OSHKOSH, WI -- Dozens of supporters of a popular Oshkosh race track are telling the Winnebago County Board to save the Oshkosh SpeedZone Raceway.
The driving message from supporters during Tuesday night's meeting: take away the raceway, and you'll hurt the Oshkosh community, its economy, and overall image.
The race track's future is up in the air after county leaders say its owners turned down a final contract offer.
Supporters say they're reminding County Board members at tonight's open hearing that taking it away would be bad for business.
"We're from Brookfield, which is outside of Milwaukee," says Alan Sumner, a Congressman for the American Motorcycle Association. "We've got to stay in a hotel overnight. We've got to eat. We've got to buy fuel," he explains after the meeting, which are points many echoed tonight.
Meanwhile, County Board members say they're listening to their concerns. Some were upset when the same group was told they couldn't speak at last month's meeting since their item hadn't been added to the agenda on time.
"One of the gentlemen came up and talked to me before... and wanted to know how the system would work," explains Board Chair David Albrecht after the meeting, "so they took a few of their people, and expressed what they wanted to do. So it worked out very good."
But no decision was made by the Board--at least yet--as the site's future is still under negotiations between Lifest owners, and the county parks department.
