ISC: Pacific Northwest oval plan
Seattle's skyline could soon be a part of the NASCAR tour.
Anew $200 million oval will spring up in the Pacific Northwest of America, the International Speedway Corporation has announced.
ISC, which owns Daytona International Speedway and 11 other tracks that host NASCAR events, is scouting 200 to 400-hectare sites in Washington and Oregon to stage Nextel Cup, Busch and Craftsman Truck series races.
A track in the Pacific Northwest would generate an estimated $227 million through construction contracts and $221 million in operations in the first year alone, said John Graham, vice-president of Daytona Beach-based ISC. Such racetracks also lead to construction of hotels, restaurants and other businesses, he said.
Construction of a track and other amenities would take about two years, Graham said. He also estimated that it would create 2,200 jobs in the construction industry.
ISC has been eyeing the Pacific Northwest for several years. The nearest NASCAR events are held at Infineon Raceway in northern California, and ISC's nearest track is California Speedway near Los Angeles.
Kansas model
Graham said ISC would model a facility in the Northwest after Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan., a 1 1/2-mile oval that opened in 2000.
In Washington state, three counties have expressed an interest. Snohomish County made a public proposal to ISC in April, pitching a site near Marysville and close to Interstate 5.
Kitsap County sent a proposal to ISC last September, for a site on the Mason-Kitsap county line, south of Bremerton National Airport amid 2,500 treed acres designated for industrial development and near a community drag-racing strip.
In Thurston County, the two most viable sites are in Yelm, where the city has 1,400 empty acres of farmland and other property it annexed in 1993, and in Lacey at a 300-acre site in the Hawks Prairie area west of I-5.
Meanwhile, Oregon's Columbia County has put forward Scappoose, while other possible Oregon sites include a former aluminum plant in the Portland suburb of Troutdale.
A decision on where to build is expected to be made by ISC by the end of the year.
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