I AM writing this letter because I feel that there is a need for a place for young and old people to gather and be able to safely race their cars in a controlled environment. We are all interested in pushing our cars and ourselves to the limit of what we can do, and to do this we need a place where we can safely race each other on the weekends.
The police have taken measures to stop illegal street racing by setting up sting operations and a special task force because they feel that these events can really get out of hand on the street.
I am proposing to our elected officials and the people of Saipan to give us petitioners a place to be able to safely go and race each other on the weekends. There would be several good things to this program. A few of which are the racers will race each other for a fee. I myself have entered a couple nationally known racing events in California (Battle of the Imports) and have paid a fee of $50 a day just to race my car. I remember that about 400 car enthusiasts entered the event for just that one day and not to mention the income the spectators produced. In Saipan’s case there is about 50 cars that will actively participate every weekend—that’s $5,000 just for the weekend and $260,000 for the year so in reality the raceway will pay for itself. This is a positive alternative to illegal street racing especially cutting the cost on having to organize sting operations and set up task forces to combat street races.
Saipan would also be a prime location for strip because of the available open space. There are many corporations that might be able to provide donations to start this program, and with Guam’s speedway opening up next year they may also be interested in racing here on Saipan. The trip would require about 1/2 mile of pavement. Although the actual strip would be 1/8 of a mile, we will need space for people to slow down safely and we know that the Marianas Public Lands Authority have the available space for this.
We already have a large number of people showing interest in this program. A few from our neighboring islands have expressed interest in traveling here to participate in this program.
We hope that you can consider this proposal seriously because their can be many long lasting positive effects and the income it can bring on having this program. RALPH N. YUMUL
Capitol Hill, Saipan
