As urgently as we now need a full-time motocross track in our area, it is hard to see how anyone could be against the proposal to turn Fernley into a professionally run racetrack.

The lack of a full-time race and practice facility is one of the driving forces behind our recent low turnouts and political infighting. The volunteer structure behind most of our local racing has made it possible for grudges and selfishness to thrive. This is not because all of the volunteers are selfish, but simply because the non-profit nature of so many of our tracks has made it too easy for a stubborn few to impede the natural forces that should be uniting our race scene.

Those natural forces are the same ones that compel a struggling company to change its business plan when its market share wanes. In the business world, a decrease in sales (which, for our purposes, could be equated with a decrease in race entries) would lead to a shake-up in the way the company does business (which, in our case, could be equated with a rethinking of our race schedule or a shift in the types of events that our tracks offer.)

Yet those natural forces have been negated here because there has been little incentive for our volunteers to change the way they do business. In other words, because there is no money to be personally gained or lost for them either way, the volunteers have refused to take the downturn in entries seriously, instead preferring to cling to outdated plans and conflict-driven posturing.

A serious business, such as the one that Steve Brown and Ty Erquiaga have proposed at Fernley, would have to transcend these barriers if it wished to survive. It is for this reason that we so desperately need a place like this.

We have already seen some indications that this project is serious about bringing the area together for everyone's benefit: Brown and Erquiaga have made no secret of their wish to partner with the Nevada Old Timers and Reno Over the Hill Gang (the two clubs that have traditionally handled the races at Fernley) to promote the proposed facility's events, which would potentially allow both the track and the clubs to flourish. If we take this gesture to be indicative of the general spirit of the project, it can be assumed that this will not be the only olive branch that Brown and Erquiaga extend to achieve success.

If the Old Timers and Over The Hill Gang are genuine about improving our area's racing, they will listen intently to the plans that have been proposed for their long-time racetrack. And if they find that this plan would better suit our area's riders, they should wholeheartedly pledge to support it. This is not because they haven't done a good job promoting Fernley's races over the years (they have,) but simply because a facility like the new Fernley project could be the jolt that reverses the downward slide we have experienced in the last year.

As important as volunterism has been to our race scene throughout the years, the time is right for someone to make our racing a full-time job. And if this possibility rises from the sands of Fernley this spring, we should all get behind it.

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