It's been 14 months since the announcement that a new race track was going to be built in Bakersfield to replace the former Mesa Marin Raceway. That 14 month period was spent dealing with the lengthy and complicated issues that comes with a major commercial development. But all of that is behind us now, the i's have been dotted, the t's have been crossed and the bases have been covered and now it's time for "Kern County's New Home To NASCAR," the new track's temporary name, to officially host the much anticipated ground breaking ceremony. That ceremony is set for Wednesday, February 7th, 10 am at the track's location, west of Bakersfield, on Enos Lane where Interstate 5 intersects with Highway 43. The ceremony is very much open to the public.
Kern County's New Home To NASCAR is a joint effort between two of Bakersfield's most prolific buisness families: The Collins family, the builders and operators of Mesa Marin Raceway, and the Destefani Family who are extremely well known for their participation in the Bakersfield and Kern County business climate.
The new track will sit on 85 acres of land and will feature a one half mile, high banked, oval very similiar to the original Mesa Marin Raceway. Integrated inside of the half mile track will be a smaller one quarter mile oval. The facillity will also be home to an adjacent one eighth mile drag strip. The new track will also house many special amenities including 20 corporate skyboxes above the grandstand and a state of the art electronic timing and scoring system. Adjacent to the track will be a children's playground as well as an industrial complex.
To fully appreciate the significance of the new track's groundbreaking ceremony one has to be aware of the chain of events, and the time line, that led to the ceremony to begin with. Marion Collins opened Mesa Marin Raceway, in East Bakersfield, in 1977 and for approximately 29 years the track was highly acclaimed as one of the premiere motorsports facilites in the nation that had a huge, positive, impact on the city of Bakersfield as well as Kern County. While in the process of building Mesa Marin, Collins practically needed a high powered telescope to even find his nearest neighbor. But a population boom in east Bakersfield brought a serious need for more residental housing units and, by the time the 2005 racing season began, new home construction was practically on the edge of Mesa Marin's parking lot. Making the situation even more intense was the fact that the land in east Bakersfield was more and more being rezoned from its original agricultural/commercial status to residential that was going to have a negative impact on Mesa Marin Raceway's Conditional Use Permit with Kern County.
The Collins family was now looking at a fight for survival that was going to be lengthy, expensive and with no guarantee of winning. In the summer of 2005, they made the painful decision to close Mesa Marin and sell the bulk of their property to a housing developer. The last ever race at Mesa Marin came in October of that year and, following its conclusion, thousands of racing fans stood on the famed track's frontstretch with tears streaming down their faces. It was the end of a major motorsports era that no one believed would ever happen.
In December of 2005 the sadness turned to jubilation. The afternoon of December 3,2005 was originally planned to be Mesa Marin Raceway's last ever awards banquet.It was, instead, the celebration of the announcement that the Collins and Detesfani families had joined forces to create an even bigger and better version of Mesa Marin.
The original plan was to have the new facility built and operational by the spring of this year. But the wheels of commercial development often turns slow in the state of California and the new race track developers soon found themselves dealing with the many obstacles of land development that were slow in resoloution while the pages of the calendars quickly turned. Some of these delays involved modifications on the new track's site plans. Still more delays came from enviromental concerns presented by the area Air Pollution Control District, area wildlife agencies as well as concerns from a local water agency. All of this came to a grand conclusion, on the evening of December 14th, when the Kern County Planning Commission unamimousily approved the new track's final site plan.That approval came with no opposition during the meeting simply because everyone wanted to see this happen.
Now it's finally time for the Collins and Destefani families to officially break ground and bring racing back to Bakersfield. To many this signifies the beginning of a brand new era. But the big difference, between this new track in Bakersfield and any other new track construction around the country, is the fact that Kern County's New Home To NASCAR will be building its foundation on the legacy, and successful programs, from Mesa Marin Raceway.
What a legacy it is. In 29 years of operation four million fans sat in Mesa Marin's grandstands. Local economic agencies speculated that the track brought in as much as $55 million in tourism dollars per year to Kern County although many disputed that figure as being somewhat conservative. Mesa Marin averaged approximately 25 NASCAR sanctioned race dates per season and eventually had to raise its grandstand seating to 12,000 to accomodate ticket demands. The track frequently featured non stock car events such as special motocross and monster truck weekends as well as concerts featuring some of the giants of the recording industry such as Garth Brooks and George Strait just to name two. Additionally, Mesa Marin events were televised nationally on six different networks and the track was used to film many television commericals featuring a wide variety of products.
Mesa Marin Raceway also played a huge role in what is now known as the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Marion Collins was part of a small group of businessmen who conceived the idea of a NASCAR sanctioned national touring series for racing trucks. It was Gary Collins, one of the most reknowned race car fabricators in the country, who builit the first prototype of a full sized racing truck. An exhibition of the truck, on a winter morning in 1994 at Mesa Marin, convinced NASCAR that it was indeed a good idea and the rest became racing history.
But Mesa Marin was a lot more than just a place for good racing. The track was a good neighbor to its community and participated, as well as created, programs that present its community in a very positive light. One of those programs was the ACE Awards a youth educational program that provided recognition for exceptional performance in adademic effort and positive lifestyle recognition. This program was later honored by the ESPN Network for being the best program in the nation that incorporated children and sports.
The track's annual October Classic was named as the premiere event of the year by "The National Speed Sport News". Mesa Marin's programs was often the recepient of numerous awards from NASCAR for their excellence in racing quality. The track also received the Beautiful Bakersfield Award which honored them for bringing national attention to that city.
As the Collins and Destefani families begin a new era towards a new racing legacy, they will be able to use the legacy of Mesa Marin, and its successful programs, as a foundation to create something even bigger and better. That new racing legacy will begin in the spring of 2008 when the first green flag officially drops on Kern County's New Home To NASCAR.
