While the City of Pocatello, Idaho, spends tax dollars rebuilding a small park into an elaborate skate park, it rejects private efforts at creating a dedicated motorsports complex.  Add to that the fact that the city is sitting on a federal land grant that has as one of its provisions that it could be used for sports, including motorsports (part of the Surplus Property Act involving Pocatello Airport, this is being administered by Bannock Development’s tax payer funded Project CREST)!

On top of this, the administrator for the Pocatello Car Club (advocating for a motorsports complex) says he is now being accused of fraud! Here is most (but not all) of the letter published by the Pocatello Car Club:

After months of trying to work with the mayor to discuss hosting a second street drag for raising funds for the new motorsports complex (PMC), his response was, “There will be no racing on city streets this year.” Even after we addressed the issues, he refused to meet with me or any of the board members to discuss the street drags or allow it to go before the city council. The Pocatello Car Club Board and I have decided to wait until the November election to revisit the matter.

And after several attempts to also meet with the mayor to share our plans for PMC, his response was, “The city has their project and you have yours”. The city does not want to work with the Pocatello Car Club. He continued to refuse to meet with me or any of the board members to discuss the PMC or allow it go before the city council. The Board and I have agreed to wait until the November election to address this issue again.

I spent months trying to organize a demo derby or figure 8 race at the county fairgrounds to help raise funds for the PMC. Their final response was “No motorsports”. They were unwilling to discuss it further. The Board and I have decided to wait until November to reconsider our options.

With the city and county refusing to discuss fundraising events for PMC, I reached out to Power County and Fort Hall. I asked about using their facilities for a demo derby, but I haven’t received a response yet. I’ve attended two Power County Fairgrounds meetings to discuss the derby, and they have yet to make a decision. I’m still waiting for their reply.

This has been a difficult year for the Pocatello Car Club. I’ve been poorly treated and lied to by several government officials who acted as if they were accountable to no one. It seems as though local government officials even set up roadblocks to hinder our efforts to bring motorsports back to Pocatello.

I fully admit to my mistakes in dealing with the mayor and the county, including telling the mayor exactly what I thought of him after he refused to meet and I threatening legal action against the county after they strung me along for months. I mishandled these situations, and as a result, there have been negative consequences for the Pocatello Car Club. My reputation has been tarnished. I apologize to everyone who relied on me to handle this better.

After hearing about the CREST project near the airport, I reached out to the project organizers to explore collaboration. However, they canceled our meeting and refused to reschedule despite my repeated attempts.

I realize that I’ve handled the situation poorly and I’m not the right person to continue leading the PMC project, given the current political climate. I still believe in the importance of the motorsports complex and know that many people in Pocatello want it. However, I am not the right person to navigate this unique political environment.

Along with alienating government officials, I’ve also upset members of the car community. At the last car show in the mall that I organized, volunteers were so upset that they vowed never to help at one of my shows again. And just this week, a member of the car community publicly accused me of fraud.

I recognize the need for a motorsports complex, events like street drags, and car shows, but I am currently not the right person to make these things happen. I’ve made poor decisions and rubbed people the wrong way.

With the battles against politicians, low attendance at the PMC public meeting, the fallout from upsetting volunteers, and the accusation of fraud, I believe it’s best if I lay low for a while.

I will continue to follow through on the projects I’m currently working on and support my son and his PYMP projects.

As for the PMC, I’ve exhausted all the options I think were available and have come up empty. I don’t blame anyone else—it’s me being the wrong person for the job and bad timing of only being able to work with the political leadership we have.

I hope things will change in November. There are good candidates running against the incumbents. Not only is Pocatello the only city in Idaho without motorsports, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it has the most politicians currently under investigation. 

As for pokycarclub.com, I’m shutting it down today. Because I failed to make progress with the PMC, understandably, membership renewals have been minimal, and it costs around $50 a month to maintain the site.

All funds raised from club membership fees and donations will be transferred to the Pocatello Youth Motorsports Program (PYMP) account, which has been a bright spot in all this work. I really enjoy helping my son with his project of teaching youths how to build and race entry-level race cars. This also shows the community how motorsports can help improve safety and I believe having a youth motorsports team will do more than anything else to help the PMC project.

Pocatello Car Club will maintain its non-profit status, but for now, the focus will shift from promoting the PMC to supporting the PYMP. The kids have four cars and are getting closer to being ready to race. PYMP will not be affected by my decision to hold off working on promoting the PMC until after the November election. My son and the kids he is working with are going full steam ahead building and getting ready to race. 

As far as organizing other car show events besides what I have planned, I am going to take a break from this and we’ll see how it all looks next year. Thankfully we have members in the car community like Carl Hocker, who I don’t think has ever offended anyone. He will be organizing the cars in the Chubbuck Days Parade. We also have Boyd Walton, who brings years of experience in organizing car shows and is working on what will undoubtedly be an amazing event.

I will continue to run the Pocatello Car Club Facebook group where everyone is welcome to share their car related content and information about car show events in our area. 

If anyone wants to contact Historic Downtown Pocatello to arrange entering cars in the 4th of July parade, that would be wonderful. It’s pretty simple, just tell Stephani Palagi how many cars you want to enter and let us know on the FB group where and when to meet. 

That wraps up the updates and changes. If anyone wants to take over the effort of bringing motorsports back to Pocatello and run with it, I’d love to hand it off to someone more capable. If not, the board members and I will look at the political situation after the election.

….Feel free to contact your local politicians and organizations like Bannock Development Corporation, and remind them that we want motorsports in Pocatello. 

Thank you for allowing me to put on a few fun car show events and bring the attention to our community that we need motorsports here. 

Here’s a few more Pocatello shenanigans,

2019: IDAHO’S BRIDGE TO NOWHERE?

2015: Poky Pavegate fallout: Taxpayers asked to clean up their own streets, while paying more taxes!

Pocatello’s ‘Amy’s-Gate’!

2011: Building Contractors Association of Southeast Idaho (BCASE) threaten Pocatello with lawsuit over exorbitant fees caused by crashing tax revenues!