by: John Hedy
On Sunday, October 5th, the Spokane Pro Gas Association (SPGA) held an end of season banquet at the Northern Quest Casino in Airway Heights.
The SPGA, a non-profit organization, contracted with Spokane County in late August to lease the drag strip from the County for four events. These four drag racing events were held on August 30th, September 13th, September 20th and September 27th. The agreement was that the SPGA would acquire and pay for the required insurance, pay the mandatory County lease fees of $10,400 up front for the four dates, perform all of the event marketing and staff all the events. Many SPGA members took a risk and dug into their own pockets to come up with the thousands of dollars needed to fund the four events. They did so due to their strong passion for racing, and with the hope that after all the other expenses were paid, that there would be enough revenues from the racing events to reimburse their up front investment.
This past Thursday, those that had fronted the funds needed to make the drag racing events a reality were fully reimbursed. Per the agreement with the County, after all of the hard costs were reimbursed, any remaining funds would be awarded to the county. At the banquet, SPGA President Lew McArthur, Vice President Robert Hallock, and Secretary Scott McArthur presented a check for those remaining funds in the amount of $30,552.30 to County Commissioners Bonnie Mager, Mark Richard and Todd Mielke. This amount, coupled with the up front lease fees of $10,400, resulted in a total of $40,552.30 being paid to the county by the SPGA.
All three commissioners spoke, expressing their gratitude. County Commissioner Todd Mielke in talking about the future of the Spokane County Motorsports Park, said “There will be racing, but it will not be County operated. It will keep kids off the streets and bring tourism into the community.” He continued on, stating “There will be a regional police training center that will attract officers from all over the west coast. There will also be a 60 to 80 acre sports complex capable of holding tournaments.” Comments from the commissioners were well received.
A separate check for $2,967 was presented by the SPGA to Airway Heights Mayor Matthew Pederson. This check represented a five percent user tax on gate admissions.
The drag racing events were a resounding success. It was an all volunteer effort to market and run the events with many volunteers working 16 hour days. The racing community responded strongly in a show of support for Spokane County Motorsports Park. The last event alone had 561 race cars and more than 2,500 attendees.
The economic impact to Airway Heights and Spokane County for the four racing events was estimated at $268,438. This impact was calculated using the Convention and Visitors Bureau Economic Impact Formula.
Scott McArthur of the SPGA said, “This was the shortest but sweetest drag racing season I’ve ever been a part of. We showed people how important the facility is. One of the biggest things we did was keeping kids off the street.”
One of the goals of the SPGA in holding the events was to keep our community streets safer by offering the street drag program which has been so popular in the past. They did this by holding the bracket race events during the day, immediately followed by street drags in the evening. For just $7, anyone could race their vehicle from 6pm – midnight provided that the car was safe and could pass the necessary tech inspection. The street drags proved very popular once again attracting an average of approximately 300 vehicles each night. Reid Henry, who organized the street drags for the SPGA, said “For less than it costs to go and see a movie, we can race our cars in a safe environment and not put other drivers at risk.”
Currently, Spokane County is in the process of selecting a long-term lease operator. In September, the County prepared and released an RFQ detailing the submission and selection process. Proposals were due to the County this past Friday, October 3rd. Two proposals were received, one from Bucky Austin Racing, the other from Simmonds LTD. The County will now review the proposals and work through the selection and approval process.
The four events held by the SPGA exceeded their expectations. These events helped to keep our area streets safe, provided regional racers with a local venue, generated funds for the County, and had more than a quarter of a million dollars of positive economic impact on the local economy. With the general economic outlook uncertain, it’s reassuring to see the significant positive impact the Spokane County Motorsports Park has, and will continue to have, on our local economy.
To keep up to date with news, photos and information about Spokane County Motorsports Park you can visit http://www.SpokaneMotorsportsPark.com.