With its dirt track under water all season, KCK speedway hopes for at least one race

From April to October, Lakeside Speedway often bustles with spectators watching the action on the dirt track below. Dust from the track billows into the crowd as people holler at the racing cars.

Now, the Kansas City, Kansas, track is quiet and still. The land surrounding the speedway is mostly covered in water. The track looks more like a lake.

General manager Pete Howey said he’s used to weather affecting the speedway. One small shower can change the entire consistency of the track. But these floods have wiped out his business so far this season.

Lakeside is just one of many places along the Missouri River that have been taken over by high water in what so far is the wettest year on record in Kansas City.

Howey said being forced to close this season has obviously affected the revenue stream, which makes paying the mortgage more difficult. But being closed has also affected the legacy the track hopes to continue.

His family bought the track in 2013 and is dedicated to keeping the speedway open, Howey said. He is proud that Lakeside, which he says has been open for 65 years, is one of the longest running family-owned tracks in the country.

“Whatever it takes, we’ll keep it going,” he said.

The first round of flooding came in March — before the track would have opened for the season — when one of two levees close to the track broke. Howey said he could see the water rushing toward his property.

“It was fascinating,” he said. “It was like white water rafting type of water.”

The speedway’s staff was able to clean up the water and repair a damaged building in about two weeks. The cost was more than $6,000.

The speedway seemingly was going to open just a little later than planned. Lakeside even announced on Facebook that “things are looking up” on May 16.

But then the second levee broke and another major flood hit in late May. All of their repairs were undone. Storms a week ago caused the water levels to rise once more.

“It’s all trash again,” he said.

At its worst, the flood water was about 20 feet high at the deepest point of the track, Howey estimates. Now, it’s about five feet and is receding more each day.

He doesn’t know if the track will open at all this season, but he remains hopeful there will be at least one race before the end of October.

Howey started a GoFundMe page that has raised over $1,700, created a Venmo account and said people have been handing him checks as well. The money will go toward cleanup efforts and repairs, such as the fuel to pump the water out from the track, which costs about $75 per day, he said.

“It’s kind of just to get over the hurdles,” Howey said. “Just to have a little bit of what I call seed money to keep going so I’m not dipping into the back money that we’ve had for the property.”

Some local speedways have also raised money for Lakeside. Valley Speedway in Grain Valley was scheduled to hold a Lakeside Speedway fundraiser Friday, with $2 of each ticket going to Lakeside.

This is a two-way street: Valley Speedway has flooded in the past and Lakeside helped them clean up the water, Valley Speedway manager Dennis Shrout said.

“The racing community is a small community,” he said.

Spectators, drivers and neighbors have helped out with cleanup efforts at Lakeside, Howey said. As many as eight volunteers have been out in one day, and he said it usually isn’t the same people each time.

Marilee Kalina, who said she is an avid spectator, was at the track to help with cleanup last week. She said Lakeside means everything to her, so much that she was married on the track.

When Howey sent her a video of the water, she said she began crying immediately.

“You just don’t think that it’s going to happen,” she said. “When you see the water, when you hear flood, you just don’t realize the devastation that it brings with it.”

Howey said his staff has kept a positive attitude about the whole situation and knows there’s not anything more they can do but wait for the water to recede.

“You just keep a smile on your face,” Howey said. “You come out and you just do what you can to get it open to make your fans happy.”

This story was originally published June 27, 2019 at 6:18 PM.