F.T.W. Racing

Chuckwalla Valley Raceway

The Chuckwalla Valley Raceway's plan to build a members-only, road course racing facility at the little-used Desert Center Airport got the go-ahead Thursday to move onto the next phase.

The green light came from the Riverside County designated director, Bob Lyman, as part of a public hearing at Lake Tamarisk Clubhouse.

“A 15-yearlong dream has been realized today,” said Micky Grana of La Quinta, who is part of a development team that includes Matt Johnson and Guy Evans.

The dawn-to-dusk raceway, proposed as a private, members-only automobile and motorcycle training and practice road course, would house parking garages, a clubhouse, timing and scoring towers, pit lanes, a 170-spot parking area, and a modular administration building at full build-out.

It is expected to attract 100 members initially, with membership capped at 600.

Initially, the county has authorized construction of one, 2.7-mile track and a paddock area. It also can house a Vacation RV Park — with no hookups — for up to 40 spaces.

The Chuckwalla Valley Associates LLC project now enters into a 10-day appeal period, after which the developers will begin to work through final conditions — including one more review of the final development agreement by the county — to obtain a grading permit.

“It's exciting,” said Jeanette Roberts, director of Eagle Mountain operations for Kaiser Ventures LLC. “This area has been stagnant for years. We've been waiting a long time for something like this to happen.”

Roberts called the project a creative breath of fresh air.

“It'll breathe life back into this community,” she said, nodding in the direction of a dust-blown corner along Interstate 10 that once brimmed with activity and now lays claim to a post office, cafe and service stations.

“Hopefully we will get a gas station one day,” she said. “Maybe even a bigger grocery store.”

“We've been without industry for so long, it's wonderful,” said Desert Center resident Mary Zeiler.

The Chuckwalla track is described as more low-key than the one proposed in Thermal, as the Thermal track would be built to Formula One standards and would be geared to drawing big-name races and hundreds of spectators.

“These are two entirely different facilities,” Johnson said.

Now that it has gotten to this step, Evans said the second leg of financing will be put in place to work through the entitlements and get the project up to date.

“We intend to build a first-class facility that will create 50 to 75 jobs immediately,” Grana said.

“I'm ecstatic,” said Evans, an off-road racer. “I think we've accomplished something that other people have tried to do, and failed for years. I look forward to getting this done.”

http://chuckwallavalleyraceway.net/