http://www.signonsandiego.com/sports/20040715-9999-lz1s15racing1.html

Brakes officially hit on Barona's Sprint Car schedule
By Bill Center UNION-TRIBUNE

Barona Speedway's run as the "unofficial" home track of the Sprint
Car Racing Association lasted less than half a season.
Sprint Car Racing Association president Ron Shuman announced this
week that the tour was canceling its four remaining 2004 races at the
quarter-mile dirt oval.
For Barona Speedway promoter Todd Salazar, the announcement was a
major setback to his "dream" of running the high-powered sprint cars
on his remote facility located 4.8 miles northeast of the Barona
Casino on Wildcat Canyon Road.
"I did everything I could to make this happen, to make it work," said
Salazar. "We had some great races. But there were too many things
against us."
Over the past three years, Salazar had made major improvements to the
track in hopes of luring sprint cars to Barona. Late last year,
Shuman said he would run one or two events at Barona in 2004 –
ending
a 22-year drought of no sprint car racing in San Diego County.
But last winter, a struggle for control of sprint car racing broke
out in the Southwest. Perris Auto Speedway in southern Riverside
County, which had served the SCRA as the sanctioning body's "home
track," switched to U.S. Auto Club sprint cars. Shuman then granted
Barona eight dates for the 2004 season.
Thus far, each of the three sprint car programs run at Barona –
swept
by Rickie Gaunt en route to an SCRA-record five straight wins –
came
in direct competition to a USAC race at Perris. In addition, the
season's first race at Barona was rained out.
Barona's crowd counts of around 1,000 fell a third-short of what
Shuman called the minimum "break-even point."
"I want to thank Salazar for all the the hard work and support," said
Shuman, who held out the slim possibility that the beleaguered SCRA
tour might return to Barona in the future – if the series
survives
its struggle with USAC.
"Unfortunately, the bottom line is that Barona Speedway hasn't had an
opportunity to build a weekly fan base that is strong enough to
support our group at this time."
Salazar said he didn't know why the SCRA didn't attract more fans to
Barona.
"I don't know if they didn't know where the track was or if they felt
the drive was too long," he said. "But it didn't help that each of
our races was up against a USAC sprint car race at Perris. Every car,
every fan had to choose where to go. We got cars and fans, but not
all of them . . . not enough."
Shuman's decision to pull out of his partnership with Barona left the
track with four unfilled dates. Salazar said the California Lightning
Sprints and dwarf cars will fill the most immediate July 24 date.
He is also negotiating with USAC to bring the smaller 360 (cubic
inch) sprint cars and popular Ford Focus Midgets to the track later
this season to fill the now-open September, October and November
dates.