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Posted by Mr Duck
on 5/8/2008, 5:45 pm
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This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Thursday, May 8, 2008.
By BRIAN GOLDEN
Valley Press Staff Writer
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Norm Hickling's words last week landed like a salve, rather than salt, on the still-open eastside wound that is the former Los Angeles County Raceway.
Hickling, the Valley field representative for Fifth District Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, told the Valley Press last Friday that Antonovich sees economic development in Lake Los Angeles and a new Valley motorsports complex as mutually beneficial priorities.
Hickling's disclosure that a successor to LACR has already been discussed in the County's regional planning department was welcome news to Jeff Hillinger, the graphic artist and movie industry computer generation consultant who has been spearheading efforts to replace the famed dragstrip that was closed by Granite Construction mining efforts last July 29.
"That is good to hear," Hillinger said Monday. "I just wish they would keep us more informed on this, because we have people who're making efforts to buy land out here, and it would be nice to know that the County is on our side."
Hillinger said he has had several discussions with Hickling.
He said he is convinced of the sincerity of Supervisor Antonovich's interest in replacing the former drag racing icon that drew more than 250,000 visitors to the Valley annually.
"I believe in Antonovich, I really do," said the man whose passion for LACR prompted him to move himself and his bustling high-tech business from Glendale to Littlerock. "Businesses out here in Littlerock and Pearblossom are feeling it, man. Restaurants, hotels, even the auto parts places, because if somebody at the dragstrip needed a part, they bought it right here in town."
When not building websites and consulting computer-generated special effects for cinematic use, Hillinger has been absorbed in developing what is now up to a 14-page business plan for a new LACR.
He had the services of a financial planner and a real estate agent to assist with the vagaries of land acquisition and purchase.
But since his organization is made up totally of volunteers bonded by a passion for hot rods and drag racing, the challenges of the current economy have forced attention to be diverted elsewhere.
"SaveLACR has people who are willing to put up their own money in to take care of things like environmental impact reports and the other red-tape stuff," Hillinger said. "That's how badly we want to see a new dragstrip built to replace LACR.
"But there are certain things, like infrastructure and access roads, that only the County can do."
The Supervisor and the SaveLACR zealot have in fact corresponded about the specific piece of property the County has in mind.
It is a 500-acre parcel that would be third in size only to Willow Springs International Raceway and Auto Club Speedway at Fontana as a motorsports venue in the state of California, were it ever developed.
The SaveLACR group has also been eyeing a second, 140-acre parcel only a few miles east of the former LACR site. Currently it is used extensively for movie, TV and commercial location shoots.
"The owners there reside on their property," said Hillinger, who brought the second real estate possibility to Hickling's attention. "They're totally open to doing something with their property."
Working with tract numbers and regional planning and the other intricacies of development enabled Hillinger to make a valuable discovery.
The land areas under discussion would fit right in with the County's 30-year plan for the Valley, which includes a freeway to by-pass Highway 138 and link Interstates 5 and 15.
"The hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues in my plan would be just as welcome to truck drivers and motorists on the freeway as they would be to drag racers and fans coming to town for a weekend," Hillinger said.
In the meantime, Hillinger says there is something the County can do immediately that would show good faith for the big-picture motorsports complex to come.
"I'm still getting calls from people asking about the Wednesday and Friday night street-legal program at LACR," Hillinger said. "These kids need a place where they can race safely, under supervision and with the proper safety equipment in place.
"The sheriff already blocks off streets in the outlying areas of the eastside for movie and TV shoots. We've all seen those roadblocks. Why can't the county block off one of those roads that dead-end between the alfalfa and onion fields one Friday night a month and we can have safe drag racing for our young people?"
Hillinger has already floated the idea to several large businesses in Palmdale, who he said have expressed interest in underwriting the K-rail, Christmas tree and other features needed to transform the road into a temporary dragstrip.
A fee of $10 per racer could be assessed to create a fund SaveLACR could put toward the expenses of site surveys and EIRs.
"Our dream is still a new quarter-mile dragstrip, with an off-road racing course and an oval for the stock cars," Hillinger said. "But in the meantime, just one night a month would be a huge help to keep somebody from getting killed street racing.
"One night a month. Is that too much to ask?"
bgolden@avpress.com
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