Autos: Plan for $200-Million Track, Research Complex

Christopher Pook, who founded the highly successful Long Beach Grand Prix, has proposed, with Long Beach City Council members reacting enthusiastically, a $200-million auto racetrack and research complex that would be built on 200 acres of unsightly land straddling the cities of Signal Hill and Long Beach.

(Pook) should forget Signal Hill as a partner in his latest endeavor, due to the escalating friction as the cities compete with each other to attract retail and industrial businesses.

If Mr. Pook and his dream team wish to make his vision a reality, they should devote their expertise to creating an alternate plan and location to construct the racetrack and research project in Long Beach at the downtown shoreline and beach area that could provide unlimited parking and seating for racing fans.

Pook should, to control costs, eliminate any additional hotels in his master plan, as the downtown area is already saturated with vacant hotels, motels and apartments. He will eventually need their support both politically and financially, to get his grandiose plan off the ground.

Pook’s proposed racing events should continue to utilize the proven, existing Grand Prix format, with a few route variations that could include racing around the existing port facilities and a newly constructed beach circular speedway to Belmont Pier.

If feasible, Pook should consider adding an Indy-style 500-mile race as a grand year-end finale to the racing festivities.

Expected justifiable protests from residents due to noise and traffic could be offset by the addition of a $1.2-billion-a-year cash bonanza to the local economy and the employment of 13,000 racetrack employees, plus additional thousands due to the anticipated $557-million Queensway Bay tourist attraction redevelopment project.

This should revitalize the downtown business economy, including the revenue from the rental by new employees of apartments and motels in the depressed Ocean Boulevard area.

If this racing complex becomes a reality, the expected thousands of free-spending, avid racing spectators will have created a monstrous, expensive debris cleanup problem. This could be easily solved by dumping the debris in the ocean. Under its present condition, nobody will notice the difference.

THOMAS MURPHY

Long Beach