The revving engines of North Star Speedway will fall silent after the 2007 racing season, but owners plan to open a new paved oval adjacent to Alaska Raceway Park, the Butte drag strip, the next spring.
Fifteen acres near the end of Trunk Road and the Parks Highway, which include North Star Speedway, are for sale, announced Lud Larson, majority owner of North Star Racing.
Encroaching development is incompatible with a noisy raceway, he said.
Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, just across the Parks Highway, opened in February. That should invite further development, and another developer purchased 160 acres surrounding the speedway last year.
"The handwriting is on the wall," Larson said.
Racers and their fans hope a new 1/3-mile paved track will be built on 20 acres next to Alaska Raceway Park, which, unlike North Star, is outside of the Valley core area. Fewer homes sit nearby.
"There's really no better place to build it," said Alaska Raceway Park owner Earl Lackey, who first leased the 187 acres on which the track sits in 1994 and made the purchase in 2001.
Lackey said his property abuts the Jim Creek area, long used by ATVs. And the drag strip, formerly known as Polar Raceway, has operated since 1964. Gov. Bill Egan attended the opening, Lackey said.
Lackey said Alaska Raceway used to have a paved oval track, but he turned the area into parking and pit crew space.
Paul Landis, a North Star driver, said the idea is to have a motor sports complex in one place. Oval-track races would take place on Saturday nights, as they do now at North Star. Drag races would be on Sundays.
He envisioned an area with grandstands, concessions, a scoreboard and control tower, pit areas and restrooms. He estimated the cost at $3 million or more.
Landis, Larson, Lackey and others have formed the nonprofit Southcentral Alaska Motor Sports Association to solicit donations, corporate sponsorship and to figure out any permitting issues with the Mat-Su Borough while planning the track.
A big draw at the new track, Landis said, could be the late-model class -- basically full-size, NASCAR-style racing.
"There are a lot of 1/3-mile tracks in the Lower 48 that are very popular," said Landis, of Anchorage. "It's a nice sized track for big cars."
At North Star, the late-model class has fewer drivers because the bigger cars take up a lot of room on the tight, 1 /4-mile oval.
The most popular class at North Star is the Legends cars, which are scaled-down versions of classic roadsters.
"This would be a substantially bigger track," Landis said.
Dana Pruhs, another driver at North Star who is part of the new nonprofit, said the track could be used for things other than racing.
"ATV education awareness, driving schools, a road course, public-safety people could train on it," he said. "And it would all be in one central location, with minimal impact to the community and environment."
Lackey cautioned that a lot of work had to be done -- and a lot of money needs to be raised -- before the track can be built.
Lackey said he's also dealt with noise complaints from the drag strip and was concerned how more racing might affect neighbors.
Lackey said he's cut back race time -- no loud engines after 10 p.m. and none before 11 a.m. -- to accommodate neighbors.
"We're doing what we can to please neighbors," he said. "But no matter what, some people will get riled up."
Noise issues have plagued North Star Speedway. Friends of Mat-Su, a nonprofit, was formed in response to North Star to advocate for zoning in the Valley.
Daily News sports reporter Ron Wilmot can be reached at 1-907-352-6712 or rwilmot@adn.com.
