Morrison – Ponder for a moment, if you will, that Bandimere Speedway didn’t exist. There would be no elite-level National Hot Rod Association event in the Rocky Mountain region, and no place for muscle cars and their Front Range owners to explore their need for speed.
That would be a problem for many of us, not just the 112,000 faithful spectators and participants who will attend this weekend’s 28th Mopar Mile-High Nationals, or the thousands of others who visit Bandimere during other events four nights a week from April to October.
For those who despise loud cars and the risk of racing at speeds in excess of 325 mph, Colorado’s oldest motorsports facility is a necessary evil in the fight against illegal racing.
“Think about the kids we keep off the street,” said John Bandimere Jr., the second generation owner of the 49-year-old track built into the side of what is known as Thunder Mountain. “There are still a lot of them that race on the street. The issue is that they have an alternative.”
The speedway is not in immediate jeopardy of going out of business, but Bandimere is concerned. He is concerned about his inability to expand to meet modern NHRA facilities, and about what the track’s future neighbors are going to think about the races being so close to their homes.
A pricey 1,200-home development has broken ground just east of Bandimere, across from C-470 and well within earshot of the facility that at times can be the noisiest place in the state. Some homes will sell for between $1 million and $2 million and be occupied at this time next year, when Bandimere hosts its 29th NHRA national event during the track’s 50-year anniversary.
“I want the deal about the new housing out here positive,” Bandimere said. “This valley has needed to develop. You know how it is. You go some place, and you’re there for a long time – for us (nearly) 50 years – and then all of a sudden this pristine valley develops. Who are we to stay in the way of it?”
Bandimere and the new housing developer, Solterra, have had several positive meetings. In fact, Solterra has become a track sponsor and the company’s vice president, Tom Morton, said he and John Bandimere have become “good friends” and that he doesn’t foresee any problems being neighbors.
“Once people start moving in, that could maybe be a whole different story,” Bandimere said. “But we’ve worried about it since we first saw housing a long time ago.
“I think, right now, we’re going to have to work a little smarter. We’re going to have to maybe be more careful with the times we quit.”
The track – one of the country’s busiest amateur venues – typically closes by midnight on the weekends and 9 p.m. on weeknights. Morton said his company is using the speedway as an attraction for prospective homeowners and encouraged many of them to witness the track’s July 4 fireworks show.
“We’re very upfront about it, telling everybody that Bandimere are good neighbors and there are advantages to it,” Morton said. “I don’t think we’ll have any issues.”
The right to race
Bandimere has a Jefferson County zoning permit to race on his 160-acre facility, and he said the permit would last “forever” as long as the track’s infrastructure doesn’t change. But that’s another concern for Bandimere, who is working with more than 300 fewer acres than most NHRA-hosted tracks, many of which are new.
“If we wanted to make major improvements to this facility, then we’d have to go in for new zoning issues,” Bandimere said. “Then it opens it wide open for them to say, ‘Maybe we should look at this.”‘
The speedway is not equipped with a public sewer and offers little protection from rain and heat. Bandimere said most NHRA Powerade Series venues are full-service facilities on 300 to 400 acres.
“Look around,” he said. “The racetracks are bigger and bigger. There is more. And the prime person in this whole deal is not the racer. It’s the spectator. The spectator pays the bills.”
Bandimere has looked into building a new, bigger track elsewhere for at least seven years, and he was a planned co-tenant with NASCAR-run International Speedway Corp., in the failed 2000 effort to build WorldPark, a 5,000-acre motorsports complex.
Bandimere a fixture
ISC is again pursuing a Denver-area track, but Bandimere said the Florida-based company has not talked to him about becoming partners. At the risk of coming off as being cocky, Bandimere, 69, doubts that ISC would build anywhere in the Denver region without talking to him.
After all, when it comes to Colorado motorsports, nobody knows the landscape better than Bandimere, the last remaining host of an elite-level national series.
Pikes Peak International Raceway (paved oval), Rocky Mountain National Speedway (dirt oval), Second Creek Raceway (paved road course) and the Grand Prix of Denver (paved road course) have each folded within the past three years.
NHRA president Tom Compton said he would hate to take Bandimere off the Powerade Series schedule, but said the future of the sport demands more room.
“It’s not too small, but the way the NHRA is growing right now, there’s not a lot of extra room around here to accommodate the fans we expect to have in the future,” Compton said.
Still, Compton said, as long as Bandimere is in business, the NHRA would serve what he called “a very important market, one that we plan to partner with John Bandimere as long as he wants to be involved.”
Drag-racing legend John Force is the national patriarch of Colorado racing. The 14-time funny-car champion made his first quarter-mile pass at Bandimere in 1974.
“My dad and Bandimere’s dad sat on this hill, talking about this being God’s mountain,” Force said. “They wanted to build this hill and race. It’s almost become a landmark, and it’s always been about giving the kids a place to come and race.”
Staff writer Mike Chambers can be reached at 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com.
