SpeedVegas CEO says race track will reopen next week

An executive with the SpeedVegas race track south of Las Vegas says the attraction, the scene of a fiery Lamborghini Aventador crash Sunday afternoon, will reopen next week.

In a two-sentence statement issued Thursday afternoon, SpeedVegas co-founder and CEO Aaron Fessler said a date hasn’t been set.

“We would like to thank the community and our industry colleagues for their outpouring of support at this time,” Fessler said. “We will reopen next week and will announce the date shortly.”

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Business and Industry confirmed that the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigation into the crash as an industrial accident is continuing. Teri Williams said the investigation could take months, depending on its scope.

She said because the SpeedVegas operation closed voluntarily the company is not required to request permission to resume normal business operations.

Fessler declined a request for an interview.

Two people died in the accident, including Gil Ben-Kely, a 59-year-old SpeedVegas instructor who was in the passenger seat at the time of the accident, and the driver, a track guest whose identity has yet to be released.

Ben-Kely was memorialized Wednesday in a funeral attended by about 150 people.

Questions have been raised about whether the Aventador, a $400,000 high-performance car capable of reaching speeds of 200 mph that had been delivered to SpeedVegas eight days before the crash, was ready for the track, billed as the longest and fastest in the industry.

Contact Richard N. Velotta at rvelotta@reviewjournal.com or 702-477-3893. Follow @RickVelotta on Twitter.