Drivers petition Pocatello Raceway

Recently, a petition was filed by a handful of racers, looking to see changes made at the Pocatello Raceway.

Safety issues have been a major concern at the track since new ownership took over. Doug Cluff and a group of other racers have started a petition to prevent the owner from renewing her lease. Something he says got him and his family banned from the track.

“As far as my wife and myself, the main issue that we have deals with the safety of the cart classes. Safety issues including neck braces, wrist restraints, carts that aren’t safe, clutches that don’t work, breaks that don’t work.”

All issues that Doug and others have brought up to a new owner.

“Every complaint that we had, they came up with an excuse, even though it is in their rulebook, they came to with an excuse as to why these changes didn’t need to be made to their kid’s cart. And they basically just blew us off.”

So Cluff and others got together and decided they wanted to try to prevent a renewal.

“The lease is on a five-year rotation, and it’s set to renew next spring, and that is why we started the petition,” Cluff said.

But the owner has a lease with the city, and Mayor Brian Blad says the city has no plan to break it. Saying that some of the things people are petitioning for might not be doable.

“There is no intention of breaking the lease, there’s no intention of any of that stuff. It’s easy to sit back and say you should do this, you should do that. But once you get in those shoes, maybe there’s reasons why you can’t,” said Mayor Blad.

But according to Cluff, it doesn’t seem that the owners have any intention to make changes.

“At one of the meetings after the second race, we were having issues and they called a meeting out at the race track, there was 40 or 50 racers out there. And the very first thing she said is that she will tear the racetrack down before she ever releases the lease. And that kind of told me there’s no real working with them,” Cluff explained.

Even with the petition that has more than 600 signatures, the city plans to uphold the lease. Saying that when the lease comes up for renewal it will be open to bidding and then “the city will do what’s best for the city.”

The owners of the track could not be immediately reached for comment.