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35 °F Forecast | Road Cams Wednesday, April 13, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 9, 2005 Southern Oregon Speedway promoter John Skinner is preparing for the start of his 10th year at the Jackson County Sports Park off Highway 140. The races scheduled for today were postponed because of weather so the season will begin next Saturday. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli From humble beginnings Southern Oregon Speedway, embarking on its 10th year, has been on a fast track to success By DON HUNT Mail Tribune WHITE CITY — Seven years of stock car racing withdrawal can be awfully hard on a gearhead. Maybe that explains why 4,000 boisterous race fans packed into the Southern Oregon Speedway on June 8, 1996. Never mind that the $1.4 million facility wasn’t even close to being finished. Portable potties instead of flush toilets. Ma-and-pa hot dog stands instead of concession stands. Flimsy wooden hand railings instead of metal ones. Advertisement With no fencing except to contain the race track, officials had to set up the admission booth on the entry road. But with the roar of engines, the smell of exhaust fumes, bumper-to-bumper action and the waving of checkered flags, who cared about a few inconveniences? Not even an occasional dirt clod plopping into people’s laps — or worse, their beers — could dim their delight. "I’m convinced fans would have come out and sat in the mud," speedway general manager Jim Rogers says. "It was wild and crazy that first night. I get a stomach ache just thinking about it." Other than a World of Outlaws race in August 1999, the track has never been able to duplicate what amounted to its wedding night. The honeymoon is long gone. But the love affair between racing and its loyal group of followers has remained. Today was supposed to mark the beginning of the 10th year of the one-third mile track that Medford car dealer John Skinner built in the Jackson County Sports Park off Highway 140 a few miles east of White City. Unlike the grand opening, when Mother Nature produced sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s, today’s season opener fell victim to the elements. Weather permitting, the 2005 season will now debut next Saturday. To get an idea of how successful the track is, consider that more than 100 drivers show up on a typical night of racing. Each driver brings in a pit crew to work on his or her car, and most of them have family and friends in the stands. Since its inception, the track has averaged well over 1,000 fans per event, with much larger crowds filing in to watch marquee events such as the Northern Sprint Tour, which features 700-plus horsepower cars capable of reaching 100 mph on the straightaways. The 53-year-old Skinner, who suffered a heart attack last September but continues to promote the track and has even gotten behind the wheel of a modified race car recently, says running the track was a little more than he bargained for in the beginning. "It was a lot more work than I ever thought it would be," says Skinner, whose track was the first to operate locally since the Medford Raceway shut down in 1989. "The logistics, the planning — there’s a thousand things that go into putting on a race. "Do we have enough paper towels in the rest rooms? Do we have enough trophies to hand out to the drivers? Are there enough batteries for the (walkie-talkies) we use to communicate to our track officials and the flagman? "Are the safety units and the security people up to speed? Is the payoff money bundled up properly? "Fortunately, I’ve had some really good help out there." Medford’s Tom Glover won the modified feature event on opening night. In fact, he would claim the first four main events of the inaugural season and overwhelmingly roll to the 1996 points title. But if there’s one event the overflow crowd remembers from that opening show, it was Kevin Hewitt stopping his car along the front straightaway, climbing out and throwing a dirt clod at another driver. Hewitt then made an obscene gesture in front of the grandstands as he left the oval under orders from track officials. Hewitt was hopping mad after getting hit from behind by Ross Payant during a restart. Hewitt apologized the following week and said his gesture was aimed at flagman Freddie Higginbotham for failing to discipline Payant. But while that episode stupefied the crowd, in no way did it compare to a frightening wreck on July 19, 1999. As Jay Smith of Stanwood, Wash., drove his sprint car up the front straightaway, he tangled with another driver and suddenly began tumbling end over end off of Turn 1. Smith’s car rolled more than 100 feet off the track, catapulted over a concrete barrier and through a fence designed to catch tires and debris. The 1,300-pound race car landed on top of 8-year-old Tiffani Nutter in a spectator area known as the grassy knoll. Whether it was luck or divine intervention or a combination of the two, all the young girl suffered was singed hair. "If that car would have come down any other way, it would have killed her," Tiffani’s mother, Rebecca, said in a Mail Tribune story following the mishap. Before the start of the next race, Skinner had workers install thick steel cables to reinforce the regular fencing and help avoid a tragedy. "To me, that was the most memorable experience we’ve had out there," says Rogers. "You never want to see a driver get seriously hurt or killed at the track, let alone a spectator. That was way too close for comfort. "The funny thing is, our insurance inspector had been by our track two weeks before and said we had one of the safest tracks he’d ever seen." To many fans, the track’s greatest night in terms of minute-to-minute thrills, spills and fascination came on Aug. 25, 1999 when the World of Outlaws sprint car circuit came to White City. This was the Super Bowl of sprint car racing. The big boys were in town from all over the country, and a record crowd of more than 5,000 elbowed their way into the grandstands. Steve Kinser, the man known as the "King of the Outlaws," started on the pole and led wire-to-wire to win the 434th race of his career. "We spent a lot of time getting the track ready for that race," Skinner says. "It was nice and sticky. Kinser took one look at it and said, ‘Anyone can win on this track.’ "He liked it drier and slicker and more challenging, but as he proved that night, he wins under any conditions." Skinner has brought in other events that have proved popular, including the Gene Romaro Flat Track Motorcyle Series in 2002 and a motocross extravaganza last year that featured world-class rider Jeremy McGrath. But if all Skinner brought to the track was a bunch of old, beat-up Buicks and put them in a demolition derby, a certain number of fans would surely show up. Gearheads, after all, are Gearheads. Reach reporter Don Hunt at 776-4469, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Fasa Advertisement s