AAHC Urgent Alert
Help Keep
Speedworld Raceway Park
Open
Click on E-Petition Below to Make Your Voice Heard,
Then Forward This E-Mail On To Your
The Arizona Automobile Hobbyist Council or AAHC requests that you please read the articles below, and if you agree, click on the link to sign the electronic-petition to help keep Speedworld Raceway Park open while they work out a solution with Maricopa County officials.
Speedworld has been an Arizona motorsports icon for more than 50 years, and it is now in jeopardy of being shut down by Maricopa County over minor violations, some of which were made more than 20 years ago.
Maricopa County has accused Speedworld Park of being in non-compliance with various grading and drainage requirements, and also alleges use-permit violations that occurred long before the current owner Dan Mathews took over the business. Speedworld is not trying to avoid coming into compliance with the County's requests, they are only asking to be able to keep their doors open while the changes are being made.
The AAHC is asking that all of Arizona's vehicle clubs, along with both 2 and 4 wheeled vehicle hobbyists and BMX bicycle riders to join in with Speedworld's customers, (drag-racers, moto-cross riders, BMXer's, ATV and off-road racers,) to raise Maricopa County Supervisors awareness on what this track means to Arizona and to all sorts of motorsports fans across the country.
-Every year millions of dollars are spent in Maricopa County by racers and fans who visit Speedworld Raceway Park. Speedworld creates jobs and helps keep our economy moving in many ways.
-Speedworld Parks multiple tracks and racing venues have also saved countless lives over the years by providing street racers with a safe low-cost drag-strip to run their cars on instead of using dangerous rural roads. Roads that Maricopa County say's it can't afford to maintain to Federal standards, but Maricopa County won't shut down these dangerous roads until they can be brought into compliance. (Hmmm???)
-Speedworld Park has also helped to protect our desert environment by providing several different styles of tracks for moto-cross riders, BMXer's, ATV and off-road racers to affordably use instead of having them tear-up the County's out-lying desert areas.
When you really think about it, Speedworld Raceway Park is actually way more of a life-saving safety and environmental asset to Maricopa County then a dust pollution hazard.
So don't let Arizona's longest running motorsports park be shut down over minor issues that can easily be resolved by Maricopa County and Speedworld Raceway Park working together.
- Help stop the closing of Speedworld Raceway Park while Speedworld works towards meeting Maricopa County zoning and planning compliance requirements. Please sign this petition. Click below to open link or copy and paste it into your browser to open the link:
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http://signon.org/sign/keep-speedworld-raceway?source=s.fwd&r_by=531986
Also, please pass this e-mail along to everyone you can think of to sign this petition as Speedworld needs thousands of signatures to present to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to persuade them to apply the brakes to the County bureaucrat's plans to shut down Speedworld over minor issues because "it's united we ride and drive and divided we park."
Thanks for your help,
Bill Gilmore AAHC Legislative Liaison, and the AAHC Board of Directors
PS #1,
Even the Arizona Republic Editorial Board published a sarcastic feature editorial in favor of keeping Speedworld open while they work out their differences with Maricopa County's bureaucrat's. Read it below;
The Issue: Racetrack Woes
Note to County: Dirt Tracks Have Dirt
By the Arizona Republic Editorial Board
It would seem that, by definition, a motocross track (a facility upon which "dirt" bikes race) would need to push some "dirt" around from time to time. To build "dirt" racetracks. For "dirt" bikes. And off-road vehicles. Which race around... on "dirt".
The construction-permitting people at Maricopa County, however, are not high on residents pushing around un-permitted "dirt".
The operator of the Speedworld motocross track, a dirt-bike mecca in the Valley for over 50 years, must shut down his family business until a complex log-jam over "proper" permits is ironed out, County officials say.
A large part of their problem with Speedworld owner Dan Matthews is that he pushes dirt around without first obtaining a permit. As Matthews told Az Republic reporter David Rokkhuyzen, this seems ridiculous: "If every time I have to move dirt, (before and after every race), I had to get a permit, I couldn't run my business."
The County has a duty to ensure businesses operating within the law. But does it really need to shut down businesses to accomplish that?
The County is not clean of hands in its conflict. It lost the original 1961 site plans, so it permitted a 2009 Speedworld expansion based on a 2006 plan. Then, it found the 1961 plan and rescinded the deal. Are you seeing a rather casual application of rules here?
It strikes us that motocross tracks likely create novel "square peg/round hole" pickles for County permit departments. But the County at least should be flexible enough that it doesn't simply shut the joint down to save us from it.-
PS #2;
Responding to Speedworlds plight, AAHC Legislative Liaison Bill Gilmore editorialized that; "Shutting down this iconic 50 year old motorsports park while they try to solve their minor zoning issues is like shutting down the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors while they all try to solve their legal problems. It's just not fair to the citizens of Arizona. KEEP THE PARK OPEN."
* Except for the Az Republic editorial, the above articles were written and e-mailed out by AAHC Legislative Liaison and collector car appraiser Bill Gilmore at Automotive Research Services in Phoenix Arizona. You can reach Bill at 602-230-7111, or you can e-mail him at: [email protected].
Bill is a member of a number of vintage vehicle clubs and is also a long-time member of the Society of Automotive Historians and the National Association of Automobile Museums and has been volunteering as Assistant Curator at the Scottsdale International Auto Museum.
Please feel free to pass this e-mail alert along to your fellow club members, friends and family. If you are not on Bill's vehicle related e-mail alert list, just send him a e-mail with "put me on alert list" in the subject line to be added to the list to make sure that you receive these occasional hobby related alerts.
Also, be assured that your e-mail address will only be used for occasional hobby related alerts and will never be sold for commercial use.
Be sure to regularly visit the AAHC web site at www.ArizonaAutomobileHobbyistCouncil.com where the latest issue of the AAHC Newsletter will be posted online later this week featuring a recap of this years 2012 Arizona Legislative Session.