Road Atlanta founder, Cleveland businessman dies
Without Dave’s dream many years ago, we would not have enjoyed the memories and awesome race track that is Road Atlanta.
By Ken Stanford Editor
GAINESVILLE - A memorial service is planned next week for Dave Sloyer, a Cleveland businessman and the designer and founder of Road Atlanta.
Sloyer died last week at Northeast Georgia Medical Center following a long illness.
Sloyer was a Kansas native with an aerospace background who raced cars on the side. His love for automobile racing was a driving force in his life. After pulling his race cars all over the country doing club races, he decided to build a race track at home, so in 1969 Road Atlanta was born.
Sloyer was the designer and founder of Road Atlanta, and remained at the track as Vice President and General Manager until 1979. In 1970 he received an award from the State of Georgia Athletic Hall of Fame as a Finalist for Sports Executive of the Year in recognition of his achievements as founder of Road Atlanta. He went into Sales and Services after Road Atlanta, but continued to love all forms of motor sports. Dave loved spicy foods.
After a successful liver transplant in 1995, he developed his own company, Sarchi Foods, and his own salsa and hot sauce products. In 2000 he built a manufacturing plant in Cleveland, Ga. to further develop his own product line and to manufacture for many other small companies.
The memorial service will be Tuesday December 15 at 4:30 at Little-Davenport Funeral Home in Gainesville.
(A full obituary can be found on the AccessNorthGa.com obituaries page.)