YEONGAM, South Korea — Eight years ago, the South Korean province of South Jeolla, which includes this sleepy coastal county, cleared 1,000 acres of rice paddies and embarked on a $375 million experiment: building a Formula One track.
In 2010, Yeongam hosted the first Korean Grand Prix. New hotels went up to accommodate what local officials hoped would be an unprecedented wave of foreign tourists. The screams of racing machines came to this flat, quiet land, which was more accustomed to the trundle of gigantic ship components on their way to the Hyundai shipyard.
But only three more Grand Prix races followed, and today the quiet has returned. The biggest events now seen at the 3.5-mile Korea International Circuit, with its capacity for 120,000 spectators, are amateur races that draw modest crowds.
“We started with a big dream of making lots of money,” said Park Bong-soon, a South Jeolla Province official whose title until recently was director of the Formula One support center, even though there is no longer a Formula One race to support. “Instead, we ended up with a spectacular flop.”
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“Right now, we may suffer so much criticism for our F1 project,” said Mr. Park, the South Jeolla official. “But in 10 to 20 years, people will see this place as a national landmark, a mecca of South Korean auto racing.”
Brad Spurgeon contributed reporting from Paris.
A version of this article appears in print on February 16, 2015, on page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: A Korean Auto-Racing Debacle, but Hope Around the Bend . Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
