Protected historic landmark? So it won’t go away of iconic California Riverside Racew
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Walt Stannard • 2 days ago Why the Monterey County Board of Supervisors contracted with John Narigi to manage Laguna Seca Raceway and appointed Darius Sadeghi to oversee the Monterey Motorsports Reunion, still a mystery. Maybe it was their mutual inexperience, like total lack of experience with any major sporting event and with motorsports. Maybe it was they made supervisors feel good. Maybe Dewayne Woods believed he could gain advantage from Narigi and Sadeghi knowing virtually zip about what they were to do and he could de facto manage the track, as he seems to have wanted to do for some time.
Why Woods is fixated by LSR, another mystery. The couple of hundred grand the county pays him a year isn’t chump change, so I can't imagine there's a financial incentive. Maybe he wants to use success with LSR as a steppingstone to go from assistant to administrator; good luck with that. Insightful about Woods’ LSR thinking are his reported remarks at a Carmel Valley Rotary Club event, "Long terms goals by the county is to make Laguna Seca a premier facility with a center track focus on concessionaires and business centers."
What I doubt county supervisors and those who influence them comprehend, the racing series that have brought big bucks to Monterey County don't need LSR. There are more venues that want to host races than there are races. Motorsports decision-makers have made possible events at LSR because LSR is Laguna Seca Raceway not because events there are incredibly profitable. How they have felt about racing at Laguna Seca Raceway and doing business with the people who, until now, they did business were the reasons for racing at Laguna Seca Raceway.
Without events featuring major series races, LSR will be just one of the country's iconic racetracks. Without them, Monterey County would lose the big bucks that seem all so important to county supervisors, unless Narigi believes big bucks will be generated by events like his replacement for the reunion, “a private track rental where you will be able to enjoy driving in a low-key club-like affair.”
Best for Laguna Seca Raceway and those who love the track would be for it to be protected as a historic landmark so it won’t go the way of the other iconic California race track, Riverside International Raceway, into history