THE FATE OF TRI-CITY RACEWAY

Source: RacingWest.com / Janet Peery
Date: 08/24/2007

Tri-City Raceway is the crown jewel of racetracks in the Great Northwest. From the track website, “Tri-City Raceway is located just outside of West Richland, Washington ... In the past few years, Tri-City Raceway has experienced an abundance of improvements and enhancements that have made it one of the top motorsports venues…While bringing back the Spacious RV Park and drastically renovating the half mile itself…With a new season approaching, the Tri-City Raceway is looking better than ever as a leader in short track racing entertainment and as a facility that lends itself to many other forms of entertainment.”

Time has been the eraser of that dream. Now a beautiful track sits in darkness. The passion that the fans once had for the track turns to anger spearheaded straight to the track owner, Paul Alderman. The anger may in fact be misguided. Ask yourself why a man would spend money, and not small change by any means…we are talking six figures here, on track upgrades just to let it sit idly for years. .It sounds like the intent was to run the track himself or flip and sell to another promoter.

When asked about letting the track go dark Alderman stated he would like nothing better than to see this track and this land go under the control of someone passionate about racing, someone that would fulfill all he hoped.

Alderman said, “For 2 years I kept a full-time maintenance man working 40 hours a week. We kept everything maintained, so that at anytime within a week or so we could have a race. Paying the taxes and keeping the guy there would indicate I would like to see it be a race track. I have tried unsuccessfully to get a buyer in good faith and failed. I tried to lease it to a qualified promoter, also with no success. Those are the facts, period.

“It is very difficult to promote a track from 100 miles away,” Alderman continued. “I love the property and love the facility and think it could be a premier facility. I did a lot of work on the infrastructure, I made sure I did it methodically and did it right. All the underground utilities are in place. I left no rock unturned. It is all there and all done right.

“I had the idea it had potential as an event facility. It is a first class race track sitting on 92 acres of land. No one knows that land better than me, my family and the maintenance man. We know every inch of those 92 acres.”

“My reason for wanting to sell is I don't have a desire to take it up to that next level as a promoter, but I could do so as a facilitator (to a qualified promoter).”

But here is what has and is changing, there is a new winery across from the track, there are two roads converging on Tri-City Raceway destined to be the gateway to West Richland, and there are multiple plans of new development springing up all around—it is an attractive location, one that may have more value to a developer than a potential racetrack promoter.

It is the same story we have heard before. As other tracks let the bulldozer have their way with them. We have watched as track after track is lost to mismanagement or swallowed by new development. Some of the most recent big name promoters that no longer have tracks they had for years, the Collins of Mesa Marin and Ken Clapp of Stockton 99. At one time Clapp even had 6 or 7 tracks--all gone.

Tri-City Raceway is not yet gone. There are rumors, distorted truths and some facts over what has gone on with the attempted sale or leasing of the track. And there is no shortage of talk about “I heard” and “He said, she said,” and everyone that has heard a rumor, a half truth or a fact has an opinion that is fought for like a pitbull, but it all comes down one thing.

In the end that one important thing won't be talk that changes the course of that .5-mile track, it will be the mighty buck, the greenback that will be the fate of 92 acres that once held a track known as the Northwest's crown jewel.

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