Racing ready for test drive in Esky

By Todd Guerne
Daily Press

http://www.uppermichiganssource.com/news/story.aspx?id=465455&sms_ss=facebook - cut and paste for video of UPIR practice

ESCANABA - After a nine-year hiatus, stock car racing is returning to Escanaba next month.

Escanaba Speedway closed in 2001, but the U.P. State Fair authority is looking to reopen the speedway on a full-time basis next year. Whether that happens will depend on the interest generated from a triple crown of exhibition races this summer. The first event is June 12 on a 1/8 mile clay oval track at the fairgrounds. The other races are July 31 and Aug. 21. Racing begins at 7 p.m. each night.

"The fair authority wanted information last September on putting a track in the Escanaba area," said Boyd Widdis of Manistique, who started racing at the Escanaba Fairgrounds in 1963 when he was 14 years old. His son Bret is part of an illustrious group of racers who have won at the Milwaukee Mile, the nation's oldest continually operating auto racing track.

Boyd Widdis and several former board members of the Upper Peninsula Racing Association got together and proposed an idea on building a track, which the authority would own and manage.

"For the exhibition races, we're building the clay track in front of the grandstand," Widdis said. Last week, the group put some finishing touches on the track, including a layer of fresh clay.

To help get stock car racing back on track in Escanaba, the group is leaning on volunteer advisor and consultant Doug Strasburg of Fort Atkinson, Wis. Strasburg has been involved in racing almost all of his life in one capacity or another. He and wife Julie own the Mid-American Stock Car Series, which returned to the U.P. last June for an event at Norway Speedway.

"I'm honored and flattered they asked me to help and I'll give them all the help I can," said Strasburg, who has family in Manistique.

Although the clay oval track race fans will see for the exhibitions is sure to bring excitement, the ultimate goal is to build a 3/8 mile blacktop oval at the fairgrounds.

"Although we're gearing up for this summer, we've also been looking ahead at what it will take to put a state-of-the-art paved course here in Escanaba," Strasburg said.

The races will consist of three different divisions: small car, micro sprints and tough trucks/cars. The small car division will have four or six cylinder vehicles under 192 inches in overall length to compete. However, safety modifications must be made to the vehicle, and a street legal vehicle will not be permitted to run in this division.

Street legal vehicles will be allowed to compete in the tough truck/car division.

The fastest division is the micro sprints, which are powered by a 650 motorcycle engine and compete during the winter on the ice course in Escanaba.

According to Vickie Micheau, Executive Director of the Delta County Chamber of Commerce, there has been a constant request from fans to bring racing back to the area.

"The response has been better than expected," said Micheau. "We knew based on the number of questions we were getting people were interested in racing."

The fair board authority passed a resolution May 21, stating the net income from the three races this summer will go toward construction of a new track. Micheau would not commit, however, any net income from this year's U.P. State Fair toward a race track.

"The racing will have to be self-sustaining," she said. "We have a huge obligation toward making sure the fairgrounds are profitable. I would expect any fair revenues would be used strictly for fairground improvements and operation."

No plans for racing at the fairgrounds in 2011 have been finalized. Widdis estimates it would cost $500,000 for a state-of-the-art blacktop facility.

"If built, it would probably be the premier short track facility in the Midwest and draw drivers from all over," said Widdis, who added it would be a multi-motor sports facility with three configurations of the paved oval that could be used.

The biggest issue is arranging financing for such a track. Micheau says the county and the fair board are exploring many options.

"We'll pursue all possible funding and grant opportunities," she said. "But the only way to put in the track is if the grant requests come through. It would be very difficult to service the debt if we don't have grants."

Widdis says this might be the best chance there has been to bring stock car racing back to Escanaba full-time.

"The people involved are the best people you can get involved," Widdis said. "The Chamber of Commerce is behind it because they realize you can't make money if the grandstand (at the fairgrounds) is sitting empty."

If all parties involved have anything to say about it, the grandstands won't be sitting empty much longer and racing fans will be happy once again.