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Speedworld in AZ Under Attack AGAIN!

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mltdwn12

mltdwn12

Nitro Member
The State of Arizona is once again threatening to shut Speedworld down by not renewing the lease at the end of this month! This isn't BS, the State is saying there's insurance issues and other things, one thing after another. We need to write the state by snail mail. E-mail doesn't get much attention, fire up Word and type out a short letter to
The Honorable Janice K. Brewer
Arizona Governor
Executive Tower
1700 West Washington Street
Phoenix, AZ 85007
 
But what is the reason for the States attitude? I'd have to assume there are some things that the Speed World management haven't taken care of that was mandated by the State/County, etc. Since there are several race tracks, of various types, within Arizona, there must be a logical reason for what they're doing. Hard to argue if you don't have all the info.
 
Good morning everyone, I hope this message finds everyone well and staying warm.

This email is to let everyone know exactly what is going on with Speedworld and the County/State situation. First I want to give you our schedule for the next few weeks.

This SaturDAY, January 19 - ADRA + Open Test & Tune, gates 9am
Saturday NIGHT, January 19 - Cruise-In Street Meet, gates 7pm
Next SaturDAY, January 26 - No races scheduled
Saturday NIGHT, January 26 - Street Meet, gates 9am
Friday Feb 1 - Open Test & Tune & move in for National Open Weekend - Gates 10, T&T Noon-7
Saturday Feb 2 - NHRA National Open Qualifying, big car Team Speedworld #1, Jr Team Speedworld #1 & Jr Divisional #1 - Gates 8am
Sunday Feb 3 - NHRA National Open Eliminations, Jr Team Speedworld #2 & Jr Divisional #2 - Gates 8am

There are additional races posted on our website through the end of the year: www.racespeedworld.com. That and our hotline 623-388-2424 are the ONLY places to get ACCURATE information. Do not believe anything else you hear or read except from those two places!

That said, there won't be races to the end of the year, as we have reached the end. Speedworld WILL be closing permanently, we just don't know exactly when. We are in negotiations with the state & county (as I write this) to try and formulate an exit strategy that works for everyone. This must be done before a hearing scheduled for Thursday, Jan 17. Don't ask me why, you don't want to know all the political bull**** that is going on. Suffice to say, it will be much better for us if we can negotiate everything before that hearing.

Like you, I'm pretty much devastated over this situation - and I've only been here 20 years! Speedworld is my life, my family, my home, and for most of you, I know you feel that way too. But after 3 years and about $300,000 in legal fees, the opposition has become so intense and has thrown up so many obstacles that we cannot continue to fight them, in spite of all the tremendous support from you, our racer family.

Let's look to the future. We have found an extremely suitable location for the dirt part of our operations that could possibly have a dragstrip sometime in the future. That would depend on the willingness of the property owner to sell the suitable land next to the dirt operation. Right now, we don't know if that's feasible. From a physical standpoint, it is doable. It will require two things we don't have right at this moment: time and money, but then you already knew that! We can pick up our dirt operations & equipment and move them, we can't do that with a dragstrip. But it IS doable, and I personally assure you, I'm going to do everything I can to see that the dream of a new dragstrip in the Phoenix area becomes reality. We'd probably be looking at nearly two years before racing could begin, but it could happen. We will keep everyone posted.

Now, back to the present. Please support every race that you possibly can, as this will help us considerably to make a new facility happen. AS SOON AS I KNOW A FINAL DATE I WILL TELL YOU! We're asking to run at least through the end of May, to complete our 'spring' schedule. This would include enough Team Speedworld races to qualify for the ET Finals, both Juniors and big cars. It would include the Heritage race, as well as the Lucas Oil Off Road race. But I stress that this is not yet cast in stone, we don't know how much they'll give us. We believe it's a very real possibility they'll allow us that much time, but remember who we're dealing with: self-serving politicians.

From all of us at Speedworld, thank you for your continued support over the past 52 years. We could not have gone on this long without this support, and we sincerely hope that someday soon we'll all be back racing at a new facility. In the meantime, we'll see you at the track!

--
Hal Sanguinetti
Dragstrip Manager, Publications Manager, Announcer
Speedworld Dragstrip, Surprise AZ
 
Wow this is very unfortunate. When I lived in AZ I went out there several times, just a great little track with a very cool, laid-back vibe. I hope they really can build a new track somewhere in the area.
 
Yeah, it may not have been a national event caliber track but you could always go there and have a good time and never get any attitude from the staff. At one point we were doing their Club Day and we'd have 15-20 cars in our group and they'd give us our own lane and let us run our own bracket race. I doubt Firebirds really going away, but it's about twice the distance from my house. I've been spoiled by a 30 minute tow :) I was debating on building a purpose built drag car instead of this street strip stuff, but I don't know now.
 
