MOTOR RACING : New Track Is Right on Button

The good news is that the California Sports Car Club is building a new race track here. The bad news is that it will not be for spectators, but for racing and testing only.

After more than 10 years of searching for a site, Cal Club officials found a parcel of marginal farmland 35 miles west of Bakersfield and about two hours drive from Los Angeles that fits their needs. The 334-acre Kern County site has been bought and paid for, a conditional use permit has been issued and engineers are now drawing up plans for a 2.5-mile, 11-turn road course.

“Ever since it became apparent that Riverside (International Raceway) was doomed, members of the Cal Club have been looking all over Southern California for a place where we could build our own track,” said Bill Schubert, a former Cal Club driver of the year and president of Cal Club Properties, a subsidiary that will build and operate the planned facility.

“We looked at all the places everyone has looked at--Hemet, Simi Valley, Tehachapi, Riverside County, Adelanto, Mojave, all over the desert--and we either couldn’t get a price we could handle or there were too many environmental obstacles. We were negotiating for the old Buttonwillow airport site, but the price was too stiff, when Les Phillips found the site we finally settled on.”

Riverside Raceway was closed in 1988 when the growth of the community of Moreno Valley made the land more valuable as a mall and residential site.

Phillips, a former Formula Ford club racer and a resident of Taft, worked out a deal to get the 334 acres, located a few miles west of Interstate 5, just north of this farming community, for about $90,000.

“I don’t think there is anywhere in the state where land with roadway frontage could be purchased for this price,” Phillips said. “The toughest part was getting the conditional use permit from the county. We worked from Jan. 1 to Sept. 1 before we cleared all the red-tape hurdles. One reason it took so long, however, is because we are a volunteer organization and each objective had to be ironed out in someone’s spare time.”

Nick Craw, president of the Sports Car Club of America, lauded the Cal Club on its approach to the problem of dwindling race tracks.

“The construction of new club tracks is a cornerstone to our objective of creating more quality track time for our members,” Craw said from SCCA headquarters in Englewood, Colo. “I’m delighted that the Cal Club looks to be the first to cross the finish line, and I’m hoping there will be many more.”

The Cal Club, one of the SCCA’s 110 regional chapters, has a membership of about 3,700. Nationally, the SCCA has 54,000 members.

“The reason we need our own facility is because if we lost Willow Springs Raceway, the Cal Club would be out of business after 30 years,” Schubert said. “Not too many years ago, we had all sorts of places to race--Riverside, Ontario, the Pomona Fairgrounds, Santa Barbara airport, Paramount Ranch, Palm Springs airport, Orange County Raceway, even the parking lot at Dodger Stadium--but now there is nothing left for us but Willow Springs.

“Bill Huth (Willow Springs track owner) has been extremely accommodating with us, but we have too many events, and he has too many other requests for track use for us to depend solely on one track.”

The Cal Club conducted 10 regional races, five SCCA national events and four drivers’ schools at Willow Springs during the year. It also conducts time trials and rallies at other sites.

Cost of the track has been estimated at $2.5 million, of which $500,000 has been raised. The remainder is expected to come from sale of memberships to a Buttonwillow Road Racing Club for fees ranging from $2,500 to $25,000, depending on amenities, a $50 surcharge on each race or driver’s school entry, and donations.

“The one thing we have that other proposed tracks didn’t have is strong support of the local populace, from the county supervisor to our neighbors in Buttonwillow,” said Steve Madsen of Thousand Oaks, Cal Club Properties vice president. “There is a definite feeling that we are wanted.”

Plans call for the track to be paved and the facility open in time for the Buttonwillow Cotton Festival next September.