A sizable crowd at the State Line Stadium Speedway in Post Falls cheered in delight last Wednesday night as a battered, but game V-8 hulk spun off the track, then was rammed broadside by another car that was trying to avoid it, in the final lap of the Bump to Pass division finale.

A Hillyard Tire Center-sponsored car bearing its number on a bottomless garbage can mounted horizontally on its roof deftly avoided the chaos and sprinted across the finish line for the win, as the track official simultaneously waved both the yellow caution flag and the checkered flag. An ambulance rushed to the crash scene, where both cars involved in the collision sat motionless, but the track announcer informed the fans as they filed out toward the parking lot that the drivers were uninjured.

It was a fitting and dramatic end to a night of such entertainment at the quarter-mile, high-banked oval stock car racing facility, located at 1349 N. Beck Road, and no doubt created just the kind of excited spectator buzz that co-owners Joe and Walt Doellefeld like to hear.

"For us it's a typical Wednesday," Joe Doellefeld says. "We call it wild and wacky Wednesday Night Fever."

He and Dick Boness, owner of the former Spanaway Speedway, in Tacoma, bought the declining facility and the 40 acres of land on which it sits in 1988, and Walt Doellefeld became an investor in it in 1990, when the brothers bought out Boness' interest in it.

Walt Doellefeld says they acquired it for less than $500,000, but since then probably have spent that much or more rehabilitating it. They've constructed additional buildings, moved and upgraded the main ticket-booth entrance, laid a lot of concrete to improve customer-service and pit areas, and created a large, landscaped hospitality area for corporate and other large-group gatherings.

About nine years ago, they also built a large concrete bandstand in the track infield, at the center of what once was a figure-eight race track, with plans to begin holding concerts there. They say they have yet to fully develop that possible added revenue stream, though they have used the bandstand for presentations and a few concerts and have allowed it to be used for a couple of weddings.

The raceway, which they operate through a company called State Line Stadium/Speedway Inc., now employs 35 to 45 people on a seasonal, part-time basis and draws a couple of thousand spectators to racing events every Wednesday and Saturday night.

The track stretches along the west side of Beck Road. The concrete grandstands, located on the west side of the track, are able to accommodate 4,000 to 5,000 people, and are packed for major events such as the three-day Idaho 200, slated this year for July 31-Aug. 2, the brothers say.

They decline to talk about revenues or profits, but say they pour a lot of the track's receipts back into the facility to maintain and improve it. A key focus for them, they say, has been to try to make it a good family entertainment option. On Wednesdays, for example, admission is just $5.75 for adults—several dollars less than on Saturdays—and children under 10 are admitted free.

Judging by last Wednesday's races, that strategy appears to be working, as hordes of kids—many waving miniature checkered flags—showed up with their parents to watch competition in the popular novice Road Runners, four-cylinder Crazy 4's, and bumper-car-like Bump to Pass divisions. During a break in the action, children rushed to the high protective fence that separates the track from the bleachers, as is customary, to receive candy handed out by drivers who had pulled their race cars up to the fence for People's Choice trophy applause-based voting.

Among other family-oriented events are a demolition derby and fireworks show, scheduled this year for July 3.

Walt Doellefeld says Saturday night events, which feature more competition involving groups such as the Inland Northwest Super Stock Association and series like those offered through Inland Championship Auto Racing, typically attract more pure racing enthusiasts.

The track's racing season typically starts around the first week of April and continues through September, equating to about 57 days. It pays out overall nightly purses that typically range from $800 to $12,000, but that can exceed $30,000 for major races. Winners of larger classes can pick up as much as $500 to $2,500, depending on the event.

The raceway charges a race entry fee of $30 a car, or $20 if the car's owner is a member of the State Line Racers Group, which car owners can join for $30 a year. The Doellefelds say the speedway attracts a lot of car owners from outside the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene area who inject money into the Inland Northwest economy.

It's clear that a majority of the car owners are local, though, and the Doellefelds say most of them participate in stock car racing for the love of the sport, since winnings tend to be modest compared with the cost of operating a stock car and transporting it to and from race venues.

"The purses help offset (the cost of) their hobby," Joe Doellefeld says.

One of the most appealing aspects of the Post Falls facility is its pure Americana feel, compared with the heavily commercialized big-time NASCAR racing seen on TV. Last Wednesday, for example, was Building Contractors Night, and a local contractor's big 4x4 pickup, with kids grinning and waving from the windows, served as the pace vehicle for the evening.

The race cars themselves, many of them clearly low-budget machines with more wrinkled and jury-rigged sheet metal than smooth original steel, bear small-time sponsors' names such as the Lariat Inn, Sprinklers Inc., River City Upholstery, and Jensen Auto Body & Detail. Adding to the ambiance are the feisty engine sounds emanating from many of the unmufflered cars and echoing off the surrounding concrete as drivers seek to top 70 mph on the short straightaways.

Also, food and beverage items are relatively cheap, with the nearly zucchini-sized Drive Line Hot Dog, at $5, being one of the more expensive items available at the concession stands, though there's a less expensive dog available for the timid.

The Doellefelds say they're unsure of how the recent reopening of the updated Spokane County Raceway under new ownership and management will affect attendance at their Post Falls facility, but they're hopeful it will stir an overall rise in racing interest here.

Joe Doellefeld, who lives in Post Falls and has been involved with racing for 34 years, says the recession "has taken a little bit of a toll on us, but we'll survive it." He and Walt say the track operates at the mercy of the weather and always is competing with other events and venues in this area, such as concerts and tribal casinos, that vie for a piece of consumers' limited discretionary income. When that spending shrinks, he says, "We take our turn like everybody else."

Despite all of the challenges of operating such an enterprise, the brothers say they continue to enjoy what they're doing.

Joe Doellefeld says the people who participate in and like to watch stock car racing "are just good, down-to-earth, blue-collar people."

Walt Doellefeld, who lives in Spokane, had operated a personnel agency here called Express Personnel Services until he sold it in 1990 to invest in the raceway. He says he worked in an office for 20 years, and it was "like a breath of fresh air," literally and figuratively, to switch to a business venture in which he was no longer office-bound.

He notes, though, that the track "has kind of a checkered past." It was built around 1976 and owned for many years by the parents of former NASCAR driver Chad Little, he says, adding, "Chad Little kind of grew up at this track."

In 1976, he says, a large crowd of rock-and-roll fans gathered there for what was to be a three-day concert featuring big name performers such as Ike and Tina Turner and Blue Oyster Cult, but the bands failed to show up because the promoter had taken off with the money.

"The fans had a riot and basically just destroyed the place. It was bedlam," Doellefeld says, adding that the structures there had to be totally rebuilt.

The track later fell into a state of decline, and Joe Doellefeld says it still was in rough shape when he and his brother took it over, but he adds, "We saw a diamond in the rough. We made it work, and we've just been working at it ever since."

They say they now are happy with the overall condition of the facility, but both are nearing an age when they will want to retire. Therefore, they say, they expect to sell the facility within the next five years or so, hopefully to someone interested in upgrading it further.

In the meantime, though, they've got some work to do. In time trials last Wednesday, one of the numerous cars to spin or get knocked off the track that night went airborne and wiped out a section of billboard sponsor signs.

Having to deal with such repairs "is part of the normal maintenance when you own a racetrack," Joe Doellefeld says. "Expect the unexpected."