Photo: Allen Bolling

At the regular meeting of the Paintsville City Council on Monday, February 12, 2018, Tourism Director Josh Johnson proposed the creation of Paintsville Motorsports to take over operation of racing events at Combs Airport, which is jointly owned with the city of Prestonsburg. For more on this story, we talked with Prestonsburg Mayor Les Stapleton. He said costs were increasing and did not want to use taxpayer money to continue operations. The city of Prestonsburg, and Prestonsburg Motorsports, were nearing the end of their contract with the airport board and felt it was a good time to let Paintsville run with it. Johnson said two former promoters of drag racing events from Prestonsburg had stated they would cover expenses for the operations. We will update this story when more information becomes available.