Public meeting about PMP (now with follow up)

[Ene]

There will be an open public meeting between the City of Pueblo, Front Range Motorsports at 6:00 PM Saturday, August 2 and Tuesday, August 5. Both meetings will begin at 6:00 PM. The meetings will be located at 127 E. Spaulding in the VFW hall. 6 miles west of PMP. The hall can be reached by using either Purcell Blvd or McCullough Blvd. south off Highway.

The City of Pueblo wishes to be educated on the importance of PMP and how the subsidiary company of NEK (Front Range Motorsports FRM can assure our customers of future improvements.

This will be the only time any of the clubs, individuals or interested parties will have the opportunity to speak about the future of PMP. The press is invited.

Thanks,
Earlene
719-240-2037
719-240-4132
Please leave a message.

[Ene]

Just because PPIR is now open and God Bless them, this is no time to forget PMP. The following is my PERSONAL comments:

The press will be there in full force, I expect. Please bring your suggestions, comments and improvement list. We do not need a riot which makes all of us look like a bunch of unreasonable people. All of us have fears, questions and doubts. This is our chance to let the city know exactly what we NEED, fear and will do for the future of PMP. Ask the hard questions and get the answers everyone is looking for.

The VFW hall only holds 280 people.

If you do not not get a chance to respond, I will be there and I will compile your list "word by word". Nothing will be changed, you have MY word. If you cannot attend, send me your comments ( if you have "MS WORD", please send them as an attachment) and your questions by email or bring them to me at the park, ASAP. Council wants this completed within 2 weeks.

I will submit your list directly to the Council. I will post them here for everyone to read. My biggest fear is a shouting match with no positive input back to the Council and the air waves filled with out of control folks. The media thrives on this. Have no doubt. The one exception is Tracey Renck. The sports writer for The Pueblo Chieftain. He has always been respectful and truthful in his reporting, unless given information which was less than forthright.

If a group of you want to get together, form your list and pick a spokesperson, I encourage you. Please tell me how I can help you and most important PUEBLO MOTORSPORTS PARK, for the future. All the users of PMP have made the park what it was intended to be, home to Colorado's motorsports enthusiast. Finger pointing will not get us to our goal. If your dissatisfied with current operations state that and how to fix it, if your dissatisfied with the board state that and what could the board have done, but let's remain mature in voicing opinions.

The vision of those before us, the decree of the City that PMP is remain open to public recreational use (to be defined), the tireless work of this board, YOUR support and your involvement is why the City needs to be educated.

All of the above comments are my personal words. Until the time I am no longer a part of the PMP operations and the PMI board, I will continue to support the past, the present and the future of you, the families calling PMP "Home".

God bless us all as we move forward.
Earlene Theis

[pilot]

Earlene and others,

Thank you for your earnest effort in support of quality discussion on the use of PMP in the community. It would be a shame for the facility to just "go by the wayside" when something new and shiny pops up. The development of racing facilities (single use and permanent) throughout the Rocky Mountain region should be a priority for all enthusiasts. A concerted effort, not only from the leaders of today, but also the experienced voices of the past, would demonstrate harmony amongst the craft of all levels of vehicle racing. The current effort and support of those involving their personal time to develop and recondition facilities is admirable and well appreciated.

Respectfully,
Pilot

[The GECCO]

FWIW - I will be attending the Saturday evening meeting to represent the interests of the MRA and the motorcycling community in general. If anyone who cannot attend has any specific comments you can send them to me at mraracer157 at yahoo

[dirkterrell]

I'm betting the gears are already turning in Ralph's mind but I think statements from the CSC and its members would be helpful. Earlene, et al. have always been there for us. Now it's our turn to help.

Dirk

[McVaaahhh]

2 tracks? Hell yeah!

Although I never experienced PPIR I really can't imagine a better atmosphere for a trackday than there is at PMP. The staff at PMP is always curteous and always has our best interests in mind.

No way would I forget about PMP, and will continue to go there.

Although, I would definitely like to give PPIR a go.

[pilot]

2 tracks? Hell yeah!

Although I never experienced PPIR I really can't imagine a better atmosphere for a trackday than there is at PMP. The staff at PMP is always curteous and always has our best interests in mind.

No way would I forget about PMP, and will continue to go there.

Although, I would definitely like to give PPIR a go.

Well, it should be three with High Plains. Any fresh updates on that one?

I drove past Second Creek last Saturday (before Fred and Teri's reception) and felt saddened at the state of the place. Two bad a few NIMBY's brought it to a halt. It would be nice to see a "single use" mountain event again, someday. Perhaps at Steamboat, etc. But that takes a lot of work and effort on the part of many fresh faces. We can't expect the folks doing so much now to continue to add to their plate. And then there is seed money.

[lovinCO]

No way would I forget about PMP, and will continue to go there.

Although, I would definitely like to give PPIR a go.

+1

For roadracing to survive in Colorado we have to get the venues back. It's not about finding one great facility and doing everything there, it's about having multiple tracks again. The clubs just start to evaporate without a local circuit.

I'm thrilled to hear PPIR has been resuscitated, I'm looking forward to HPR--confident it will be built, and we MUST keep Pueblo. These facilities are key to our sport.

[rybo]

Hi all,

The following are my thoughts following attending the meeting in Pueblo last night.

First some background:

In recent months there have been media reports and such regarding PMP, PMI and the management of the facility. In it there have been rumors of a hostile takeover by a government contractor, rumors about the facility closing for public use and some mention of the Honor Farm and how the provisions in that land grant affect us. Last night's meeting went a long way in clearing up how all of this has come together in my mind and I thought I'd share what I learned here.

