Peninsula Lands $250M Nascar Track

BREMERTON, WA-Through its Great Western Sports subsidiary, International Speedway Corp. of Daytona Beach, FL has optioned a 950-acre site here for a Nascar racetrack. The publicly traded company says the land is the potential future home of a $250-million racing venue that would seat 80,0000 people.The potential development site is located south of Bremerton National airport. The landowner is Belfair-based Overton & Associates. Principal David Overton was not available Friday morning for comment because he is out of the country. His father, Peter Overton, also was unavailable.The preliminary plan is to have the site hosting events by 2010. ISC says it is conducting due diligence to further analyze construction costs, determine the level of public incentives and review environmental impacts including traffic, noise and air quality.The plan calls for a variable degree banked speedway that would host a minimum of two major (national) and one regional weekend of auto racing a year. It is anticipated that at least one of those national events would be a Nascar Nextel Cup Series event. Both ISC and Nascar are controlled by the France family.During the rest of the year, ISC says the speedway could become an community center for Kitsap County and the surrounding area with such uses as county fairs, holiday events, festivals, charity events and car shows. ISC’s website says local nonprofit and community organizations would be able to help run track concessions for a share of the profits. In 2004, ISC optioned an 850-acre tract near Marysville for a speedway built for 75,000 fans, but ICS and local officials couldn’t come to agreement on financing. According to local reports, ISC was willing to front only $50 million of the speedway’s $250-million price tag and wanted public financing to pay for the rest.ISC owns or operates 11 of the nation’s major motorsports entertainment facilities, including Daytona International Speedway in Florida, home of the Daytona 500; Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama; and Michigan International Speedway located outside Detroit.