LOUDON SNODEO FEELING A CHILL?

LOUDON – Snowmobile racing could return to New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the first time in nearly 40 years come February. The speedway wants to hold a snodeo event Feb. 20-21 and is seeking approval from the Loudon Planning Board.

The planning board will hold public hearings Dec. 17 on the track's applications for a site plan modification and two change-of-use applications. The hearing will be open to citizens and officials from neighboring towns that might be affected by the event. "The event is outside of our approved schedule and we need the board's approval. The town has been very helpful in outlining what procedures we should follow,'' said Fred Neergard, communications director for the speedway.

At a special meeting Dec. 1, the planning board voted to declare the event as having a regional impact, which allows input from neighboring communities. The last time that the regional impact status for a speedway project was invoked was in 1999, when residents of nearby Canterbury won a court case that overturned the planning board's approval of a 9,000-seat expansion of the speedway. The expansion was later approved after the board followed the regional impact procedure.

Hillary Nelson, one of the Canterbury residents who was a party to the 1999 lawsuit, said she is concerned that granting the request for the event will open the door to the erosion of a 1999 agreement that limits events at the speedway to an April 1 to Oct. 31 window. "One of the 1999 conditions was that we have four months of quiet. If they grant this, it will make us fair game all of a sudden for a whole lot of other potential out-of-season events. As a landowner who has property through which there's a snowmobile trail, I'm not pleased with the prospect of thousands of snowmobiles coming through on a single weekend. If it were a one-of-a-kind thing, it wouldn't be bad. But every year would make it really difficult,'' said Nelson.

Unlike the snowmobile races from the early 1970s, the snodeo would not be run on the track's oval and viewed from grandstand seats, but would instead take place in the L parking lot, a little south of the grandstand area. The event is expected to draw about 5,000 people a day, many of whom are expected to be attending as competitors. Jerry Gappens, executive vice president and general manager of the speedway, told selectmen in late October that the event would consist of a snow cross, run on winding courses with many jumps and terrain shifts, as well as a freestyle element and an ice drag race.

Gappens told selectmen the speedway has been working with Gail Hanson, executive director of NH Snowmobile Association; Craig Mayo, coordinator of the Fremont NH Grass Drags and Water Crossing Championships and Kim Bean, president of NH Sno Shakers Snowmobile Club, and others in planning the event.

He said that parking would be provided in the area immediately inside the speedway's south gate, with manufacturer and vendor displays set up in the J and K parking lots near the tunnel entrance into the speedway. There will be no overnight camping, according to Gappens.

Editorial Comment:  Did you know that Danica Patrick started racing at her family's Snowmobile Race Team at Eagle River Race Way?