Different Horsepower At Playfair

It may sound like a strange mix to many.

The graceful beauty of thoroughbred race horses and the raw horsepower of 100 mile-per-hour motorcycles.

The two will share quarters on Saturday night when motorcycle racing returns to Playfair Race Course for the first time since before World War I.

The Playfair Half-Mile racing program begins at 6:30. If it is a success this race may usher in bigger and better events and maybe even help lend a hand in saving the track.

“Once we know the 1997 horse racing dates we’d like to sign for one or two events next year, ” said co-promoter Bert Marsh of Spokane. “We’d like to make it a Grand National race.”

Grand National races attract the top riders from across the nation who compete for national points and big purses.

Purists may be gnashing their teeth at the thought of it, but with the future of live horse racing up in the air at Playfair, bringing back the bikes may represent one way to help keep the nearly century-old track from becoming an industrial park.

It might be hard to find anyone who remembers Playfair Race Course as anything but a horse race track. After all, it has been hosting the horses since 1935.

A real old timer might recall when this same race track - built in 1901 as the center piece of the original Spokane Fairgrounds - would be packed with more than 10,000 fairgoers watching everything from horses to bikes to race cars circle the big oval during fair time.

Legend has it that racer/aviator Barney Oldfield once circled the track in an airplane as he raced a horse.

“To the best of my knowledge the only time they raced motorcycles here was during the fair,” said former Playfair publicist/track announcer Jim Price.

Racing motorcycles with side cars was very popular in the teens,” said Price, a local sports historian. Price said what racing took place at the present-day Playfair probably only continued for a short time. Following World War I, the fair went bankrupt and the track closed.

The facility remained dormant until the early 1930s when a nationwide ban on horse racing was lifted. In 1935, Playfair Race Course was born.

As the home of horse racing here for more than 60 years, Playfair hasn’t seen the kind of speed and horsepower it will see Saturday. The 600 cc class will produce 75-100 horsepower per bike and roar down the straightaways at speeds approaching 110 miles-perhour.

Motorcycle racing on horse race tracks is hardly new or unusual.

Horse tracks on the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) Grand National circuit include the Sacramento mile, Pomona half mile and even high-rolling Del Mar north of San Diego. “Del Mar is the premier mile (in Grand National racing),” said co-promoter Bert Marsh.

Locally, Coeur d’Alene hosted annual events at the Kootenai County Fairgrounds until 1992. Missoula also runs races at its fairgrounds.

“We’re keeping dollars coming into the facility,” said Marsh. “The two of us (horsemen and race promoters) maybe will keep the race track from disappearing.”

In the East and Midwest many old horse tracks have been turned into permanent sprint car and motorcycle tracks. It’s unlikely that would happen here. Should Playfair fail it would most likely be sold off as industrial property.

Work continues both on and off the track trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Removing the track’s present racing surface - about eight inches of sand and clay mix - is the biggest job and will take the better part of three days, according to Playfair general manager Kim Rich. There’s also a lot of general clean-up to do to get the grandstands ready for race fans, too, Rich said. Despite the big work load, Rich was excited when asked about the race. “We have too nice a facility and too much grass to mow not to use it.”

The covered Playfair grandstands will provide shaded viewing and the Turf Club will offer race fans an amenity they seldom see at a motorsports event.

While Rich and her staff are busy prepping for Saturday’s race, their real focus is on an important date with Washington State Horse Racing Commission Tuesday. That meeting may help decide the fate of the 1996 live horse racing season at the track.

Even though the race schedule has not been confirmed, Playfair currently has about 300 horses on site, and Rich anticipates no real problems with the bikes.

“They’re pretty used to the noise,” Rich said. “We told the horsemen when they moved in that the motorcycles would be here.”