By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
As exciting as this weekend will be for sprint-car fans, Fred Brownfield can’t help but look upon it with a mixture of joy and sadness.
As a businessman and promoter for the Northern Sprint Tour, Brownfield can consider the season-opening doubleheader at Skagit Speedway Friday and Saturday as a coup for everyone associated with Northwest racing.
As a human being, however, it figures to be emotional.
“It’ll be a little tough on me, but I’ll live through it,” said Brownfield, a Snohomish resident.
Brownfield and Skagit Speedway were synonymous at one time. After 25 years of racing sprint cars, winning three championships, Brownfield took over the speedway operations on a trial basis in 1993. That “trial” lasted for two successful years, until the existing ownership group voted to end the relationship.
“I have not been there since September of 1995,” Brownfield said. “I still have a lot of personal feelings that I have to deal with.”
Not all of those feelings are positive. Admittedly bitter, Brownfield had uneasy relations with each ownership group since then until buddy Steve Beitler took over in July. Before Beitler came in, race fans clamored for the NST to make its way to Skagit, but the matter could never be resolved because of hard feelings on both sides.
That period appears to be over. Brownfield and Beitler have been friends for two decades. Brownfield sponsored Beitler’s race cars for years. They even spent part of a summer racing together on the World of Outlaws circuit.
So once Beitler and partner Jim Cress closed the deal to acquire the Alger racetrack last summer, it was only a matter of time before they would cut a deal with Brownfield to bring the NST to Skagit Speedway.
As a result, NST will kick off its seventh season of 360-class sprint-car racing with two shows, starting Friday.
Between 50 and 60 cars are expected to appear Friday, with an additional 20 sportsman-sprints coming in Saturday as a support show.
“It’s good for everybody,” Beitler said. “The fans are going to get to see the top regional 360 drivers in the country. It’s real good for us to have that type of a program. It’s real good for the Northern Sprint Tour because they bring in a real good media market with Skagit Speedway.”
Among those competing will be three-time NST champion Shawna Wilskey of Lake Stevens; defending champion Roger Crockett of Rio Linda, Calif., 1997 champion Rick Fauver of Everett; Jayme Barnes of Everett; and 2001 third-place finisher Jason Solwold of Burlington.
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