Calif. Fairground Tracks Are Struggling To Survive

When Ventura Raceway launched its season, 116 cars in a half-dozen classes jammed the pits and a nice-sized crowd occupied the large grandstands. On the same March night 450 miles to the north, Silver Dollar Speedway welcomed 64 winged sprint cars (nearly all of them sporting 410-cubic-inch power plants) and a crowd that spilled into the mud-eating seats for the second race of the season.
Ventura and Silver Dollar are two of the most successful speedways located on State of California-owned fairgrounds. Local open-wheel and stock-car classes race at the two short dirt tracks nearly every weekend during the season, and top-tier touring series stop in several times a year, bringing prestige and large crowds.
But the picture is not as bright at other fairgrounds race tracks in the Golden State.
Some tracks are struggling with dwindling car counts, poor attendance, less-than ideal track conditions and conflicts with the neighbors. It doesn’t help that many fairgrounds date to the 1930s and 1940s, and have seen minimal investment since. A number of the tracks — including those in Hanford, Madera, Chowchilla, Susanville and Anderson — have seen multiple promoters come and go during recent years. Some have shrunk their schedule, including the famous half-mile dirt oval at Calistoga, which shows only four races on its 2008 calendar.

ERIC VS. ERIC: Eric Holmes (2) fights off Eric Richardson during the NASCAR Camping World Series West Toyota NAPA Auto Care 150 March 29 at All American Speedway in Roseville, Calif. (Tom Parker Photo)

“It’s just not easy,” said Jim Naylor, the promoter at Ventura Raceway for 30 years. “The biggest thing that’s changed is we have to pay attention to all the noise — all the politics. It’s all very political.”
Politics nearly sunk Ventura Raceway in 2002 when the 31st District Agricultural Ass’n’s board of directors got two new appointees. Like most fairgrounds in California, Ventura is run by a governor-appointed board, and the new appointees decided the Southern California beach town would be better off if the fairgrounds were converted to a park. They started their crusade by targeting the fifth-mile dirt track, which is within a few blocks of pricy new condos and Ventura’s bustling downtown. Only an impassioned and persistent defense by racers turned back the challenge. The episode forced Naylor to impose extraordinarily tight muffler rules and complete programs by 10 p.m.
Ventura Raceway appears safe for now, but Naylor knows his place. Thus, when the fair directors decided they needed the facilities on May 31 — even though Naylor had already booked the popular USAC-CRA sprint cars — all he could do was grin and bear it. “I am there at their pleasure,” he said.
For decades, fairgrounds tracks have been California’s short track racing backbone. With important private tracks such as Southern California’s Ascot Park, Saugus Speedway and Cajon Speedway, and Baylands Raceway Park and Stockton 99 Speedway in Northern California closing during the last two decades, the fairgrounds tracks have become only more important. Currently, 28 fairgrounds in California offer auto racing on a regular basis, and a handful of others host the occasional special event or motorcycle racing.
The 1990s were a tough period for California’s fairgrounds tracks. Racing petered out at Cedarville Speedway in the far northeastern corner of the state. The fair board in Grass Valley decided that property occupied by Ernie Purssell Memorial Speedway could be put to better use — a use that has never materialized. The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors shuttered San Jose Fairgrounds Speedway after the 1998 season in favor of a proposed concert facility, a project the county gave up on eight years later. The hugely attended Mid State Fair in Paso Robles dropped its race dates. More recently, tracks in Hanford and Chowchilla shut down in mid-season, leaving racers, fans and sponsors stranded. Fortunately, both tracks are running again in 2008.
“As a rule, fairgrounds tracks are struggling,” said Dennis Gage, a spokesman and occasional announcer at Chico’s Silver Dollar, Placerville Speedway and Roseville’s All American Speedway, all of which are located on fairgrounds. “Probably the big issue isn’t that the race programs are in trouble, it’s that the fairgrounds themselves are in trouble. There aren’t going to be any significant improvements at fairgrounds tracks with public money these days.”
When it became apparent the crash wall at All American needed replacement, Placer County Fair board member John Moore — a late-model racer and successful businessman — teamed with NASCAR Grand National West team owner Bill McAanally and a few other private individuals to pay for the new crashwall, revised pit ramps and a modest expansion of the quarter-mile paved oval. The fairgrounds paid for only a tiny fraction of the six-figure construction project, Gage said.
One exception is the Madera District Fair, home of the one-third mile paved Madera Speedway. The fair board recently put about $1 million into a new entrance, parking, pits, landscaping, wiring and other infrastructure, said Kenny Shepherd, whose company, Short Track Management, is in its second year operating the speedway.
Before taking over Madera, Shepherd helped run the privately owned Altamont Speedway. “They both have their pluses and minuses,” said Shepherd, comparing the two. “At a fairgrounds, it depends on your relationship with the fair board and your relationship with the community. You have to be a team player. It truly is a partnership.”
Whether or not a fair board has money for improvements, racing is important because it brings money to facilities that receive little state funding. At most fairgrounds tracks, the fair controls the concession stands and, if there is a private promoter, gets a share of his proceeds.
“If we’re not running, we lose money,” said Jake Walgenbach, CEO of the Glenn County Fair in Orland. So when Orland Raceway promoter Paul Turner called it quits after 12 years, the fair board promptly found a replacement. “Racing is a good thing for the fair. It’s a good thing for the community,” Walgenbach said.
Dan McIntyre, part of a new team promoting Lakeport Speedway, has found a similar attitude at the Lake County Fairgrounds. “The fair board is great to deal with, and the fair manager is great to deal with,” said McIntyre, who quickly added, “We’re one of the largest incomes for the fair.”
“Racing politics” is more of a problem than operating on public grounds, McIntyre said. Of course, racing politics is not limited to fairgrounds tracks. In fact, basics such as attracting fans, getting young people involved and keeping racers happy usually top the agendas of fairgrounds track operators.
“The fairgrounds facilities are so important,” said Shepherd, a former West Coast stock-car racer who has brought new life to the Madera track. “It’s where grass-roots racing comes from. I think it’s real important history and we need to keep it going.”