The Second Battle Of AltamontBack in December 1969, the Rolling Stones, Santana, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Jefferson Airplane and The Flying Burrito Brothers appeared at Altamont Raceway in California's eastern Alameda County. With security provided by the beer-enriched Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club, the ill-organized event resulted in three accidental deaths, four intentional births and the stabbing and beating to death of 18-year-old Meredith Hunter. To much of the media, it all boiled down to a chaotic battle between the Hells Angels and a bunch of intoxicated teenagers.
Almost 38 years later, Altamont Raceway is now called Altamont Motorsports Park and it finds itself locked in another battle to save itself and serve the motorsport community. It seems that, in 1999, Mark Rivard bought a plot of land overlooking the track with the intention of building his home there and eventually buying the then-moribund racing facility and closing it. Instead, the same group that's developing the Riverside Motorsports Park in nearby Merced County bought Altamont in December 2005 and invested a reported $1.8 million into repaving the half-mile oval, upgrading the infield road course, and generally fixing things up. It re-opened in March 2006 with NASCAR oval racing, club events on the infield courses, and yes, drifting.
But Mr. Rivard built his dream home (and a motocross track) about 120 feet from the track anyhow. And now, apparently, he's unwilling to put up with the noise and crowds racing naturally produces. He has organized a group called 'Community for a Better Altamont' (CBA) that is dedicated to closing the Altamont Motorsports Park. And the first thing to go has been drifting.
To list all CBA's complaints against Altamont would take pages and includes everything from building code violations to promoting illegal free concerts and a threat to endangered species like the Joaquin kit fox and California tiger salamander. But drifting got some specific wrath for attracting, it was alleged, street racing on adjoining roads and illegal narcotics traffic. So drifting has been banned, while NASCAR and club events for Porsches and Ferraris and other sports cars continue-albeit under threatening conditions.
Why is drifting in particular such a problem? Some of it may have to do with The Fast & The Furious. "The movies that have come out have done a disservice to this segment of motorsports," says John Condren, the CEO of the company now controlling Altamont. "It's tough for track owners to present them in a positive light. The perception is that they're all gang-bangers. It's not my job to clean up drifting's image, but it is my job to promote motorsports."
There also seems to be confusion on the part of some Alameda County lawmakers about the differences between drifting and autocrossing. According to the Contra Costa Times, county supervisor Scott Hagerty insisted at one meeting that an "Auto-X" event was, in fact, disguised drifting. "Would you admit your 'Auto-X' was drifting?," Hagerty asked Mark Melville, the track's VP of operations. When the answer he got was "No, sir", that led to what the paper described as an "angry tirade" where he claimed the track ownership couldn't even keep its stories straight.
Here's the bottom line: California and most other states are losing motorsport facilities more rapidly than they can be replaced. In Alameda County, home to Oakland and its notorious 'side shows' the need to get people off the street and into regulated facilities is particularly acute. If the people who use these facilities don't fight for them, they'll disappear. And right now, the second battle of Altamont is at best, a toss-up.