Skagit Speedway

The Skagit Speedway is probably the most famous active dirt track in the Northwest.  I’ve been there just two times….30 years apart.  Nevertheless, I consider the Skagit Speedway to be in my “mythical top 40” track group.  That’s a nice compliment to the folks who have run the track back in the 80s and throughout until today. 

First visit – 1984.
I’ve only been to the Skagit Speedway one time and that was a long time ago.  On June 14, 1984 I went to an open competition sprint car race at Skagit.  One of my favorites, Jimmy Sills, won the feature event driving car #71N.  Skagit Speedway was my 140th lifetime track to see.  I didn’t begin writing my famous Randy Lewis Racing Trackchaser Reports until I had already seen more than 400 tracks.  I made just one written comment following my visit to Skagit.  It was “Have to see all of the Dirt Cup someday”.  So far I never have.


Skagit was the first track that I ever saw in Washington.  I must have gone there as more of a racechaser than a trackchaser.  Why?  Skagit might be the best track in all of Washington.

Skagit is still racing after all these years.  I went there in 1984 but the track began racing in 1954.  It’s a 3/10-mile dirt oval.  Somewhat incredibly the straights are banked 15 degrees and the turns 25 degrees.  Just writing those stats makes me want to get back to Skagit!  Heck, the place seats 8,100 fans and even has an expresso stand.

You might have remembrances about the Skagit Speedway.  If so, please feel free to share in the comments section below.  If you have any photos from back in the day, send them to me at Ranlay@yahoo.com.  I’ll try to include them here.

THE RACING.

Skagit Speedway – Alger, Washington

Not my first visit to Skagit.

My visit to the Skagit Speedway was the SECOND time I have been to the track. That being the case this review will be just a quick snapshot with the highlights and lowlights.

My first visit to Skagit was on a Thursday night June 14, 1984. This would have been part of their famous “Dirt Cup” race weekend. Jimmy Sills was the feature winner. My one-line comment about my visit was “Must see all of Dirt Cup someday”.

In just 30 years I was back again!

It took me 30 years to make my second trip to Skagit. I was again seeing a Thursday night race at the beginning of the Dirt Cup weekend. Back in 1984 Skagit was the 140^th different track I had seen. As this is written I have seen 1,970 tracks. Thirty years and more than 1,800 tracks in between makes my memory of the original visit nearly non-existent.

Nevertheless, much of what I saw tonight would put the Skagit Speedway into my mythical “Top 40” group. That conglomeration of facilities is reserved for the select few tracks that “have their #$%^# together.

Don’t get me wrong. Skagit was NOT perfect as I will soon explain. However, they had enough things going right for me to be impressed.

The facility.

There is tons of seating all the way from the middle of turns three and four around and down into turn one. Their grandstands reminded me of the Chili Bowl setup in Tulsa. The best seats, especially with tonight’s constant wind blowing into the main grandstands, appeared to be in turns three and four.

The track sightlines are wonderful. There’s not a bad view in the house. The sound system is A-1 and the announcers did a nice job even if they did come off as “radio disk jockeys” at times. They were informative, funny and for the most part entertaining.

The track is well-organized. They started on time and removed the wrecks quickly. They didn’t waste a lot of time on re-starts. Refreshments were varied if not a bit high-priced. A track hot dog was $4.75. That’s getting in the range of Major League Baseball. However, a nice serving of strawberry shortcake offered by a volunteer group was just three dollars.

Not everything was perfect.

In my opinion there were two major negatives associated with tonight’s show. One was the track’s responsibility and the other was “just part of racing”.

Tonight’s program featured 410 sprint cars at the main attraction. The track was dry from the start. The sprinters kicked up the dust that coated everything in its path while blowing directly into the main grandstand. There was virtually no passing in the sprint car heats and not much in the feature event. I can’t blame the track for much of this. Winged sprint cars offer very little passing and their powerful engines chew up dirt track and spew out lots of dirt and dust.

Pretty much a waste of time.

To the track’s credit they tried to re-work the track, ala Boone, at intermission. This took a long time, well over an hour. Then they decided to have the sprint cars take hot laps and go back into the pit area for adjustments before the main event began.

Within a lap or two of hot laps beginning the dampness of the track was gone from the “re-work”. The feature was a dry dusty affair with primarily one-lane racing. The cars in the back only moved up with competitors ahead wrecked. The legend cars put on much better racing than the sprint cars.

Whoever thought this up needs to be #$%^#.

At virtually every track I visit I see something that I have never seen before. I don’t know how that can be true but it is.

When I pulled onto the track property parking attendants were directing patrons on where to park. It was at this point that I could not believe what I was seeing.

They were parking the cars “tandem” style. What does that mean? Cars were being parked nose to tail with 10-12 cars in one “string”. Then the next string was parked within three-four feet of the first string. When I arrived they were on about their fifth line of cars. Later I looked out to find about a dozen or more strings of 10-12 cars all parked within a few feet of each other. Any driver with a car in front and in back and with cars on either side would not be getting out of there for a very long time.

What if someone had an emergency and had to leave? What if quite a few fans decided to go into the pits after the races. Anyone blocked in by those cars would have to wait another 30-60 AFTER the last race to wait for people to come back from touring the pit area.

Not the friendliest of parking attendants.

I expressed my concerns to the parking attendant. He was a much less than friendly fellow. He told me, “We don’t have much room to park car and we have to park them this way”. I told him that in all of the racetracks I had attended prior to tonight (that would be 1,970) I had NEVER EVER seen a parking arrangement like this. With that comment from me he seemed even less interested in discussing it.

I asked where else I could park. He motioned to what looked like some off track property. “You can park on the other side of the road” he said. I looked around. There was a HUGE parking area at the Skagit Speedway. I drove a little further down and found a place where I would not be “hemmed” in.

Pictures don’t lie.

Folks, take a look at the pictures. You can see well over 100 cars all parked nose to tail and side to side. You can also see a VERY LARGE parking area that remained vacant all night. Tonight there was absolutely no need to park cars “tandem style”. Maybe on Saturday night for the finales such an arrangement might be necessary. It would take A LOT of cars for this style of parking to make sense. Since I’ve been to Eldora and Knoxville and just about every place else that holds big short track events, and NOBODY parks cars tandem style I doubt this is the brightest tool in the toolbox.

Skagit…generally an excellent place for racing.

So….except for no passing, the track being a dust bowl and the totally screwed up parking arrangement I really did like what was going on at the Skagit Speedway. They can’t be held responsible for the lack of passing with winged sprint cars. Very few tracks see much passing with this class.

The dirt looked a little “tired” to me. However the track management did all they could with the intermission re-work to get a raceable surface. I give them an A+ for trying although it took a long time with very little positive outcome.

Breaking the limits of credibility.

The parking arrangement stretched the limits, O.K. broke the limits of credibility especially with the size of tonight’s crowd. I would love to hear the feedback they got from people who had to wait a long time to leave the track because they were boxed in.

Click on this link to view photos from the Skagit Speedway and more:

Dirt Cup racing at the Skagit Speedway