Former Driver Turned Promoter Gets Skagit On Winning Track

By Steve Beitler
Guest Columnist

When asked to write a column for NSSN, I thought to myself ‘Why me?’ I’m just an ordinary guy promoting a race track. But then I thought about it and my life has been far from ordinary.
I was brought up around racing at Skagit Speedway. My father, Harold, raced the first race here in 1954. In the late ’60s, I sold newspapers, including NSSN, at Skagit. At age 8, I had no idea where that job would take me.
As a little boy I dreamed of being a race-car driver, a guitar player, a policeman and a fireman. Well, I was in a rock band for a few years, a reserve policeman for two years and a fireman for nine years. But my true passion for sprint-car racing won out.
For my senior-year class project, while milking cows at a local dairy, I built my first race car. I raced around home for a while and then started traveling throughout the Northwest.
Things got better every year, and even though we weren’t a high-budget team, we won a lot of races. I really wanted to race with the World of Outlaws. The gypsy life looked good to me. My real break came in 1987 when I raced late models in Australia.
In 1989, my friend, Chuck Moore, helped me acquire enough equipment to hit the WoO trail. Racing with the Outlaws is a real character builder. You will learn real quick how tough you really are.
I have the utmost respect for all the teams out there. Just being there every race is an accomplishment. It was some of the best years in my life. I had friends all over the country, and I still receive Christmas cards from as far away as Pennsylvania.
One great memory I have was my first year. I was struggling to keep afloat and we were at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin. There were only 22 cars, so the pressure to make the race was off. But as luck would have it, my bird cage broke and I junked the car in hot laps. Broke and out of parts, I went to Ted Johnson and told him I was sorry but I had to go home and regroup. He reached into his pocket, handed me $400 and said, “Here’s some money to get you back out, not to go home on, but to get you back out.”
He was really a good person. He was under appreciated.
After being on the road for 10 years, I bought a small speed shop in hopes of supplementing my racing. After a few months I saw the potential, not to mention an ever-increasing bank account. So, I hung up my helmet.
Skagit Speedway had been changing hands and declining for a few years. When the opportunity to buy Skagit came along in 2001, I went for it. I partnered with Jim Cress for the first two years. We were the fifth management team in seven years at Skagit.
When we first took over, it was a mess. I told the employees what we had was the Titanic after it hit the iceberg. Our first mission was to stop the leaks.
Over the next five years I had to change out some employees who had been there a long time. But they didn’t share the passion necessary to turn Skagit around.
I have a no-nonsense business approach, and I will not settle for second best. Because of that some people do not like me, but if you are wishy-washy, people will take advantage of you. Even your friends.
I push my people to be the best they can be every night. If we do a great job, we all revel in it. If we make a mistake, we all stand together. I know I’m a hard-ass sometimes, but really I am pretty nice. You just need to do things my way.
Today, we have a very dedicated team that puts 100 percent into this place. It’s getting tougher every year to survive in the short-track market. There’s no room for pussyfooting around. I always tell my employees, “Be the customer. If you came here, what do you want to see? How do you want to be treated? What do you expect? That’s what you give them.”
Having Skagit Speedway is much more to me that just having the Dirt Cup or the 360 Nationals or the World of Outlaws.
It is a way for me to put something back into the sport that has been so good to me. Being part of this community is real important. Last year, we were involved with more than 70 youth, school and non-profit organizations in a three-county area.
I am truly blessed to be living my childhood dreams, even if I am just an ordinary guy.