The meeting was attended (by my count) by about 90 people. Many of them were from the city of Pueblo, and were concerned about the future of drag racing at the facility. Also in attendance were members of various car clubs (SCCA, Porsche Club, Vintage Club), the MRA, a group representing the quarter midgets, motorcycle drag racers and various PMI board members past and present. Running the meeting was Darrel Contraraz (Current Pres. of PMI), John Wood of NEK and Tony Porterfield of NEK.

NEK is the defense contractor concerned in the articles we've all read. They have been using the facility for about three years for training special ops personnel for a variety of missions. You can learn a little more about them here. http://www.nekasg.com/default.aspx

Tony Porterfield is one of the owners of NEK and is interested in obtaining a long term lease with the City of Pueblo to operated PMP. In doing so he has formed a subsidiary of NEK called "Front Range Motorsports". (FRM) To get some idea of the current structure of operations at the facility:

The City of Pueblo owns PMP
They have a contract with FRM to operate the facility
FRM sub contracts day to day ops to PMI

Front Range Motorsports is seeking to greatly expand their involvement in the management of the facility and looking to make major capital improvements at the facility. The investment they are talking about making is significant, and as such they are seeking a 99 year lease. Their payment to "own" this lease is the improvements that they seek to make to the facility and some potential profit sharing with the city.

Several concerns were addressed regarding the arrangement:

1) With Front Range Motorsports being owned by NEK represents an interesting conflict of interest. Since the real money in this is from the Defense contracts, what happens when those operations (which provide significantly more revenue) need to expand? Will the motorsports portion of the facility be "shut out"

Response: NEK realizes that the facility is important to the city and the users and while they seek to improve it for their training purposes, these improvements also benefit the motorsports community. The agreement that they are working on with the City would limit the defense ops at the facility to 50% of the time. This number would likely not cut into motorsports use much as a good portion of their training takes place mid week (currently they use tuesday, wednesday and thursday of most weeks) and they do operations in the winter when the facility is NOT all the appealing to us.

2) NEK is a strong business and clearly has business goals in wanting to lease the facility. Will the cost of capital improvements price most motorsports users out of the facility?

response: Front Range Motorsports realizes who the current users and and knows that we don't want or need a (my words Moto GP) facility at Pueblo. The cost of construction for such a facility would be astronomical and WOULD prevent current users from being able to access the site. The improvements proposed are modest, and will probably cause a nominal increase in the costs associated with using the facility. It is FRM's belief that most current users will agree that this increase will be worth it.

3) What are some of the proposed improvements?

response: Safety and security are primary concerns. There is far too free of an access to the site at the present time and as such things like broken beer bottles show up on the road course all the time. There is damage being done to the facility that is not caused by the users and that needs to stop. In the dirt portions of the facility there are major concerns about the types of vehicles that share that area and the safety of the users there, which has been essentially uncontrolled. At the road course, there are major safety issues that need to be addressed with the drag strip including the placement of the barriers on the side of the strip. The pavement on the strip is getting to be unacceptable, and unsafe and the runoff at the end of the strip is too short. Turn 10 on the road course will need more attention, and while the improvements made there this year are good, they do not go far enough in addressing the safety concerns and the proximity of the tire wall and concrete barrier. Finally the crossover area is very dangerous and needs attention. These items are of immediate concern and will get addressed pretty rapidly should NEK get the 99 year lease they are seeking. In the longer term would be a complete repave of the road course and the possible addition of about a mile of pavement that would allow the course to be divided into two sections, essentially offering multiple road course configurations.

4) Drag racing, especially the High School program, is not a major revenue generator for the facility, what happens when higher paying clients want to take over that time spot?

response: Good business happens in a lot of different ways. Generating revenue is one aspect of running a good business, but alienating the community is very bad for business. If FRM gets the lease they do not anticipate that solid community programs going away.

Summary:

Big changes are coming to Pueblo. Running it the way "it's always been run" is going to yield bad results. The pavement is already deteriorating and if we don't do something different there won't be a road course there for much longer. While there are concerns about any big business with other motives operating the race courses that we know and love the money to maintain those facilities has to come from somewhere. Our rental fees will never cover the capital improvements that need to be made. Some of these improvements involve our personal safety, others are just things we would love to have at the track.

I think in the end this could be a very good arrangement for Pueblo, and while I'm concerned about the potential conflict of interest that exists because NEK owns Front Range Motorsports, I also don't see any other viable option on the horizon that offers Pueblo the capital that is needed to improve and maintain the facility. I left last night feeling pretty good about the arrangement.

Hope that is helpful to others, I'm posting this same message on the MRA board.

Scott

[dirkterrell]

In the longer term would be a complete repave of the road course and the possible addition of about a mile of pavement that would allow the course to be divided into two sections, essentially offering multiple road course configurations.

Thank you for attending and giving us that report. I hope that something beneficial for all involved can be negotiated. With a 99-year lease at stake, I hope that representatives of the motorsports users negotiate thoroughly and carefully and get specific timelines for the improvements.

Dirk

[mbohn]

Scott:

I understood from a brief discussion with Earlene on Monday morning ( 7/28 ) that this was a proposal by NEK/FRM to the city and that if it was approved the new group would take over on 11/9/08. Is that what came out of the meeting you attended and what further actions are required by the city before this is a done deal?

And many thanks for going down there to represent our interests.

Mark