{"id":44419,"date":"2021-10-04T18:09:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-05T00:09:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-presents-new-contract-to-operate-fairgrounds-racetrack\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:19:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:19:25","slug":"montezuma-county-presents-new-contract-to-operate-fairgrounds-racetrack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-county-presents-new-contract-to-operate-fairgrounds-racetrack\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma County presents new contract to operate fairgrounds racetrack"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=57ceb557-c6b1-4744-b2b5-e47387fe95cd&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1374\" height=\"1600\" alt=\"Zane Devilioso races through the turn at the Montezuma Speedway in 2012. Promoter Kevin Fadis plans to bring more races to the speedway and increase bleacher capacity.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Zane Devilioso races through the turn at the Montezuma Speedway in 2012. Promoter Kevin Fadis plans to bring more races to the speedway and increase bleacher capacity.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma County is seeking a promoter for the racetrack at the fairgrounds.<\/p>\n<p>Gene Felker, who has been the promoter for the past three years, decided to step away after a contract dispute with the Montezuma County Board of County Commissioners.<\/p>\n<p>The county has developed a new contract for the race track venue beginning next year.<\/p>\n<p>The new contract calls for the promoter to pay a flat fee of $15,000 per year, and also pay for race track maintenance, water and electric costs.<\/p>\n<p>The previous contracts gave promoters the option of paying $350 per day or 1,100 per day to rent the race track.<\/p>\n<p>At the $350 daily rate, the promoter paid for all maintenance. At the $1,100 rate, the county covered maintenance costs.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=697c9d2a-a0db-433f-8bf8-046a3c899b61&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1136\" alt=\"Race cars compete at the Montezuma County Speedway.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Race cars compete at the Montezuma County Speedway.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p>Felker has urged county commissioners to invest in upgrades at the racetrack, which the county owns.<\/p>\n<p>The county\u2019s position has been that the race track is available for lease for a business, and the business is responsible for upkeep.<\/p>\n<p>Felker has the right of first refusal for the contract, which he refused, according to County Administrator Shak Powers. Felker still has the option of presenting for the contract award and will be considered along with other applicants.<\/p>\n<p>The contract is now available for the 2022 season, and interested parties may present their pitches to the Board of County Commissioners.<\/p>\n<p>Felker\u2019s races and demolition derbies have grown in popularity.<\/p>\n<p>During public comment Sept. 21, Felker urged the county to renegotiate the contract terms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s set our differences aside and work this out and come up with a contract that is fair,\u201d Felker said. \u201cThis racetrack brings revenue to the county and city, and we are giving youths the skills they need.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"naviga-pdf-embed\"><iframe class=\"article-pdf\" src=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wT5OA_5oI0yAvnIfiiGMyQAB2ig.pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:500px;border:1px solid #ddd\" loading=\"lazy\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wT5OA_5oI0yAvnIfiiGMyQAB2ig.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Racetrack lease.pdf (Download PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><\/p><\/iframe>\n<p class=\"naviga-pdf-link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-prod-public-pdfs.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/wT5OA_5oI0yAvnIfiiGMyQAB2ig.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Racetrack lease.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Many of his supporters also urged the county to negotiate a contract with Felker during public comment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGene is the guy we want to run this racetrack. There are not too many with his skill set,\u201d said longtime racer Tony Hill. \u201cThe racing community wants him here; he is part of our family.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Others supported Felker for his efforts to bring youths into auto racing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve never seen anyone do as much as Gene for the children of this community,\u201d said Marian Rodd. \u201cThey learn mechanic skills and responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>County commissioners agreed the racetrack has many benefits, but they remained steadfast in requiring the promoter to cover costs through a lease and contract because it is operated as a private business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not trying to get rid of racing,\u201d said Commissioner Jim Candelaria. \u201cWe feel it is a good contract.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said it historically has not been the responsibility of the county to operate or maintain the facility. The county owns the track and leases it to an operator.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur decisions are based on research. We don\u2019t disagree with the good it does for the community,\u201d said Commissioner Joel Stevenson. \u201cWe have to spend our tax dollars the best we can, and can\u2019t spend tax dollars on private industry.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The new annual contract for operations of the county fairgrounds racetrack is available on the <a href=\"https:\/\/montezumacounty.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/2021-09-16-Race-Track-Lease-Copy-for-DistributionUpdated-County-Fair.pdf\" id=\"link-01c83f01f88c41113fe94d5af3670235\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">county website, at montezumacounty.org.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-563c36aa2c4bd2ff711ec934cf3e5b96\"><a href=\"mailto:jmimiaga@the-journal.com\">jmimiaga@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Previous promoter dropped out because of contract dispute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,60,109,2362,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44419","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-county-commissioner","tag-motor-racing","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44419"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44419\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86082,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44419\/revisions\/86082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44419"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}