I moved to Western Washington with my family when I was 12 years old.  That was almost 30 years ago.  I was born in Missouri and also lived in Illinois.  In Missouri during the ‘70s, we did one of two things on the weekends during the summer and they both involved the station wagon:  Drive-ins or race tracks.  We had friends and family involved in racing and we spent time at race tracks in the Kansas City area: Riverside, Lakeside, I-70.  When my mom and step dad moved to Western Washington, they wanted me to find an interest to keep me out of trouble.  So we started to go to the races at Evergreen Speedway. 

So I’ve been going to Evergreen for almost 30 years, now.  And nothing has changed.  Now that’s not a bad thing and it’s not a good thing.  In the past 30 years, hundreds, if not thousands, of race tracks in America have shut down.  Snohomish County owns the race track.  And the only reason the speedway is still there is because it is owned by the county.  If it was privately owned, it would have been pushed out by higher taxes or public pressure a long time ago.  Even though the county owns the track, they don’t run the track.  That’s where Lex and Danny Johnson come in.  The promoters don’t want to spent money on capital improvements to a track in which they don’t own.  And the county can’t spend money on the track to benefit the promoters.  Nor can the county spend money on the track to benefit only a small percentage of the county’s population.

As you know, the speedway is part of the larger (county owned) Evergreen State Fairgrounds.  The county has to use it’s assets to generate the most income.  There is something going on at the fairgrounds every weekend; swap meets, gun shows, horse shows, RV show, you get the idea.  But six months out of the year, the speedway sits idle.  At some point, they are going to look to see if they are making the most of that property.

In the next 30 years, I think the speedway will have a very different look to it.  It could go one of two ways.  They tear it all up and make a premier horse arena and barns; or they turn the race track into a world-class racing facility.  Maybe it only has one track, perhaps a half-mile.  But with a modern, all paved pit area.  And a much improved grandstand area with improved areas for concessions and restrooms.  But there is no way it stays the same for the next 30 years. 

There are race tracks across the country that are doing it right.  But they are doing it with help.  The days of plowing a racetrack into a field and putting up some wooden grandstands are long gone.  The local government has to help, be it the city, county or state.  Look how much help professional sport teams are getting with their facilities.  We need to show the county that they will get a return on their investment.  To show them that they have a real asset on there hands.  If you invest in it, they will come…

Here is a picture of the Bull Ring in Las Vegas.  Check out the huge paved pit area.

Mike Walker and I were considering taking an off-season break from working on the cars this year.  The last 2 winters we have worked straight through and we really haven’t taken a break in a long time.  With the Boeing strike, I’m still paying the bills from last season and we thought a few weeks to recoup would do us good.   But we started looking at what could be done now without spending a lot of money and we just couldn’t help ourselves.  We have been wanting to strip the #38 car and clean up the chassis for the last year or more.  So that’s just what we did.  The chassis is already at Sandblaster’s Inc. in Marysville and then headed to Powder Fab in Arlington for some fresh powder coating.

We are also looking forward to the banquet on November 1^st at the Tulalip Casino.  We were wondering if the Super Stock champion will make it to the banquet or be in the Yakima County jail.  It should be a party with the figure-eight folks there this year

2008 Super Stocks by the Numbers

35....Different drivers

19....Races in 2008

19....Largest starting field (4-26-08)

15.58....Average starting field

8....Drivers with wins (Lang-8, Zaretzke-5, and 1 each for Knight, M.Holden, Harding, Mann, Fraser and Weber)

2....Rain-outs

1....Champion.  Good job Naima Lang!!!

Last Saturday’s 125 lap Super Stock race was rained out and is rescheduled for this Saturday, September 27^th. The race will now be 75 laps. Here are the current top 10 point standings for the track and the final national rankings.

Car #	Driver	Wins	Points Back	National Points	National Rank
00	Naima Lang	8	-	492	128
51	John Zaretzke	5	-6	465	159
34	James Mugge	0	-44	396	241
70	Jeff Knight	1	-71	359	294
11	Mike Holden	1	-84	327	345
06	Steve Ptacek	0	-107	312	370
48	Tom Hughs	0	-140	254	482
99	Scott LaCross	0	-168
16	Daniel Moore	0	-229
26	Michael Prudnick	0	-297

We have an extra pit cart for sale.  We should have it at the track this weekend.  Stop by the #48 pits to check it out or "Click Here" to email me.

Congratulations Naima Lang. Naima wins the 125 lap race Saturday on the 5/8^th track and also takes the NASCAR Washington State Championship.  But the “fat lady” hasn’t sung on the Evergreen Speedway Track Championship just yet. With one more 125 lap race left in the Super Stock season, John Zaretzke, trailing Naima by 6 points, still has a chance to steal the track championship