NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The half-mile oval at the Kansas State Fairgrounds is going away.
"2023 will be the last year for the race track," State Fair General Manager Bryan Schulz said Thursday. "This will be the last Hutch Nationals this summer. What we're going to do is, we're going to be looking at a brand new staging area and grandstand seating area and also doing a dirt event area. Those are some master plan things that we're looking at and then recouping some of that land where the track was."
The capacity of the grandstand won't go up significantly.
"The grandstand seating itself will stay the exact same size, but it will be like, that front area will become more of a VIP area," Schulz said. "Right in front of the stage, there would be a standing room only. We would be able to increase the number of people that could attend events."
It won't be a racing venue any longer.
"We'll be able to do some other dirt events, like I said, monster truck shows, demolition derbies, truck pulls, tractor pulls, those kinds of things," Schulz said. "The plan would be to create a smaller dirt venue up on the north side of the grandstand area that would allow for that."
This move was approved by the Kansas State Fair board at their November meeting.