CALISTOGA, Calif. — City officials waved the green flag to resume racing at the shuttered Calistoga Speedway.
In a special meeting Tuesday night, the city council unanimously directed staff to negotiate a contract with HMS Promotions to put on sprint car races at Calistoga Speedway in 2025.
The council, which must ratify the negotiated agreement before it can go into effect, directed that the contract put limits on the number of race and practice days and include a curfew, “out of consideration for people who don’t like the races.”
The decision puts new life into one of the most historic half-mile dirt ovals in the country that began hosting auto races in 1937 but has been shuttered for five years as the city of Calistoga worked to purchase the fairgrounds from Napa County, a sale that was only completed this summer.
‘I’m thrilled and excited to go forward and put the racetrack back on its feet,” said Tommy Hunt, owner of HMS Promotions who promoted sprint car races at Calistoga Speedway for 12 years before the track was shut down. “It’s been a long time.”
A parade of commenters urged the council to entrust the contract to Hunt, a former driver and sanctioning body executive whose family history in auto racing dates to his father as an Indy car owner in the 1960s, rather than hold up the project by seeking more comprehensive bids through an RFP.
Any delay in selecting a promotor would have jeopardized the track’s ability to re-open, the staff noted, since sanctioning bodies and race tracks throughout Northern California will be setting schedules by early December.
The council’s decision reflects both the popularity of the Speedway and its economic value. ‘It’s not a huge impact on the city since there will only be races on a couple of weekends a year,” noted local resident Scott Atkinson, “but it will be a huge benefit to the city. Calistoga Speedway is known all over the country and race fans go downtown and spend money.”
Council member Lisa Gift noted that a community clean-up day in October attracted more than 200 volunteers to mow and sweep up the fairgrounds “and 90 percent of the volunteers were here because of the speedway,” she said. “We’ve received hundreds of letters from people in the community and from all over the country” urging re-opening of the track, she added “and I’ve heard from local businesses that they have missed the races.”
But there are speed bumps to hurdle before fans will hear the first roar of an engine on the half-mile clay oval that sits in the middle of this small town at the north end of California’s well known wine region of the Napa Valley.
Fairgrounds Revitalization Director Sheli Wright noted that the most requests she has received since she started on the job were about reopening the race track, “but notable repairs are necessary before even initial use of the speedway could occur,” she noted in the staff report.
An engineering assessment has documented the damage from years of neglect, citing corroded steel in grandstand supports and railings and extensive dry rot and water damage, with an estimated repair cost of $100,000.
Hunt is aware of the needed repairs. “I’ve already been in contact with people who do that kind of work, and I know all of the repairs are definitely doable.”
Given the many months it will take to make repairs, Hunt said he likely will have only one race 2025 to reestablish the Louie Vermeil Classic, named for the late founder of the Northern Auto Racing Club who oversaw racing at Calistoga for 50 years, on its traditional Labor Day weekend.