Public Hearing on April 6 for New Race Track in Shelton, WA

As many of you know, one of our F-Car brothers has been hard at work over the last two years to create a new motorsports facility in Shelton, WA. The time has come to support Rod and his Ridge Motorsports Park as the project faces its last and final hurdle: the special use permit hearing.

The hearing will be at 10AM on April 6th in the Mason County Commissioner's chambers at 411 North Fifth Street, Shelton WA 98584. The hearing will be in front of an independent Special Use Hearings Examiner, who will set the conditions under which the track can operate.

We need to have as many people as possible to show support for the benefits of responsible usage of a new road course and drag strip facility. So come in force and let all the clubs and other user groups know. The Special Use Hearings Examiner has ten days after the hearing to submit a ruling, and if it is favorable, dirt starts moving the next day!

For more information on The Ridge Motorsports Park, please feel free to visit www.raceinmason.com .

Here's a simulation of a lap of the road course:
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/ridge-motorsports-park-simulation-v3_2188423.htm

 

Shelton actually has one of the longest race histories of any town in the Pacific NW. Sanderson Field (previously known as Shelton Airport) hosted plenty of famous races in the 1950s. The Seafair Cup was run there. There are some great photos of F-Cars flying around that course. The airport was also used for drag racing, and some very famous names (like Big Daddy Don Garlits) went through there.

Considering it is literally impossible to create a race course in King, Pierce, Snohomish, Lewis, and Thurston Counties, that makes Mason County almost unique. The county is very car-crazy. There are more car clubs in Mason than in many other larger NW counties. Shelton closes its streets multiple times a year for car shows. They have a huge drag racing population.

Ridge Motorsports Park will be located just a couple miles from the current WSP performance driving course, as well as just five miles from the airport, which means people will be able to store race cars at the track and simply fly in.

More importantly, unlike King County, where local businesses want little to do with Pacific Raceways, Mason County and the Shelton businesses have been bending over backwards to help The Ridge.

It also helps that the natural terrain is so perfect for a race park! Natural elevation changes, quick-draining soil (really -- the drainage will need to be slowed in spots for septic!), tree buffers to absorb noise, off a major highway (and just twenty minutes from I5 with no heavy traffic areas.)

 

State Patrol Training center is in Shelton, that's why -- actually just right down the street from the proposed race track site.