NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Phil Nightingale with Mel Hambleton Ford addressed the Kansas State Fair Board at their organizational meeting on Thursday to ask them if he could be allowed to put together a proposal to run races at the half mile oval at the fairgrounds.
"I understand, the fair's got to make money," Nightingale said. "I think there's a way to make money with a racetrack. I think that there's been a lot of things that hasn't worked well for the fair. I think there's ways that we can go about it. I've got a lot of people that have talked to me about trying to promote the track, sponsor the track, sell different things. To run once or twice a year, I get it. That doesn't make it work. Having all that ground setting there empty all the time. I get that doesn't make it work, but can we come to some kind of a compromise to where you guys can have your events there too, while we still have racing?"
Nightingale has spoken to a sanctioning body about his interest in running at the Fairgrounds.
"I did talk to the head person of IMCA last night at the track, while I was up there at Boone, Iowa. I told him what I was looking at and stuff like that. He's excited. He wants me to meet back with him when I get back there this afternoon."
Tentatively, Nightingale would like to run one race a month April to October, starting with IMCA to get things going.
James Fisher with the Fairgrounds Foundation, who was also there to present on a separate topic, brought up the elephant in the room regarding using the racetrack more often.
"Expo I is our most rented facility on the grounds for horse shows 40 to 45 weekends a year," Fisher said. "Horse shows will not come in if they are doing races on the same weekend, because they can't. Neither will the other venues down there on that side of the track. That consideration is something the board will have to look at, as well."
The board also was sent a letter with some proposals from C. Ray Hall, who has promoted the Hutchinson Nationals and Fairgrounds events since 1975. Hall's proposals did not seem like something the board was as likely to consider, because of the agreement regarding race promotion Hall has after selling 81 Speedway in Park City in 2019.
Ultimately, the board is going to take the subject back up at its meeting on Thursday. They seem to be leaning in the direction of at least allowing Nightingale the time to put together a formal proposal, which he believes he can get done by the fair board's November meeting.
State Fair manager Bryan Schulz believes it would be a considerable cost to get the track in shape to race a monthly schedule.
"How much money are you willing to put into that track?" asked Kansas State Fair General Manager Bryan Schulz. "In talking to the gentleman at 81 Speedway, to redo his walls, to redo his lighting, was about $3.5 million. I'll just put this out on the table, $3.5 million could go a long ways on the grounds, not knowing what the future is of that track. We could go two years of going eight nights for the year. Then all of a sudden it could go where we're not making money, we know we're not making money and they're not going to make money. Then, you've invested $3.5 million and you've got an air handling unit on Meadowlark that needs to be changed out or you need electrical upgrades in the RV park or something like that. Those are considerations that we definitely have to look into. I am open to listening to all this, but remember, when this is happening, we need to make sure that there is some financial commitment, long term."
It would seem that Nightingale would have to come up with something remarkable to get the fair board and management to change their mind, but it looks, as of today, like he will get that chance.
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