By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The recently reconstructed SRCA Dragstrip is in fine shape and ready for the Lucas Oil races this week at the fairgrounds, but not before a game of “Who’s responsibility is it?” was played out at Monday’s Great Bend City Council meeting.
Great Bend was awarded funding through the Kansas Department of Transportation Cost Share program to help with the reconstruction of the historic dragstrip west of town. After receiving seven bids, Suchy Construction was awarded the bid for $1.6 million.
The SRCA notified city administration on July 21 that upon completion of the project, several high spots existed on the track’s surface. Suchy worked to get the track within specifications by grinding roughly 60 high spots down.
Aaron Suchy with Suchy Construction said the SRCA
was authorized to fix the imperfections despite the extra expense.
"This is where we maybe should have come to you guys and said, 'hey guys, realistically, we're within spec but it's still really not what the dragstrip wants to go 250-300 miles per hour," said Suchy. "It cost $6,000 just to get the grinder here."
Following Suchy grinding the high spots, Total Venue Concepts (TVC) was hired
to professionally polish the surface for roughly $72,000.
The city already covered a $274,000 project for the SRCA to build protective retaining walls on the outside of the race lanes and to upgrade the electronic timing system. The SRCA was put on a $160,000, 10-year, interest-free loan to pay back the city for the walls and timing system.
After paying TVC, the SRCA does not have
enough money to make the loan payments to the city. The dragstrip crew felt
they could polish the surface themselves but realized they needed TVC in order
to keep their race season going.
"Larry from Bandimere (speedway in Colorado) told the SRCA to keep in mind that the more you grind, the more you have to polish," said Suchy. "He told them that numerous times. We did test polish a couple places and it didn't seem that bad. Once they got going, it was more overwhelming."
Ultimately, Suchy Construction was able to get the track within spec, and the
extra expense will be added to SRCA’s loan once the final bill is calculated.