Room to vroom

On-again off-again plans to build a race track near this eastern Oregon farming and food-processing town finally have gotten the checkered flag for construction.

But the project has morphed from a $500 million NASCAR-style speedway to something more akin to a golf and country club, with the focus on motor racing instead of putting greens, wedges, irons and caddies.

Groundbreaking is scheduled at 2 p.m. Thursday for the 700-acre Northwest Motorsports Park on public land roughly 120 miles from Portland, said Billie Jean Morris, spokeswoman for Oregon International Speedway, the developers.

 – Excerpt from The Oregonian, October 21, 2007