With all the buzz about a NASCAR-style track that could be built in Kitsap (competing with half-dozen other Northwest sites), a group that has been supporting local motorsports — and is now promoting an idea for a new track — is being given the cold shoulder by property owners. The group, Bremerton Motorsports Park, operates a track owned by the Port of Bremerton at the Bremerton National Airport.

For more than 50 years, various user groups have been using the spare strip for drag racing and other events. Than suddenly, a few years ago, airport officials said the groups would need to find a new home, according to Ken Mahan, Bremerton Motorsports Park chairman. The reason was because the Federal Aviation Administration was pressuring the Port to give up the motorsports-related activities and focus on aviation. In addition, leasing the strip to 30-some users had become time-consuming, said Mahan.

But members of several user groups sought a solution, and Bremerton Motorsports Park was created as a nonprofit agency to lease the strip from the port, operate it, and manage reservations. In the meantime, with its Development Master Plan recently approved by the Kitsap County Planning Commission, airport plans call for expansion and elimination of the strip’s racing activities in the near future, and the group started looking at constructing a new site.

“The goal was to secure property off the airport site to construct a new facility for identical activities,” Mahan said. Switching the current site management from a municipality to a nonprofit corporation required working out some bugs when the group was created, he said, but after that the group started looking ahead at options.

It all went well, Mahan said, until Florida-based International Speedway Corporation (ISC) announced plans to build a NASCAR-style track in the Northwest, and Kitsap was named as one of the possibilities. Although there is no guarantee that NASCAR would sanction the track for its races, the media buzz that ensued prompted local landowners to wait out any land sale discussions until the final site is announced — which is expected before the end of this year.

Mahan said the group is waiting “for the smoke to clear” but it plans to start a public campaign early next year. Several possibilities are being considered. Should an oval NASCAR-style track be built, Mahan said the BMP association hopes to start discussions with International Speedway about building its drag strip nearby, because the facilities will complement each other rather than compete for events. Should that oval track not materialize, the group will still look to purchase land in the airport area, because the zoning is favorable and there are thousands of acres of undeveloped land.

“We will take our plans to local officials and show them what we can do one way or the other,” he said. “We still need a drag strip.”

The group’s plan is long-term; it hopes to construct a facility in five to 10 years. Investors who have been involved in similar projects will be sought, and other options will be considered such as private/public funding similar to the model used for the building of the second Tacoma Narrows Bridge.

The Kitsap location already has been popular not only for local but also regional events. A couple of national companies have even been attracted to it. One filmed a car commercial here, another booked the field for crash testing.

“They were very pleased with the area, the scenery and the weather,” Mahan recalled the reaction of one company, saying they already inquired about future bookings.
The Northwest Automotive Press Association (NWAPA) a trade group of automotive journalists from all over the nation who are published in the Pacific Northwest, also held the track testing portion of its nationally recognized sport utility vehicle competition, Mudfest, there three times. The off-road portion of the event took place at the Thurston County Off-Road Vehicle Park (ORV). The event was moved to Portland last year when the ORV park was closed by environmental bureaucrats. The event brought manufacturers representatives and their latest vehicles from all over the globe to the Kitsap County. The group would like to return here if a suitable off-road venue can be found.

A new track certainly is an economic proposition, one that Mahan and his group say could help boost tourism. What’s more important, he says, is that it is being proposed by a local, grass-roots group that is part of the community.
  Port of Bremerton officials could not be reach for comment by press time.