The Estevan Motor Speedway reflected on the past season and began preparing for the 2020 campaign during its annual general meeting Nov. 18 at the Days Inn.
Financial statements released at the meeting showed the speedway lost about $10,000 in 2019. President Byron Fichter said the deficit could be attributed to the weather, as they had one program cancelled due to rain and a couple other programs hampered by rain, including the Dakota Classic Modified Tour, when a thunderstorm rumbled through Estevan a couple of hours before the program began.
The speedway also increased the payouts for the modified class to get a better car count.
“Our modifieds went from an average of 14 cars up to 22 cars,” said Fichter. “If they keep doing that, it just takes a little while for the fans to respond.”
Crowds were trending in the right direction as the season progressed.
But the track is not in a position of being in trouble financially, as it had a strong year from a fiscal perspective in 2018.
The speedway also spent a lot of money on track upgrades for 2019, which was its 20th anniversary season, including the shift from incandescent to LED lighting. Keeping the racing surface at its current level is expensive, too.
The board of directors for the 2020 season was elected. Fichter will be back as president for another year. Aaron Turnbull will be the vice-president, Lynn Trobert is treasurer and Jeremy Istace will be the secretary.
Brad Pierson, Gregg Mann, Jeremy Swanson, Blake Penna and Danny Blackburn will round out the board. Istace, Pierson and Blackburn are new.
“A couple of the guys are very involved in the community,” said Fichter. “I think that’s going to help us generate a little bit of a better community presence. That’s one thing we’ve targeted is being more involved in the community outside of the race track.”
It means the speedway could reach out to other groups and facilities, and cross-promote or get involved with them.
Tyson Turnbull, Dale LaBatte and Devon Gonas are no longer on the board.
The upcoming season is expected to have the same five classes as 2019, with the modifieds, stock cars, hobby stocks, sport mods and sling shots. They’re working on a schedule for 2020 that Fichter hopes will bring the Dakota Classic Modified Tour and the late model tour to Estevan.
