New promoters continue reshaping ORV park

The Grays Harbor ORV Park, formerly known as Straddleline ORV Park, on the Grays Harbor-Thurston County line, is in the process of installing upgrades throughout the park, courtesy of its new management, Pacific Northwest MX LLC.

Pacific Northwest MX is led by Brent Davis and now retired, former Motocross Champion Ryan Villopoto. Mark Cox, director of facilities and utilities at Grays Harbor County, said the previous operators, Promoto, did a good job of promoting and taking care of the park, but bringing Villopoto and his team into the park has Cox excited about the opportunities that come with pairing a big name with a big project.

“They want to turn this into one of the premier motocross destinations on the West Coast, and that’s part of their business plan, to make this thing world class and to bring the really big races here,” Cox said.

Cox said that to have any kind of fame come to Grays Harbor is a big deal.

“Having Ryan here would be like having Jeff Gordon run the Grays Harbor Raceway, or having Russell Wilson be the football coach at Aberdeen. It’s a big deal,” he said.

Grays Harbor County took over the park from Thurston County in 2005. Cox said no structural or facility upgrades of any magnitude have been done since then other than painting and remodeling the caretakers house.

“When Pacific Northwest MX LLC took over, even we weren’t 100 percent sure of all the issues they would find once they got started,” Cox said.

Cox said the new operators hit the ground riding when it came to upgrading the park.

The first issues the new operators needed to address upon taking control were roof leaks, broken water lines and bad hot water tanks. Copper piping had been previously stripped from certain facilities and also needed to be replaced. Cox described them as “little issues,” but ones that were important to address, nonetheless.

Also plaguing the park was equipment failures. When recently both the park’s bulldozers and a backhoe needed maintenance at the same time, it meant spending some $5,000 to $6,000 on each.

“Right now we’re kind of on a shoe-string budget,” Cox said. “We’re not micromanaging them in any way, we’re just telling them to do what they have to do to make the business work because we can’t infuse a bunch of cash from the state to make upgrades at the park.”

In previous years Recreation and Conservation Office funds were allocated for park improvements, but Cox said this year the request for $500,000 for two years was not approved.

“This year we just didn’t rank well,” he said. “It’s based on a committee of user groups, and they didn’t feel our projects met the criteria to be funded.”

A lack of state funding has not slowed the new operators too much, however, as improvements are already being made and so are bigger plans for the future.

“They’ve already taken down 40 danger trees, done parking lot improvements, painted facilities and come up with a new sign that has Ryan (Villopoto) incorporated in it,” Cox said.

The plans for the future, without state funding, are being made possible through the partnerships Villopoto has made throughout his successful motocross career.

“Fortunately, Ryan has a lot of sponsors; he’s sponsored by Monster Energy, John Deere – there’s just this great big long list of people who have sponsored him and maybe they would like to put their names on something,” Cox said.

Bigger plans in the works for the park will be made more feasible with the help of these partnerships, Cox said, and hopes are high enough that talks have already begun regarding where to take the park from here.

“They’ve been going like crazy on this park. They’ve really made leaps and bounds to improve it,” Cox said.

Mountain biking is becoming more and more popular, and Washington seems well positioned to take advantage of the fast-growing sport. According to Cox, Pacific Northwest MX LLC would like to bring a downhill mountain bike operation to the park. The idea is to bring in one of the top riders in the world to help design a course.

“Apparently mountain biking is as popular if not more popular right now than motorcycle racing. A lot of people are involved in it,” he said.

Potentially in the works also is an aerial adventure park, or zip line course. Cox said they have an opportunity to use the canopy to get people off the freeway and into the park. That also would help open the park up to more patrons in addition to motocross riders.

The biggest idea for the future, for which Villopoto’s sponsors would be needed according to Cox, is for a covered, indoor motocross riding arena that would be operational year-round.

Cox described motocross as a sport that ends when the rain starts falling. With an indoor arena, Grays Harbor could attract riders from all over the Pacific Northwest, even during the rainy season.

“If we can go back to the state in a couple years and really have our ducks in a row and have a solid plan, maybe they will help us fund some planning and prep work to actually build an arena like that,” Cox said.

Cox said that communities all around Grays Harbor should be excited about the park’s development.

“This is good for McCleary, Elma and Montesano,” he said. “There’s going to be big events coming and not everyone stays in RVs – they’re going to want to stay in hotels, eat the food and go to the grocery stores, so this has some pretty far reaching impacts.”

(Travis Rains | The Vidette) The Grays Harbor ORV Park is under new management, as displayed by the park’s new logo which incorporates Ryan Villopoto’s name using a backwards R.