HURON — Although he announced just over a week ago that the 2017 season would end his 22-year tenure as track promoter at Dakota State Fair Speedway, Orville Chenoweth wants everyone to know he’s not quite done yet.
Remaining on the docket for Chenoweth are the season championships, which will be decided in all five divisions at 7 p.m. tonight, and the 2017 Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100, which will be held Sept. 13-16 at the Huron oval.
“We’ll have new stuff coming out, watch for our poster. We have the DARE car coming back and all that stuff booked in,” Chenoweth said of the WISSOTA 100, which will serve as the final on-track event of his promoting career. “Although WISSOTA is actually the promoter for it, 80 percent of it is stuff I helped assemble. I will still be the promoter for the event and so forth. Concessions and all that stuff is still my deal and the equipment is my deal.”
Following the WISSOTA 100, the final piece of business for Chenoweth will be the annual Dakota State Fair Speedway Racing Banquet, which is scheduled for Oct. 28 at the Huron Events Center.
Retirement decision
Several factors led to Chenoweth finally deciding it was time to give up something he was extremely passionate about — keeping the stock car racing tradition going strong.
“One of the reasons I am quitting when I’m quitting, is because of the fact that we need to find a new promoter, and we need to find them fairly quick, so none of the dates and some of the stuff that I’ve arranged for years never gets changed if someone wants to continue it,” Chenoweth said.
A renovation project, which is currently underway at the grandstands in preparation for a 100-year celebration in 2018, has created some less-than-desireable situations for Chenoweth and his staff at Dakota Promotions Inc., as it tried to fulfill the summer racing contract.
“I was unaware of that project, and all of a sudden they throw the project on me and I lost all control in the grandstands. I have no say, because it’s a state facility,” he said. “Even though I’ve been there for 22 years, they don’t want to see what my vision for it would have been to what their vision is. I don’t know what their vision is and I can’t stick around and wait for their vision.”
Stepping away from the speedway will provide Chenoweth with an opportunity to explore some other ventures that interest him.
“Healthwise, I feel good unless something happens tomorrow, and I’m young enough that I can still do what I want to do,” Chenoweth said. “Have I got some chances to move into something a little bit different? There’s always that opportunity. I’m not going to say that’s not a possibility.”
Enjoying the journey
Besides a couple bumps in the road, which happens with just about anything, Dakota State Fair Speedway has become one of the premier WISSOTA-sanctioned tracks during Chenoweth’s tenure.
Upon taking over the summer racing program at the Huron track, Chenoweth went to work to bring top-notch racing to Huron.
“I took that 5/8-mile track and shortened it up. I just wish at that time I could have shortened it up just a hair bit more. But we pretty much had in our minds to center the grandstands and that’s where we’re at right now,” Chenoweth said. “Although, I did set all the poles inside, so if I guy wanted to shorten it again one more time there is that possibility. But the financial side of it is costly.”
Throughout the years the improvements continued, allowing Huron to host several major racing events, including the Speedway Motors WISSOTA 100 for the past eight years.
“My biggest accomplishment was to land the WISSOTA 100 here,” Chenoweth said. “At that time it took a lot of politics or whatever. I’ve given a lot, a lot of time to WISSOTA.
“I’m right there at their rules meetings, and I think I helped WISSOTA in a lot of stuff and am good friends with all those guys,” he said.
Under Chenoweth’s direction, DSFS also hosted several national racing series. Included on the list are the World of Outlaws Gumout Series, the World of Outlaws Late Model Series and the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series.
Chenoweth pointed to receiving the RP Award in Daytona and having Dakota State Fair Speedway being selected as the WISSOTA Track of the Year as other major accomplishments during his run as the promoter.
For any business to be successful it must have a dedicated group of employees and plenty of support from the community. Chenoweth feels he has had both throughout his 22 years at the speedway.
“The people who have worked for me have been very, very good. I hate to lose any of them,” Chenoweth said. “The fans have been good and about 95 percent of my drivers over there are good drivers. They are very good to work with and always have been.
“A lot of families got started over there, a lot of families grew up around that race track when I was there, and that makes you feel good when you have a group like that,” he said. “It’s hard to part with some of that when you are in a position like that. But I wanted to make it grow better and different, and when you don’t have control of a facility it is hard to make that happen. You can only do so much.”
Also playing a major role in Chenoweth’s sustainability at the speedway were numerous sponsorships from local and area businesses.
“Our crowds are decent and I think every sponsor in Huron that has sponsored me over all these years has been very receptive to the fact that we get good clientel,” he said. “Every week it seems like the camping is growing, so it would be nice to keep that going for the fair and it would be nice to keep people coming into town.”
Moving forward
Throughout the years Chenoweth has accumulated the equipment needed to operate the speedway. That equipment will be available for purchase for the next promoter.
“I’m going to hold all my equipment together as one unit for right now, but probably after the 100, parts of it will be sold and parts will be sold a little later probably,” Cheno-weth said. “I’m going to hold it back for one package for a little bit. But it is all coming up shortly, we’re not too far from fair and the WISSOTA 100.”
