By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The last two race seasons were cancelled at the SRCA Dragstrip in Great Bend, and no races will occur this year, but the City of Great Bend is taking action to bring back races in 2026. The Great Bend City Council approved a contract with Bartlett & West for the rebuild design of the track for $55,000.
The dragstrip was reconstructed in 2021 by Suchy Construction but several issues followed the completion of the project making the surface unsafe. Tied up in a lawsuit to determine who was responsible for the mistakes, the city has reached settlements with multiple parties and is ready to move forward.
Jim Rinner from Bartlett & West was involved with the investigation and lawsuit and said the reconstruction of the dragstrip will be handled differently this time.
"We were able to benefit a lot from this investigation on what went wrong," said Rinner. "There are a lot of things that went wrong. Through this investigation, we have all seen the best way to manage design and construction. We are intentionally including some of the subject matter experts from across the country."
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Rinner said design work will begin immediately with hopes of putting the project out for bid soon.
"We want to make the most of the time through the warm months of the year," said Rinner. "We're looking to get design far enough along to be able to bid, go into construction, start demolition and begin all new work. Hopefully, we can look at sometime in May to start the demolition and rebuild."
Rinner hoped to have the majority of the dragstrip reconstruction finished by the end of the year to be able to work on punch-list items next spring ahead of next year’s race season.