Madera Speedway loses lease on life

Fair Board votes to cancel promoter's contract — 3 1/2 years before it was to end.

By Gary Estwick / The Fresno Bee
MADERA — Madera Speedway, like many short tracks around the state, appears to be running out of gas.
The Madera County Fair Board directors voted Wednesday night to terminate the lease of promoter Elizabeth Ann Williams — the first move in what could transform one of Central California's last short tracks into a strip mall.
Williams' business relationship with the speedway will terminate at the end of this season, the Halloween 100 Invitational on Oct. 28. Williams said the track might add an event in November.
Williams said she planned to sue the board.
"This will be the end of that facility," she said.
Madera County Fair Board members left the meeting at Hatfield Hall on the fairground without commenting.
Williams took over as promoter of the track in January 2005, signing a five-year lease with a five-year option. She said her total investment was $400,000.
The board's decision affects more than 1,000 drivers. About 150 race exclusively at the speedway, Williams said.
A driver's minimum investment for a season of short-track racing is about $10,000, Williams said.
The board listened to testimony from several people in the crowd of about 50 drivers and racing fans before deliberating in a closed session for one hour, 14 minutes.
Back in public session, eight board members voted to terminate Williams' contract more than three years before it expired. One board member abstained from the vote.
Reaction to the board's decision was swift and emotional.
"You just destroyed Madera!" longtime resident Ruth Bealessio yelled.
Following the vote, board members bolted to the parking lot. Three declined comment.
Larry McDonald, 42, of Clovis races in the Late Model division. He and his son, Layton, were at the meeting. Most in the crowd wore sunglasses propped above their heads with racing caps, worn, blue jeans and T-shirts. Their skin was tanned. Many of their hands were oily as they rushed to leave day jobs to attend the meeting.
They may have been too late.
"It shouldn't have happened," said 12-year-old Layton, who planned to race at the speedway when he turns 14.
Williams said the first time she heard any discussion about development came last summer, about six months after she signed the lease.
"I was doing something with the board and they were talking about annexing a portion of the property with the city," Williams said as she recalled the conversation.
"And I said, 'What's this about?' And they said, 'We have plans for development.'
"'When did this come about?'" Williams asked.
" 'Oh, we've been working on this for some time.'"
Later, Williams said she received assurances that there would be no development.
Then, on Monday afternoon, she received a copy of the board's meeting agenda, detailing its plans for the track. Williams said it's not normal for her to receive an agenda from the board. She also generally doesn't attend board meetings.
Kings Speedway in Hanford shut down last year, but since has reopened with a limited schedule. Other tracks to close recently include Mesa Marin Raceway in Bakersfield, Cajon Speedway in El Cajon and Stockton 99 Speedway.
Madera Speedway first opened in April 1972, said former longtime track announcer Ken Takeuchi. The track has hosted racers from Jeff Gordon, who raced the one-third mile asphalt track as a pre-teen, to 2005 Nextel Cup champion Tony Stewart, who raced at the track in 2003.
"For every [large] race track that opens up, you don't have a new [small] one open up," Takeuchi said. "That's a problem."
The reporter can be reached at gestwick@fresnobee.com or(559) 441-6379.

    Fair board members are appointed by the state governer.  They usually have a four year term. Just look back at who that governer was and you understand the problems state and county fairs now face.

its a bunch of crap...look at bakersfield speedway...you've got people that are buying land to build a house next to the track...then complaining....YOU MOVED NEXT TO A RACE TRACK!!!! it is upsetting....does anyone know how those db tests were going that they were doing on bakersfield speedway?

That's sad news.
As stated before, it continues a string of recent pavement track closings. Mesa, El Cajon, Stockton and now Madera. All these track were major contributors to the NASCAR flagship in the west. Harvick and Kurt Busch, to name two, honed their skills on these very tracks.

NASCAR had a great thing in the regional touring divisions, but threw it away only to help contribute to the growing monster of cookie-cutter racing we all love to HATE.

its all a money thing when it comes right down to it

dannyracer6 wrote on 09/21/06 at 9:07pm:


So which is it? The "hungry developers" who give to the RIGHT or the "liberal politicians" who pander to the tree huggers on the LEFT? When it comes to our precious race tracks we as common everyday folk who enjoy racing are being bent over by both groups END OF STORY.

