NASCAR and their track arm ISC have a long road ahead to convince the citizens and legislators of Washington State that the proposed track near Bremerton, WA is a good deal. ISC has proposed a public/private partnership for the $345 million dollar pricetag with the taxpayers footing more than half the bill. ISC would lease the track from a public stadium authority for at least 50 years bringing 2 high ticket races a year to the facility, including a Nextel Cup race.

However, despite the guaranteed races and projected money making ability of the 83,000 seat facility many are still not convinced that this is the right deal for Washington. While both pro football and baseball facilities have been pushed through the legislature in recent memories, these facilities have much more to offer potential audiences. Since the ISC facility will only guarantee 2 "major" races a year, many wonder where the extra revenue is going to come from the rest of the racing season. Notwithstanding this concern is the simple concern of location.

For many who are not familiar with the Bremerton area, this is one of the hardest locations to move over 80,000 people into and out of. There is only one 4 lane freeway from the Seattle/Tacoma area into Bremerton. While there is another 4 lanes soon to be available over the Narrows many traffic engineers will agree that it will do nothing to alieviate the deadlock that will ensue, and in fact may contribute to it. Then there are the ferries. On the best of days there is easily a 1-2 hour wait to board the ferry for the 40 min to 1 hour trip over the Puget Sound to Bremerton. Then the road from the ferry terminal to the proposed track location is only a 2 lane road. How is this road to handle an influx of people to this rural location? The simple answer is that it won't

I for one am not conviced that this is the right deal or location for a track in Washington. It is time to let our legislators know how we feel.

For more info: http://www.nascar.com/2005/news/headlines/cup/12/09/bc.car.nascar.northwest.ap/index.html