Motocross club seeks 12-acre track in Yona (2024)

After more than a year locked out of their home track at the old Yigo raceway, Guam’s motocross enthusiasts may soon have a new spot to kick up dirt in Pulantat, Yona.

The Guam Motocross Club last week got the blessing of the Guam Land Use Commission to lease 12 acres of land in Yona for a temporary motocross track.

“We are 100% committed to getting that going as quickly as possible,” club president Tim Wenden told the Pacific Daily News.

With approval from the GLUC, the motocross club has to work out the details of a lease with the property owner, and get insurance for the track before officially opening, Wenden said.

Motocross club officer Jeff Rios said they want to get racers out on the trail in Pulantat “tomorrow.”

The Yona parcel is about the same size as the motocross track in Yigo that used to be the home for Guam motocross, according to Rios.

“This is a big deal,” he added, noting that there’s been nowhere for riders, especially young kids, to practice on safely for over a year.

Wenden said they plan to jump straight into the property, mow the grass, and then get out on their bikes and set to ripping it up on the natural terrain features.

Motocross riders, like motorsports enthusiasts of all stripes, were left homeless after the CHamoru Land Trust Commission evicted the old raceway operator last year.

But leadership from the motocross club now has a “handshake deal” with the owner of the Yona land that’s slated for a new track, according to property consultant Dan Swavely.

That 12-acre parcel is just a piece of the 1,100-acre tract owned by Colorado businessman Stephen Tebo through Hafa Adai Investments, Swavely told the GLUC on Thursday.

Most of Tebo’s land, about 800 acres straddling the road to LeoPalace Resort Guam in Chalan Pago-Ordot, is zoned for a 5,000-unit housing development.

The huge tract stretches all the way to Asan in the west and Yona in the east.

But the remaining acreage could be opened up for temporary usage, Swavely told land use commissioners.

He said the facility would not require a lot of capital to stand up: a dirt track, a parking lot, and use of an existing building on the property.

Plans were to lease the property to the motocross club for a “nominal” fee, Swavely added.

Land use commissioners voted unanimously to allow the motocross club to use the property.

Falling participation

Approval for the track lease to move forward is welcome news, as participation has been falling off with nowhere to practice for the last 16 months, Rios said.

“We’ve seen a lot of our kids, motocross riders and big ATV riders and moved on to another sport,” he said.

The annual Humåtak motocross race held this past March was the only chance riders got to compete in that time, Rios noted.

But the race—held every year since the 1970s—saw a falloff in turnout less than a year after the Yigo raceway closed.

“You can’t put your kid out on the street to ride his bike,” Wenden added. “You’re not going to be a soccer player if there was no soccer field. You’re not going to be a motocross rider if there’s no motocross track.”

The old Yigo track was where many of Guam’s riders had grown up, Rios added.

“My son rode (on) that track when he was 4 years old. My son’s 21 now,” he said.

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Both men were confident that numbers would jump back up once word of the new track got out.

“They want something new,” Wenden said. “So we’ll build it and they’ll come.”

Plans come together

According to Wenden, the new track came together after the Yigo raceway closed and he set to researching properties that could house a new track.

“We’re a motocross club, we’re noisy, and we’re loud and we like dirt. So it was just fine finding somewhere on the island that would suit our sport,” the club president said.

Wenden just so happened to be working together on a separate project with Swavely, a representative for Tebo and Sigua Highlands, through the course of that research.

Besides racing dirt bikes, Wenden is also co-owner of construction company Rocky Mountain Precast.

Swavely for the last year had been helping the company on plans for a temporary worker barracks in Dededo to house H-2B workers.

“He was telling me that the first motocross track was at Sigua Highlands,” Swavely said, before Tebo had acquired the property.

It still remains a good spot for motocross, he said.

“Motocross track takes a place that is a lot of vegetation and a lot of hills. We got that. Motocross track is kind of a dusty, loud activity. Shouldn’t be close to development. It’s not,” Swavely noted.

The consultant said he made a call to Tebo, and Rios and Wenden were soon flying out to Boulder, Colorado to meet with him in person.

Rios said Tebo was a “blessing in disguise” for Guam motocross.

“Without this guy, we would not be able to do what we’re doing today,” he said.

Unlike many land-holding corporations, with uninterested boards, Tebo was very enthusiastic about helping the community, Wenden added.

“We walked...into his boardroom, and there was 1,000s of photos on the wall probably, community projects,” he said.

Yigo return

Rios said they would like to keep the track open in Pulantat, even if the old track in Yigo opens up again.

The CLTC last week started negotiations with a new organization, the Guam Motorsports Association, about a deal to open up and run the raceway up north.

A recent change to the law requires the Land Trust to work out a deal by this December.

Rios said keeping the spot in Yona will give riders a chance to “change things up.”

But there’s no doubt that riders would like to get back to their old stomping grounds.

“Yigo is our home,” he said.

Wenden said the Guam Motocross Club has its sights set on being a good neighbor, maintaining the Yona property, and sticking around for as long as they can.

“We could be there for six months, or we could be there for six years,” he said. “It really depends on the development that happens there.”

Motocross club seeks 12-acre track in Yona (2024)

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