This is so sad. I announced at Speedworld/PRP for many years and through 3 owners. I made many lifelong friends and it is the place that inspired me to buy a dragster of my own.

Bob and Carolyn from the PRP days must be rolling in their graves. I know what he would have told the state... "you can have this place over my dead body". The next thing he would do is point those log arms outward and tell them to get the F*%& out! (BCHRA for those that remember) I guess this is just yet another sign of the times. God rest Bob and Carolyn's souls. :( :mad:
 
From an email I recieved from Amy Eberwein in Phoenix:

Hi everyone, I apologize for the lateness of this email, but I just got off the phone with Dan, and it looks very good that we have reached an equitable agreement with the state and county to be able to run Speedworld for the next 4 months. It's not cast in stone yet, but enough was hammered out today that Dan is very encouraged, and that's good enough for me. HOWEVER, there is no question that we will be closing sometime this summer, so if y'all need a Speedworld fix, now is the time to do it.

One thing that will almost certainly have to change is we will have to double up on weekends (with a lot more Sunday races) as part of the deal seems to be that we will get a Special Event Permit good for a certain number of weekends. This means a significant revamp of our event schedule, which will take at least a week, maybe more. I know many if not most of you have made your year's racing schedule out by now, but it will probably have to be adjusted. I'll still try very hard not to schedule on other events, especially Firebird Team Races - that's important to many of you. I will send out another email with the new schedule as soon as possible. For now, the schedule I sent out last week still applies, INCLUDING the National Open weekend!

Dan & I would also like to thank all of you who have called, texted and emailed both of us this past week, the additional encouragement and well-wishes have been a HUGE boost to our spirits (which were pretty damn low the past couple of days, especially for me!) THANK YOU SO MUCH, and see you at the track!

--
Hal Sanguinetti
Dragstrip Manager, Publications Manager, Announcer
Speedworld Dragstrip, Surprise AZ

My short-term memory is not as sharp as it used to be.
Also, my short-term memory's not as sharp as it used to be.
 
Yeah Mark... We got the call at noon yesterday that the National Open and D7 Races #1&2 Jr Divsionals were cancelled... We were lucky- some teams were already on the road from Sacto and as far north as Caada, and a lot of the teams had their rigs stored there all winter to be able to race and then tow out to te next event.

Track is having a rally to protest the closing, but I dont know if we're hearing the whole story... I'd like to know who has their sights on the property, and what politicians are in their pocket, and I'd REALLY like to know what the track did (or didn't do) to have its permits yanked and whats preventing them from even having a temp issued... And why Glendora hasn't gotten involved (not that they should, but a bit of help might have kept the doors open at least this weekend...

Oh well- we race Tucson on Saturday and Firebird on Sunday...:D
 
Was scheduled for 10AM today, but the weather was nuts here (snowed at SIR Tucson this morning). On top of that, there supposedly was a rift between the drag guys and the dirt guys (how freakin foolish :rolleyes:), and some asphalt guys were saying they weren't going to attend.

I'll post results of the gathering, which was moved from the State capitol grounds to another location a few days ago...
 
Registered member said:
Was scheduled for 10AM today, but the weather was nuts here (snowed at SIR Tucson this morning). On top of that, there supposedly was a rift between the drag guys and the dirt guys (how freakin foolish :rolleyes:), and some asphalt guys were saying they weren't going to attend.

I'll post results of the gathering, which was moved from the State capitol grounds to another location a few days ago...
Click to expand...

They have a dirt track at Speedworld too?
 
Registered member said:
Speedworld is not Firebird, hence the difference in the names of the two tracks.
Click to expand...

Speedworld is in trouble too, the state is trying to close it too, I don't no all the details about it, when i do I will let ya no,, I live 5 min from Speedworld I have lived here for 26 yrs and over that time it has had its share of issues !!! as for firebird what I hear is the Indians didnt renew the contract and wanna use the land to expand there casino !!! that leaves us Arizonins with out a track which freakin suxs !!!!!!!!!! I hope someone like Bruton Smith or even Forrest Lucas builds another kick ass place here so all of us nitro freaks can have a place too go, dont say speedworld its good for bracket or street racing but as for the pro's ,,well it would need a few million to update and make it so the pro's can run there, if I were ever to win power ball I would do just that, oh thats after buying it LMAO !!!! so for now I will have to make 2 yearly trips to Vegas !!! yipppie !!!!!!!!!! yaw take care see ya in Vegas !!!
 
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