lost Pitt Race. Grattan is still hot — and it has a $15 million sign on the door that says the next owner can keep the ribbon or turn the farm into something else.
This is not a Wilson golf-fairway. E.J. Faasen walked a Christmas-tree farm in a Jeep and turned where the tree was too big to drive over. Two miles. Ten corners. A 3,200-foot straight that used to be a drag strip. A Monza bowl. A downhill reverse-camber. They still say if you can master Grattan you can drive anywhere.
Michigan still has GingerMan, Waterford Hills, M1. Grattan is the 1961/62 farm-built roller — same family the whole time — and the one listed as a going concern and as land. The record has to exist while the phone still picks up.
What they built
Prior land. Christmas trees and flowers. Bill Tuttle’s farm on Lessiter Road. Grattan Township, Kent County. Not the City of Belding.
1960. Work starts as Grattan International Speedway. Partners: E.J. Faasen (Navy, construction) and Tuttle. Straight paved first. The rest stays gravel. Drag racing on that straight pays for the road course.
First road race. Sam Faasen told MLive Memorial Day 1961, gravel. RacingCircuits prints Memorial Day 1962. Both stay in the record.
1965–68. Full pave. First SCCA regionals. Drag racing dies in the early 1970s after a car goes into a cornfield and the NHRA runoff is not enough. Faasen sells the construction company, buys Tuttle out, mortgages the house with Mary, raises nine kids over the building.
2017. E.J. dies July 10, age 89. Memorial at the track. Sons Sam, Hugh, and Kurt keep the gate open. Kurt told Fox 17 he is 72 and you cannot work forever. He also said he would like it to stay a racetrack. “We have no control over that.”
They built it like a farm. They still run it like a farm. The listing is what changed.
The numbers
- Official / SCCA: 2.0 miles · 10 corners · about 40 feet wide · 3,200-foot straight
- Western Michigan SCCA also prints 9 corners. Some loggers print 12. We print 10 and keep the others in sources.
- Official site: 220 acres. 2025 listing: 190.56 acres on three parcels. Both stay in the record.
- Muskrat Lake frontage: more than 4,000 feet
- Zoning on the listing: AG 2
- Ask: $15,000,000 (MLS 25010741). Fox 17 also printed $10 million.
- Taxes on the listing: about $35,978 (2025)
Named bits on the official copy: uphill and downhill changing-radius, 160-degree hairpin and dogleg, hidden apex, Monza bowl, esses, downhill reverse camber. Armco at the stations. They claim 70 to 90 percent of the course from one seat. Paddock in the middle. Pool. Ponds. Lake. 104 and 110 on site. MX days are done as of 2026.
Local racing scene
Club cathedral, not an Indy weekend. Western Michigan SCCA still puts regionals and nationals on this calendar. WERA. Sportbike Track Time. VSCDA vintage. BMW CCA. 41 Racing, 3 Balls, Trackilicious, Lotus, Alfa, Rally Sports Porsche. Michigan State Police have used it for vehicle tests. Family stories — cite the interviews, do not dress them up — put Paul Newman, Walter Payton, and Tom Cruise on this pavement. Porsche and Alfa Indy teams tested here in the 1980s.
Who uses the place
- SCCA — Grattan location
- Western Michigan SCCA
- Schedule page — SCCA, WERA, SBTT, VSCDA, club HPDE
- grattanracewaypark-mx.com
History
Faasen and Tuttle turned a Christmas-tree farm into Grattan International Speedway, paid for the ribbon with drag money on the long straight, then paved the rest and invited SCCA. When drag racing ended, the road course stayed. When E.J. died in 2017, the sons kept the gate. Kurt’s Fox 17 line is the watch file in one sentence: he wants it to stay a racetrack, and he has no control over the next owner.
What’s next
On Sep 17, 2026, The Daily News reported the $15 million ask and that Grattan Township opened a 63-day public review of its proposed master plan with the raceway’s future as a primary topic. Operating days continue until they don’t. Land-use choices sit with the township board, not with SaveTheTracks.
Local racing scene
Club cathedral, not an Indy weekend. Western Michigan SCCA still puts regionals and nationals on this calendar. WERA. Sportbike Track Time. VSCDA vintage. BMW CCA. 41 Racing, 3 Balls, Trackilicious, Lotus, Alfa, Rally Sports Porsche. Michigan State Police have used it for vehicle tests. Family stories — cite the interviews, do not dress them up — put Paul Newman, Walter Payton, and Tom Cruise on this pavement. Porsche and Alfa Indy teams tested here in the 1980s.
Who uses the place
- SCCA — Grattan location
- Western Michigan SCCA
- Schedule page — SCCA, WERA, SBTT, VSCDA, club HPDE
- grattanracewaypark-mx.com
History
Faasen and Tuttle turned a Christmas-tree farm into Grattan International Speedway, paid for the ribbon with drag money on the long straight, then paved the rest and invited SCCA. When drag racing ended, the road course stayed. When E.J. died in 2017, the sons kept the gate. Kurt’s Fox 17 line is the watch file in one sentence: he wants it to stay a racetrack, and he has no control over the next owner.
What’s next
On Sep 17, 2026, The Daily News reported the $15 million ask and that Grattan Township opened a 63-day public review of its proposed master plan with the raceway’s future as a primary topic. Operating days continue until they don’t. Land-use choices sit with the township board, not with SaveTheTracks.
The town that hosts it
Postal brand is Belding. Land-use is Grattan Township, Kent County — not the city, not Ionia County. Listing sheets note AG 2. Verify the current map with the zoning administrator before citing a district change.
Land-use body & zoning
Grattan Township
12050 Old Belding Road, Belding, MI 48809
616-691-8450
Supervisor — Franklin Force · supervisor@grattantownshipmi.gov
Clerk — Otto McNaughton · clerk@grattantownshipmi.gov
Zoning Administrator — Ryan Carrigan · zoningadmin@grattantownshipmi.gov
Treasurer — Sabrina Freeman · Trustees Paul Knoerl, Dennis Heffron
Set meetings & calendar
Township Board: second Monday each month, 7:00 PM
Township Hall · 12050 Old Belding Road
(extra / morning sessions appear on the 2026 board schedule — check before you drive)
- Board schedule 2026
- Meetings overview
- Daily News — master plan / $15M sale (Sep 17, 2026)
- Gate · 616-691-7221 · grattanraceway@gmail.com · 7201 Lessiter Road
We publish the public record. We do not lobby the board.
For sale · $15M watch
Help keep this record public
Grattan is still operating while the listing stays loud. Gifts fund the cited record — history, land-use files, and what happens to this venue — not a land purchase.
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