Auto Racing Season In The Northland Ready To Begin

Wes Vork-NSO

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May 16, 2012

Wes Vork-NSO

With an early spring and summer just around the corner, local dirt track representatives hosted their annual kickoff on Wednesday to signal the start of racing in the Northland.

Some area tracks like Proctor have already started with Enduro events while Amsoil Speedway in Superior kicks off its 2012 racing program on Friday.

The lack of snow and early spring have allowed personnel at the Proctor Speedway to get a jump on things, enabling them to have the track well prepared for their Sunday May 20th regular season opener.

While speedway officials haven’t had to battle the weather so far, they have had challenges in the form of thieves and the tax man.

Over the winter thieves stole radiators and cables containing copper from the track owned busses. The busses, which were raced as part of the Mid-Summer Mayhem program, were scavenged to the point they needed to be scrapped.

Track President “Crash” Carlson assured everyone the fan favorite event will still take place. “We have purchased two busses and we’re looking for another half dozen, It’s a bit of a challenge because we can’t pay a lot when we use them just once a year, but we will get it done.” explained Carlson.

The tax related challenges are a bit more complicated. For years, tracks in Minnesota paid sales tax on the gate income but did not pay sales tax on entry fees collected from racers, believing they were part of the purse paid back to drivers. Recently the State of Minnesota informed all Minnesota tracks that is not the case and back-billed the tracks on three years of receipts.

“There were reports we didn’t pay our taxes; we paid our taxes, this is something (pit taxes) we were told was the correct way to do things and everyone did it that way,” commented Carlson

“We don’t mind paying the tax from here on forward, but it’s kind of bad when they can go backwards on you on something you didn’t have to do before; they want us to go back three years,” said Carlson. The back-billing is something that creates a hole for most tracks in Minnesota that could prove difficult to dig out of. According to Carlson, Proctor is being charged around $45,000. Hibbing and Grand Rapids are in the same boat, with Hibbing at about 38,000. and Grand Rapids in the 40,000 neighborhood. Tracks in South Central Minnesota have reportedly received tabs totaling over $100,000.

Minnesota tracks are working on banding together to fight the ruling and Carlson stated they won’t have to come up with any of the money this year while it is under appeal. If the amounts stand, the state will set up a payment plan, but according to Carlson, three years is the maximum the payments can be stretched out, which has folks predicting the demise of numerous tracks around the state.

Proctor and Amsoil Speedways plan to raise the pit entry fee from $25.00 to $28.00 to cover the tax.

As for the on the track news, Proctor has a full slate of entertainment planned with all five classes this summer. Highlights include Vintage Racers on June 17; a meet the drivers night on July 22, Mid-Summer Mayhem is scheduled for Aug 4.

Capping off the racing season at Proctor is the Black Bear Casino Silver 1000 on Aug 30. The Popular late model event that began with 1000 silver dollars given away to the winner, is celebrating its 40th anniversary in 2012. “I must be getting old because it’s now 40 years old and I started the thing,” joked Carlson.

Comments can be sent to wes@northlandsportsonline.com