The future of a popular race track in Oshkosh is essentially up in the air.
Supporters say the dirt track that is the Oshkosh Speed Zone Raceway is a decade old, and took 10,000 signatures from the community to gain approval from the County.
Now, disagreements over the contents of the 2017-2019 rental agreement between the County Parks Committee and Impact Motorsports has County leaders weighing their options with the space.
It's the same space that's home to the annual Lifest event, which uses the same space for four days in July for an outdoor music festival, 5K, blood drive, and other activities. Coincidentally, negotiations between Lifest and County leaders over the festival's 2017-2019 contract are also underway.
While nothing is set in stone, and likely won't be for months, concerns that a decision will be made to tear the track down for a permanent stage for Lifest, and other music events, have supporters of the track speaking out tonight.
"This is the Oshkosh version of 'Field of Dreams," says raceway communications director Scott Markel, leaning on the grandstand that overlooks the dirt track as a county water truck runs slow laps around the course, spraying it down.
Markel says it took a whole community to make the dirt track a reality 10 years ago.
"It took 10,000 signatures from the community to get it put here," adds Markel.
And from May to October, Markel says thousands of fans and racing families alike fill the grandstand.
"It's just a huge, charitable impact on the community that this track has established," says Markel, adding that some businesses in the Oshkosh area depend on its existence.
Markel says a breakdown in contract negotiations for the 2017-2019 seasons between the track and the county is not what they were expecting, especially after the past few years of having no issue sharing the space with Lifest.
Markel is adamant that he and others believe there can be a compromise reached that benefits all parties.
"Negotiations on the contract are within $4,000 of what the track is offering," says Markel, "and what the county wants."
But county leaders say they, too, weren't expecting a breakdown over contract negotiations.
"We've been negotiating with [Impact Motorsports] for two years. We've already done a one-year contract extension with them. Two months ago, [we] put out a final offer to them," says Winnebago Co. Parks director Rob Way, "it was rejected by them."
Way says the latest contract would've still allowed the race track to pay less in rental fees than other area county-owned tracks.
"At the moment Impact Motorsports sits on the sidelines," says Way, "until things work their way out with Lifest."
Way says those negotiations could take months. But Markel says nothing should be "final" at this point.
"If you're truly negotiating with a tenant that's been a good tenant for 10 years, met the 5% increase that you've had every year, paid the bills on time," says Markel, "[then] let's get back to the table and talk about this."
The Speed Zone Raceway will operate through the 2016 season unphased.
Markel says they're now collecting 5,000 signatures in support of keeping the track. They're also asking supporters to reach out to state lawmakers, which he say many of the younger racers are doing on social media.
As far as moving the track, Markel says it's not likely a sound option.
"It'd be probably close to $1 million to relocate this," says Markel, "and then you have to impact another community, another neighborhood."
Our calls and e-mails to Lifestspokespeople requesting a response were not returned by news time.
