For nearly four decades, McKean County Raceway has been run – on and off – by a string of six different individuals or groups with varying degrees of success.

The seventh hopefuls were to debut tomorrow night at the ⅓-mile dirt track in East Smethport, Pa. until this week’s winter-like weather postponed the opener.

Still, Ken Leet and Joel Smith, after getting all manner of positive feedback, are convinced it has a future.

After reaching an agreement with the fairgrounds board, they crafted an eight-date schedule that leans heavily on the increasingly popular United Late Model Series (ULMS) and will conclude with a Friday-Saturday Fall Classic Oct. 1-2.

Besides the rescheduling of tomorrow’s card, which has yet to be finalized, there will be three Thursday dates (May 27, July 1 and 29) and two Saturday sessions (June 19, July 10) before the finale.

LEET, a former Times Herald motorsports writer, admitted, “Joel and I had a desire to run a race track for several years and there was an interest level by so many people who missed McKean. We wouldn’t have tried it if we felt otherwise.”

But, the sales representative for a maintenance repair product company, conceded, “local racing is definitely not what it was 25-30 years ago. But I’ve seen racing go in cycles where its popularity wanes for a while and it will swing back.”

For Smith, it’s a labor of love.

“I’ve made a living at this for about 30 years and I always said I wouldn’t mind being part of running a race track,” he added.

However, Leet is also realistic.

“We did not want to run a full schedule … that’s just too demanding,” he explained. “McKean has to be a specials-only class because there is no local car base anymore.

“Back in (local racing’s) heyday you had cars from every town around here … Bradford, Olean, Smethport, Eldred, Port Allegany, Shinglehouse, Wellsville, Scio … 3-4-5 cars in each town. Now, there might be one super late model in all of McKean County when 30 years ago there were probably 15 … six or seven right in Smethport.

Leet pointed out, “Now, for McKean to be successful, we have to rely on cars coming from other tracks. We need to run on Thursdays when no one else is racing because we need cars that normally run at Bradford (Rew, Pa.), Freedom (Delevan), Woodhull, Batavia, Stateline (Busti) and Erie.”

SMITH, who owns Eldred’s Close Racing Supply, offered one reason for the optimism over McKean’s return.

“What prompted me (to do this) is that I’ve seen how successful race tracks have become because of Covid (restrictions),” he said. “Race tracks got successful because it was one of the few things you could do … there weren’t concerts or many sports. I felt this was something people could do (outdoors) and a lot of race tracks got successful over the past year because of it. This Covid thing is still going to impact us all and people want that kind of entertainment.”

As for the reduced presence of stock car racing – Bradford and Freedom are the only other tracks in the TH coverage region – Smith pointed out, “It’s definitely an area thing … not every place in the country is successful, it’s hit and miss.

“What’s happened throughout the years, in general, is No. 1, it’s costing racers more money and, No. 2, it’s more work for the racers and today’s generation obviously doesn’t want to do more work. Old-school racers spent every nickel they had and worked hard knowing that’s what gave them success. It’s almost too much work and too much money for the younger generation.”

He added, “That’s why some (racing) has gone away over time. Some local tracks like McKean have been unstable, open then closed. Little Valley was really good at one time but hasn’t been racing in four or five years.

“When you lose that local race track and local racers, you also lose people, they find something else to do … ‘I bought a boat, it’s a lot of fun, less work and less money than racing and I can enjoy it with my family.’”

LEET ADMITTED, “Everybody’s chomping at the bit to get there … I think people have really missed going to McKean. When we practiced last Saturday people I didn’t even know came up and said, “Thank you for getting this place back open.”

And that was literally true as Leet was part of a four-person group that ran the track for eight years until two seasons of horrendous weather ended their stewardship in 2013.

“(Rain) was the biggest thing the last time we did this … you can have the most perfectly laid plans imaginable, 100% to perfection, and the one thing you can’t control ruins you,” he said.

BESIDES the ULMS division, McKean will host the RUSH Late Models, RUSH Pro Mods, Pure Stocks and Mini-stocks.

“There’s some really talented regional drivers in the ULMS series racing at a high professional-type level that will be competing at a lot or our events,” Leet said. “The series is pretty much known up and down the East Coast so people know what it is.

“In some people’s opinion you can have too many (divisions) but everybody wants to run at McKean and you’ve got to give them the opportunity. We’re doing this to support local racing and try to give it a shot in the arm. You’re not going to get results from that by telling people, ‘You can’t come here and race.’”

He added, “We’re racing the classes and rules that the other tracks in the area are running. If a car races at Freedom, Bradford, Batavia or Woodhull they’re legal here.

“We hope people will come out and support McKean and make it a viable entertainment facility. They’ve missed it over the years and if it closes again, who knows what’s going to happen.”

(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)