Ground Breaking, at new Pacific NW Motorsports Park Options

[daveyboybadion]

Howdy Y'all I was just back in the Tri-Cities for a memorial service and found this newspaper article. This track is looking like a reality.

Mid-Columbia news


Raceway project revs up in Boardman




Published Friday, October 26th, 2007

JEANNINE KORANDA, HERALD OREGON BUREAU

BOARDMAN -- About eight years ago, California developer Stelian Onufrei first came to Boardman after attempts to build a NASCAR-style race track in Western Oregon failed.

He was looking for about 1,000 acres of flat land near an interstate with few neighbors in an area with little rain.

"We have that here," Port of Morrow board chairman Marv Padberg said Thursday to a crowd of about 300 as he gestured to the future site of the Pacific Northwest Motorsports Park.

It took a while but the first shovels of dirt were turned Thursday on what developers hope will be the first phase of a 4,000-acre racing and tourist destination.

The motorsports park -- which is kind of like a country club for motor enthusiasts -- will have 6 miles of road course with three connecting race tracks and a separate one-mile Kart track on 700 acres.

The park is intended to appeal not just to people with Ferraris, but to all kinds of car enthusiasts, said Bill Gardner, managing partner of the park.

"We need a place for them to go with their toys and not get a speeding ticket," he said.

The club, which will be surrounded by 150 quarter-acre sites for garages, fits the need, he said. There are currently about six similar motorsports parks in the nation and another 12 to 15 in the planning stages.

The Autobahn Country Club in Joliet, Ill., quickly filled its 400 member slots and its two tracks are booked with events for the next two years, Gardner said. He's hoping for a similar success at the $100 million project west of Boardman.

Already, about 40 people have shown interest in buying lots, said Bruce Roth, senior vice president for Real Estate development for the park.

Lots facing the tracks are priced at $150,000, and the outside lots are $120,000.

Developers eventually hope the development will include a 80,000-seat raceway, hotel and 5,000-space RV park that could draw fans from as far away as the Tri-Cities, Boise, Portland, Seattle and Spokane.

Plans also call for a golf course, marina and amusement park north of Interstate 84.

So far NASCAR has shown little interest in scheduling races in Eastern Oregon, but Gardner continues to hold out hope that the popular racing organization will change its mind.

Thursday, officials at the ground breaking focused on the positive.

The track and its new jobs will help bring diversity to Morrow County's predominately agriculture-based economy, said Port of Morrow General Manager Gary Neal.

Boardman Mayor Ed Glenn said he became a proponent of the course after talking to Onufrei early on. When people asked if he thought the race complex would ever be a reality, "I gave them an unqualified 'yes' simply because it was such a good idea it couldn't not happen."

The motorsports club could be completed by fall 2008 but it might be 2010 before there are professional races at the site, Gardner said.

Onufrei, who was at the ceremony with his family, had one last word for all the people that doubted his vision, "I told you so."


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For those of you who aren't familiar with the area Boardman is just west of Hermiston, OR. Google them for more info...daveyboy