MONROE — The auto-racing town is out of the race.
A day after Marysville and Snohomish County officials revealed two favored sites for a National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing track, Monroe Mayor Donnetta Walser conceded the track probably won’t come to her community.
"I have nothing against Marysville," Walser said Wednesday. "I hope it will go there if it’s not in Monroe."
Officials on Tuesday released a proposal to have International Speedway Corp. build the 80,000-seat facility north of Marysville. The company, which owns 12 of the nation’s largest auto-racing facilities, is looking to expand to the Northwest.
Monroe proposed two possible sites for the track, Walser said. One was on more than 500 acres of private land west of the city, she said.
But that farmland is not in the city’s urban growth area and probably wouldn’t be suitable for the track because of environmental regulations, Walser said.
"I thought it was a waste of time to present this" site for a proposal, she said.
The other site, the county-owned Evergreen Fairgrounds, home of the popular Evergreen Speedway, has less than 500 acres, which would not meet International Speedway criteria, Walser said. The city approached the county to explore the possibility of expanding to the surrounding area.
Walser said she had a meeting with county officials in March, but no one from the county executive’s office attended. That showed the county’s lack of interest in the fairgrounds, she said.
Walser said all she can do is write a letter to County Council member Jeff Sax, who showed strong interest in the fairgrounds, to ask if she can do anything more to help Monroe land the NASCAR deal.
Mark Funk, a county executive management analyst, said the county has no favoritism for one city over another.
"We’ll be happy to sit down and offer (any cities in the county) the same sort of technical assistance we offered for Marysville," Funk said.
The county helped Marysville make its proposal because it came up with two sites that meet International Speedway’s criteria.
Monroe is unlikely to offer proposals acceptable to the county, Walser said.
"We possibly could, but it will be a waste of money if the county is not interested," she said, adding that the city has no promising sites within its boundaries. Both of its sites are nearby in the county.
Meanwhile, wherever the NASCAR track is built, it will likely draw people away from Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, said Mickey Beadle, president of International Productions Inc., which stages races at the speedway.
If NASCAR has only have a few major races, that might not substantially damage the 50-year-old track. Marysville’s county-backed plan lists the site as hosting two or three races a year, mostly in late summer.
Evergreen Speedway holds 25 racing weekends a year, mainly at night, from the end of March through the first week of October.
But one thing is for sure, Beadle said.
"If they run nights, obviously we will shut down," he said.
Reporter Yoshiaki Nohara: 425-339-3029 or ynohara@heraldnet.com.
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