Evergreen Speedway 2010 outlook: more of the same

Published 9:42 pm Monday, October 5, 2009

With the 2009 racing season at Evergreen Speedway in the books, it is a good time to think about 2010, which looks to be — as Artie Johnson of Laugh-In always said — very, very in-teresting.

I’ve always been accused of being a bit of a pessimist — the type of person who sees the glass as half full. I prefer to think of myself as being a realist, but I guess it’s like that old saying: “Where you stand is where you sit.”

And — realistically — there are so many unanswered questions and uncertainties facing local racing at Evergreen Speedway that the tendency may be to see the lemons instead of the lemonade.

Car counts, especially in the featured Super Late Model and Super Figure Eight divisions, were down for much of the season. Attendance was also down, even during the Evergreen State Fair, normally a guaranteed strong time for ticket sales.

The cleanliness of the grandstands and the physical condition of the 56-year-old speedway have been on-and-off issues this season as well, especially when a late-model race was halted after three laps in late June after a section of the track came apart.

Some have said the weak economy is to blame when searching for reasons why the 2009 season was lackluster. Racing at the local track is a hobby, and a very expensive one at that. The price of competing — and more so the cost of being competitive, which is not the same thing — has only gone up along with everything else.

Others have pointed at Johnson Productions, the current promoters who began the year past due in payments to the county and other companies.

Additional capital was found and bills were paid — an email from Snohomish County on Monday confirmed all lease payments for 2009 were made — but the loss of experienced speedway employees also had an impact, both on the track and in the stands. Reworking the operating staff in the midst of the season was a tough proposition, and it seemed like there was little effective promotion of racing events to increase ticket sales.

One group that was very aware of the downward trend in ticket sales this past season was the speedway’s sponsors. Two of four sponsors I contacted in the past three weeks were unsure of renewing their financial support for the speedway next season, and a third sponsor definitely will not be back.

Reflective of the unsure economy and downward trending audience size, sponsor pullout has also recently been seen in racing at the top-most level, NASCAR’s Cup series. Four-car Cup teams may survive just fine as three-car operations, but the impact of a mass defection on a smaller-scale operation like Evergreen Speedway could be severe.

Going into 2010 and beyond these are issues which may or may not be resolved. How long it takes to get things turned around at the speedway will likely depend on the answer to one very big question.

The biggest question mark for the next season will actually be about the 2011 season, which is when the next motorsports operations contract begins. The question of who the next promoters will be is going to hang over the 2010 season like a cloud — the proverbial other shoe waiting to drop.

As part of the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, the speedway is owned by Snohomish County but operated under a lease agreement, currently with Johnson Productions, LLC, through the end of the 2010 racing season.

Although the county hasn’t completed a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the motorsports operations contract, that is the first step in the process of selecting the next promoters at the 56-year-old speedway. Once released, interested individuals/groups can put together bids based on the requirements of the RFP.

In a discussion a couple weeks ago, county parks director Tom Teigen said several groups and individuals have contacted his department inquiring about the RFP, including some from out-of-state. While several local groups and/or individuals have expressed an interest in seeing the finished RFP, wanting to review the proposed terms of the contract isn’t the same as submitting a bid.

“I would have to see the RFP,” Terry Buell, formerly Evergreen Speedway’s manager and associate promoter, said on Tuesday. “What are the terms, what is the length — five years? Ten years? A lot would depend on those details.”

Buell and Steve Dunn, another ex-speedway employee, recently formed D&B Entertainment LLC, a motorsports promotion company. Although some in the local racing community have speculated that the duo will submit a bid, and Buell said he saw “a positive path to be taken to reversing the speedway’s decline,” he added that the work involved with turning things around could discourage some bidders.

Another name often mentioned in idle discussions about the speedway’s future is that of Steve Beitler, owner of Skagit Speedway in Alger, Wash. In an email response, Beitler said he, too, was interested in seeing the RFP.

“Where it goes is unknown,” wrote Beitler of his plans beyond seeing the proposal. But Beitler also acknowledged the difficulties facing the next management team, writing: “It will be a very tough couple years turning the track around to where it could/should be.”

“Don’t get me wrong — I think there is a great market for Evergreen Speedway, a great future for Evergreen Speedway,” Beitler said in a follow-up phone conversation last week. “It’s in a great market down there; someone just needs to work at it to get it to where it needs to be.”

And what about the current promoters? Lex and Danni Johnson assumed the lease from longtime promoter Mickey Beadle’s International Productions, Inc., in March 2008. Just a few months after that both expressed a desire to remain as promoters in 2011 and beyond, but after two full seasons running the speedway, Danni Johnson took a wait-and-see approach when asked about the next contract.

“We will not be making any final decisions at this time, as the RFP has not been released yet,” wrote Johnson in a Sept. 16 email. “We, Johnson Productions, are 100 (percent) focused and dedicated to ending this 2009 season with a bang and are very excited for the 2010 season and believe that it will be an amazing year.”

The county’s draft timeline calls for the next contract to be awarded in October or November of 2010, so even if the Johnsons do submit a bid they will operate the speedway next year as lame-duck promoters. That means it is unlikely they will be inclined to make any major changes from this season.

There are positive signs for next season, including the large number of Street Stocks at the final race of the season, and the robust turnout in the starter divisions, the Stinger 8s and Hornets. Those are the racers of Evergreen Speedway’s future, and hopefully several future champions got behind the wheel of one this year.

And for those out there that are concerned that somehow, some way racing at Evergreen Speedway could go away, I don’t see that happening. For all the horse-vs.-racecar feuding over the years, the horse operation is just as impacted by the economy as the auto racing side, so neither side is in a position to be thinking of a takeover.

Case in point: it was reported in The Herald that attendance at the Evergreen State Fair was down in 2009. Although poor weather may have led to some of the decline, it just goes to show the racing operation wasn’t alone in seeing smaller crowds at the fairgrounds.

Speaking of the fair, now may be a good spot to point out that the county’s fairgrounds revitalization initiative is a nice piece of paper that has no guaranteed financial backing attached to it. Repaving the big track, paving the infield and upgrading the grandstands to become a “multi-use/multi-sport” facility sounds good, but there isn’t much public money out there now and the prospects for the future aren’t much better.

So for the life of me I don’t see how next season will look much different than the one that just concluded — racing will continue with smaller feature division fields and maybe even fewer spectators.

Could I be wrong? Of course, and I for one would be glad to see it. Perhaps more Hornets and Stingers will create enough excitement to increase ticket sales and offset the loss of sponsors.

Either way, it reminds me of that old blessing that is really a curse in disguise: “May you live in interesting times.” No doubt about it, the future of Evergreen Speedway will be interesting.