Sports

The 15th anniversary of Raceway Park will feature the addition of two new race classes, the absence of NASCAR's development league, and some important changes in the presentation of racing, most notably a commitment to finishing at a reasonable hour.

"We learned a lot from last year," said Michelle Siderius, who along with sister Marie AuClaire and her husband Aaron took over operation of the track from parents John and Sharon Slack for the 2004 season.

"Mom and John got with us every week and critiqued us. We'd have to go over to their house. One of the biggest things was running late, and we know that, we are hoping we've got that (figured out).

"Marie is going to be over there in the pits cracking the whip making sure those drivers are lined up and ready to go, we're going to do rolling starts for trophy dashes - because we know we can do it. The very last race last year we packed in every class and ran a 150-lap Super Late Model race and we were done by 10:30 or something like that.

"When we ran late, some of the families e-mailed us and said 'Come on girls! Papa John would have never allowed this!,'" Siderius continued.

"We made some mistakes last year, and we're trying to correct them. We want to be considerate of our neighbors."

With the new spirit of punctuality, the 2005 season gets an informal start today with the Test, Tune and Swap Meet, the latter a new addition this year.

"We told our drivers to stop hoarding your old parts and cars," Siderius said.

"Some racers have two or three cars out there just collecting dust.

"We'll see how it works, I think it will grow over time. We know there's a lot of stuff out there."

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. fans and drivers are welcome to visit the track and take part in a free chili feed. Weather permitting, cars will be out doing laps trying to perfect rides for next weekend's season-opening race.

Joining the racing action this year are the Bandolero and Buzz Bombs classes.

"We've got a couple of new things we're introducing this year," Siderius said. "We're really excited about the Bandoleros, for ages 8 to 14. We've got a couple of people locally that have bought (cars), a couple of people out of Spokane that will be coming over here to race, a couple of out of Missoula and Ronan.

"Our other new class we're adding this year is the little Buzz Bombs. This is a class that is entry level. It's a way for people who don't want to spend a lot of money to still get a little kick. We give them a break at the pit gate, they don't have to pay as much to get in, that sort of thing."

Raceway Park has 22 weeks of racing scheduled with six showcase events.

"We'll start out with the Canadian-American Shootout (June 11), go into the Legend Thunder (June 25), then July (2) we're doing the Late Model Challenge.

"The Montana 200 (July 16) will be the biggest one of all. We're pretty sure we've got all previous winners coming back for this. It's going to be huge. We're expecting at least 50 or 60 cars. There are people building cars just for this race.

"This is the one everyone looks forward to."

Conspicuous by its absence this year is the Rumble in the Rockies NASCAR event. Its date is being filled by a Northwest Modifieds race on Aug. 6.

"We're skipping over NASCAR this year, only because they're going through some changes," Siderius said. "We tried to negotiate some dates, but a couple of the dates they wanted to race conflicted with the fair, and things like that, and we didn't want to do that."

NASCAR spokesman Shon Sbarra said in an e-mail that "we continue to keep in contact with the track's management and wish them a great season in 2005. Hopefully, dates and timing can be worked out for a return in the near future."

Wrapping up the showcase events is another Canadian-American Shootout on Aug. 27.

" We were like rookie drivers coming into this," Siderius said. "Now we know, and we feel stronger and better equipped to know what we need to do this year.

"I think we've become stronger, especially Marie and I. We learned to be better negotiators, and how to handle different situations. We learned how to be a lot more frugal. You learn to think more than once or twice or three times if you really need something."

Raceway Park is hoping for better luck with weather this year after five official rainouts last season and 11 more races affected by the wet stuff.

"Last year was the worst year in the 14-year history (of the track) because of the weather," Siderius said. "It was a tough year to take over."