An investor group that hopes to develop a $30 million raceway park here is looking at sites for the project in the Coeur dAlene-Post Falls area and on the West Plains after having ruled out an East Spokane site it considered initially.


Doug Miller, one of the investors and a spokesman for the group, says the investors have added plans for a drag-racing strip to the proposed facility, in addition to the envisioned half-mile oval track that the project would be centered around. He estimates that the group would need about 280 acres of land for the project. Miller declines for now to disclose potential sites for the facility, but says the group is looking at bare land, rather than established raceways that currently operate in North Idaho and on the West Plains.


Regarding the potential site in East Spokane, Miller says, Sizewise, there just wasnt enough real estate, when you factor in parking and everything else.


The investor group hopes to secure a site in the next few months, Miller says. After that, it plans to form a development company and start working through the construction-permitting process.


Miller says it still is unclear how long it would be until work on a racing facility would start, but the investors are expecting the permitting process to take as long as a year.


As envisioned, the racing facility would host NASCAR-like car racesNASCAR stands for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racingand would include spectator seating that could accommodate up to 11,500 people.