Race fans rally at City Hall to save Kansas City International Raceway

Fans of Kansas City International Raceway on Noland Road are none too pleased with the city’s plans to buy the course and turn it into a park. Around three dozen track supporters stood in the rain on the steps of City Hall Monday evening to publicly denounce the plan, which they say will deprive them of their passion.

Track supporters say the city and a few politically connected residents of the area have been trying to get the track shut down for years, and it looks like they’ve finally succeeded. The neighbors’ main complaint: The track is loud. “They believe it diminishes property values, and it’s loud and it’s noisy, and it constitutes a nuisance,” said attorney Mark Epstein, who hasn’t been hired by the group KCIR supporters but is advising them.

But even revving engines and squealing tires aren’t valid complaints, KCIR supporters say. The track, which opened in 1967, has been in the sparsely populated neighborhood near Raytown longer than most of the residents.

“You don’t get to move next to a pig farm and then complain about the smell,” Epstein said.