Could it be? A brand new, state of the art drag strip right here in Lake Havasu? This subject has been approached by the local paper on a couple of occasions, but the big story so far, is the potential location has switched from the south side of the city, to approx. 100 acres of city owned land near the airport on the north side. At the Desert Storm street party, the Lake Havasu Drag Racing Association had a booth, and the association members were pretty confident that this was going to happen. They said that the city was "200% behind it", and with city owned land that would be leased to the association, one of the biggest hurdles has already been crossed. They also said that the necessary financing to build a facility was already arranged, and that this proposed drag racing complex would be more than just a drag strip. The tentative plan is to build a 1,000' concrete raceway, with a 2,000' shut down area. A tower with suites, and initial plans to have spectator seating for 5,000 is also on the drawing board.
The hope is that ground can be broken this summer, and the first racing action will take place before the end of the year. This all sounds a bit on the ambitious side to me, but we'll just have to wait and see. Having been involved with local government as a county planning commissioner in CA, I've seen lots of these projects start off with a bang, and fizzle out over time. There will be lots of hoops to jump through, and a lot of the success, or failure, of ambitious projects like this, depend on the tenacity of the folks trying to make it happen.
One of the goals of this facility, will be to attract the professional teams for winter testing. During the off season, between the last Pomona race in early November, and the start of the new season, also in Pomona in early February, the pros, and many of the sportsman racers do a lot of testing. Right now, most of the pro teams travel to Florida in December and January to do their off season experimenting. I can't help but think that a first class facility here in Lake Havasu would almost be the ideal location regarding weather and altitude (almost sea level), and should be a powerful magnet to any drag racer who wanted to do winter testing. We'll have to see what, if any progress has been made, when we return to the Lake in September. If it's still moving forward, I just might have to get involved, and lend some of my enthusiasm to the project. Hmmm, is there a race car in my future?
I really hope this works out for Lake Havasu. They tried to build one at Castle Air Force Base ... went through most of the process without much trouble because everyone here backed the project. In the end however, the people running the project sucked all the money out and ran, leaving the City and County of Merced holding a very large bag of debt that will never be repaid. Keep an eagle eye out!!!!
ReplyDeleteStill going to be some lawsuits involved as the neighboring lake Havasu resort has been speaking with a couple of attorneys and will be fighting rezoning requirements.
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