The back roads of eastern Kentucky could help put the region on the path to economic growth.

Fueling it the motorsports industry.

The area hosted motorcross and rally car racing events that draw bigger and bigger crowds each year.

Now, as our Blake Vickers explains, a new plan to build a state of the art rally training facility, potentially making Eastern Kentucky a major hub for motorsports.

Since 2023, the Boone Forest Rally has been dusting up the foothills and hollers of eastern Kentucky.

Rally car racing sees teams of two navigate maneuver through rough terrain at high speeds.

It's part of a growing motorsports movement that's gaining popularity in Appalachia, with the annual Boone Forest event gaining more competitors and spectators every year.

Everywhere you go, you hear about a track closing down and.

And yet Kentucky's opening everything up.

They're letting us use the roads and everything in between.

Like your facilities here at the high school.

That's fantastic.

So it just means a lot to the motorsports rally in our area.

Tourism is basically all we've got.

You know, we don't have the factories, we don't have the historical, you know, locations, you know, but we do have beautiful territory.

We've got the woods, we've got we've got the rivers, we've got the dirt roads, we've got the industry, we've got the conditions that are perfect for rally racing, kayaking, anything with outdoor recreation.

So, you know, I I've seen an increase every year over the last couple of years.

So I really think this is this is our ticket in eastern Kentucky.

According to Backroads of Appalachia, the nonprofit event organizer behind the Boone Forest Rally.

Support from the state's General Assembly and locals has played an important role in Kentucky gaining traction in the motorsports industry.

We represent three states in motorsports.

We change multiple bills and laws to make motorsports more friendly here.

Last year, give an example, for $250,000 from state operation budget, we was able to read the return of investment to the state of Kentucky of $92.6 million, and we brought 77,000 visitors in to spend our hard earned money in subregion.

But they economic impact of our rally car race every year, roughly $2 million to the local economy.

I think in the next few years, Kentucky can really become a hub for for rally and motorsports in general, and it's really exciting to see how it progresses.

Another sign Eastern Kentucky is on track for becoming a hub in the sport.

The American Rally Association and backroads of Appalachia have announced plans to construct a specialized motorsports training facility in Owsley County.

Backroads of Appalachia and the, overlanding triangle effort has been able to secure a plot of land, sizable plot of land, and that is going to be a hub for several motorsports acts.

Timothy's.

It's not necessarily geared to driver training.

There are three successful driver schools for routing in the U.S., and I want a place to to to be able to quietly train organizers, volunteers, safety personnel, you know, extraction of vehicles, martial anything around, rally.

At some point it may be used for for driving instruction.

Hubbard and others believe the facility can be the key to taking the Boone Forest Rally and Eastern Kentucky Motorsports to the national level, growing its fan base and the regional economy even more.

The key to become a national event is this property we're sitting on right now, to have something called a power stage, where we could bring thousands of people up on a cleared area where they can watch the final parts of the race unfold.

This will become a destination for anybody in the off road industry to come to eastern Kentucky, see us, hang out with us for most importantly, spread out to our region, spend our hard earned money for Kentucky edition.

I'm Blake Vickers.

Thank you.

Blake.

The facility is being funded in part by a $7.4 million grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission, which aims to boost economic development in the region through motor sports and adventure tourism.