I am non partisan. I realize that both parties are out to screw the little guy. In this instance of Madera, its a clear case of the campaign donating developers winning out.

Do you think it was treehugging liberals who shut down Mesa Marin? Nope, again developers and their "pseudo conservative" mindset. Add in a willingness to sellout and Voila!

Bakersfield Speedway, again developers threaten the racing. Santa Maria, again developers. These are not "spotted owl saving hippies" they are money grubbing a-holes.

When it comes to losing racetracks we as fans and enthusiasts should put aside pre-concieved political notions and see these a-holes for what they are on both sides of the coin, GREEDY self serving jerks. Both sides are as culpible and should be railed against.

Division based on partisan politics is what is allowing this to happen unprotested. SPEAK UP AND LET YOUR VOICES BE HEARD....DO NOT REST... CONTINUE TO ANNOY THE HELL OUT OF ALL OF THESE JERKS.

I am now stepping off of my soapbox.

I WANT TO BUILD A DIRT FACILITY OUT BY FAMOSO.


ANYONE WANT TO HELP?





peace.................................mike

very true dirt hurt.....and that would be awesome to see tulare get a new track!!

Latest story

Madera Speedway may break for 1 year
Official says track could take a recess to allow for growth.

By Gary Estwick / The Fresno Bee

(Updated Friday, September 22, 2006, 4:45 AM)

Madera District Fair CEO Scott Sample said Thursday the Madera Speedway may take a one-year hiatus because of commercial development on fairgrounds property, but the track should be back in operation for the 2008 season.

Sample's remarks came one day after the Madera County Fair Board voted to terminate the contract of speedway promoter Elizabeth Ann Williams at the end of this season. Williams signed a five-year lease with a five-year option in January 2005 to operate the one-third mile asphalt race-car track, which is on fairgrounds property.

Sample said the track must be temporarily shut down to accommodate construction, which will take place on the site of the track's parking lot. When it's completed, a new parking lot will be built.

Sample expects to lease the 28 acres for $927,000 a year for five years. After that, the amount of the lease will increase 10% every five years. The property brought in between $100,000-150,000 last year, and should be near this pace by the end of the year, he added.

Wednesday's decision angered a crowd of approximately 50 race enthusiasts, many of whom questioned how selling 28 of the fairground's 110 acres to commercial businesses would mesh next to a noisy speedway and the stench of livestock during the annual county fair.

"We need the money," Sample said. "I've been trying to tell the racing community, you guys might lose a year, but in the long run, you'll be much better off because the fair will have the resources to make the improvements to the speedway that have been needed for a long time."

Williams called Sample's plans a "smokescreen," adding that "this was the first step to them getting the entire property developed. No promoter is going to come back here after they see what they've done to me."

If the board wanted to re-open the speedway after one season, Williams asked, why didn't they tell her their plans in advance?

"They didn't have one person in that room [Wednesday evening] support them and they still did it," she said. "Is that supporting the community?"

Canceling the 2007 season would affect more than 1,000 racers, including about 150 who race exclusively at the track.

Few of the financial facts were discussed at Wednesday's meeting.

"I don't think [the public] was going to be rational or accept anything we had to say, so we tried to say the least as possible," Sample said. "I don't think they cared to hear what we had to say."

Williams said Wednesday she had no prior notification of the board's development plans.

Sample countered by saying while he hadn't spoken specifically to Williams about the development, "Should she be totally surprised? I wouldn't think so."

Williams disagreed.

"How would you be if you signed a five-year deal with a five-year option and at the end of the [second] year they tell you you're done," she said. "They never intended for me to finish the contract, and that's fraud."

Sample said the fair district has yet to sign an agreement with a developer.

Sample said the improvements may be completed in time to save the 2007 season, but the board didn't want to be bound by Williams' lease, which could delay the project.

On Wednesday she said she plans to sue the board. Sample also said there were no plans to offer Williams a financial settlement.

This recent news just blows. We have taken a beating these last two years.  The dopes that run fair boards are such dipwads of epic porportions. I am so weary of going to a tracks last race. I have been to at least 14 tracks and there last race.

O man....this is too bad. I have fond memories of Madera. My uncle raced there for a few years back in the early 80's. It was one of the cleanest, best kept tracks in the valley.

How ironic that they'll build a Lowes on the property, one of the leading coporate supporters of racing.