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Old Drillers baseball stadium could be site of car races
If so, they would likely not begin until later this summer or early fall.

By KEVIN CANFIELD World Staff Writer
Published: 4/23/2010 2:27 AM
Last Modified: 4/23/2010 6:13 AM

The roar of race car engines could soon replace the sound of a baseball hitting a bat at old Drillers Stadium at Expo Square.

County officials are discussing with racing promoter Emmett Hahn the possibility of holding a few races inside the ballpark, which sits empty now that the Tulsa Drillers baseball team is playing downtown at ONEOK Field.

"We're just trying to work on a couple of dates when we can try a racing event here," Mark Andrus, Expo Square's president and CEO, said Thursday.

The races would likely not begin until later this summer, or early fall, with perhaps a race scheduled during the Tulsa State Fair, Andrus said.

Last week, Andrus, Hahn, County Commissioner Karen Keith and John Baker, a Tulsa City-County Health Department employee, met to listen and observe as three micro midget cars revved their engines inside the ballpark.

"We were testing things to be sure they were within acceptable noise levels and that it would work," Andrus said. "It was very acceptable."

Keith said the actual testing took place two blocks north of the ballpark on Winston Avenue, where she, Andrus and Baker used sound meters to test the noise levels.

"It didn't even make a blip on it," Keith said, "and that's with three of them running. We couldn't really hear anything."

Keith was quick to acknowledge, however, that the three-car sampling did not generate the same noise level an actual race would.

Baker, who lives near the fairgrounds, said last week's noon-hour test was just the first step in determining whether the noise level created by the cars would be acceptable.

The next step is to measure the noise level on a Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, which is when the fairgrounds is considering holding the races.

"Would it create a nuisance for the neighborhood, we can't determine at this time," he said.

Outdoor racing was a weekly event at the fairgrounds in the late 1970s and early '80s.

But in 1983, when the Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority was created to oversee the fairgrounds, the members decided to get rid of outdoor races because of the problems it had caused.

Bill Weinrich, president of the Sunrise Terrace Neighborhood Association, said he doesn't know how neighborhood residents will respond to the latest proposal to hold outdoor auto races at the fairgrounds.

But he does recall how they responded in 2003, the last time races were held at the fairgrounds.

"It would be an unfavorable reaction, based on the poll we did," he said.

Baker said it was important to note that the races being contemplated inside the ballpark would involve much smaller cars than those used in 2003, and that the cars would have mufflers to limit the engine noise.

"It is encouraging at this point," Baker said.

Hahn, who puts on the annual Chili Bowl inside the QuikTrip Center at Expo Square, was not available for comment.

Read more from this Tulsa World article at http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?subjectid=16&articleid=20100423_16_A13_Theroa178363

David Smith Jr.
www.oklahomatidbits.com

I am shaking my head. Not at the fact that they are trying to get racing back on the Tulsa Fairgrounds but and what Oklahoma State Fair Inc had to say about the fairgrounds.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands 
in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he 
stands at times of challenge and controversy." 
Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Erich Petersen 

I have one correction to make to the above article. The 14th Paragraph reads,

" But in 1983, when the Tulsa County Public Facilities Authority was created to oversee the fairgrounds, the members decided to get rid of outdoor races because of the problems it had caused."

It should read that "the members were bought off and coersed by the corrupt politicians and their supporters that favored horse racing and paramutual racing in Oklahoma.