How Rocket Science Could Save Pacific RacewaysPacific RacewaysFor nearly three decades, Pacific Raceways President Jason Fiorito has tried to juggle keeping his family-owned racetrack at Kent, Washington, south of Seattle, profitable and sustainable in an environment of urban sprawl, only four months of unreliably ideal weather, and property taxes that pencil out to about $3,500 a day.But it appears he has found his niche in the commercial-development world with a plan that will ensure the viability of the historic venue, making it the centerpiece of cutting-edge research-and-testing enterprise—aerospace manufacturing.The beauty of it all, for racing fans, is that Fiorito has vowed that no amount of money will persuade him to obliterate the racetrack for easier money. "Not on my watch," he said adamantly. "The dog is the commercial development, and the tail is the racetrack. And I've always to a certain extent allowed the tail to wag the dog here."AdvertisementAdvertisementThe beauty of it all, for aerospace-industry companies, is that Pacific Raceways offers what Fiorito called "a safety relief valve for the Kent Valley aerospace industry growth, because the state of Washington has not been as industry friendly over the last 25 years as it needs to be. And the Growth Management Act has restricted available developable space."There are 239 aerospace companies in Kent Valley alone. The state of Washington is perched on losing a lot of aerospace companies to states like Texas, Tennessee, and South Carolina, where the regulatory climate is a little bit more friendly, shall we say. My property provides a safety relief valve while they get some of their other growth management issues figured out to accommodate keeping aerospace jobs in the Pacific Northwest. And now we've got the largest undeveloped industrially zoned site that's legal for aerospace manufacturing and testing.Tedder/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 4.0And it's thanks to drag racing.The racing assets include a dragstrip that hosts the NHRA's Northwest Nationals every summer and a 2.25-mile road course that has welcomed some of the biggest names in American motorsports since its inception in 1958. Maybe surprisingly, the dragstrip was the key to King County Permitting's approval.AdvertisementAdvertisementHere, essentially, is how the conversation went:FIORITO: I'm going to rent space to new-frontier propulsion systems, and they're going to develop, test, and manufacture alternative-fuel rockets for the aerospace industry.KING COUNTY PERMITTING: You can't have a rocket-testing company on your site.FIORITO: Why not?KING COUNTY PERMITTING: It's not automotive.FIORITO: Where does our conditional-use permit say automotive? It says we're legal for innovation and transportation, and these clients are working with alternative fuel in extraterrestrial transportation.KING COUNTY PERMITTING: You can't have rocket fuel on your property.FIORITO: You mean like nitromethane? That's a rocket fuel. We're actually really good at storing, distributing, and transporting rocket fuel.KING COUNTY PERMITTING: But you can't test-fire rockets.FIORITO: Well, I've got jet-rocket cars on the dragstrip and have for 65 years. In fact, you govern specifically when I can fire jet cars on the dragstrip. So I've been running what's akin to rockets here for 65 years.KING COUNTY PERMITTING: Yeah, I'm out of arguments. You're legal. Go ahead."Think about it," Fiorito said. "Boeing pops up over 100 years ago and a whole ecosystem of specialty machine shops to service Boeing pops up. And we end up having one of the highest concentration of aerospace machine shops in the world. So if you're a burgeoning young aerospace company that's not yet vertically integrated, where do you want to be? You want to be next to all the specialty manufacturing, the Boeing machinist, the talent pool, the engineers, and the ability to build rocket-specific widgets right next door to where you're setting up. So we became one of the highest concentration of rocket, jet engine, and aerospace manufacturing in the world. And now we're out of space, and these companies are growing, with Elon Musk going public."Seattle-based Amazon launched 396 production high-speed Internet satellites last month as part of its Amazon Leo initiative, with plans to deploy more and build a platform of multiple rocket families for a 3,236-satellite low-earth orbit constellation. Space X is an industry leader. And Fiorito is hoping to provide commercial space for dozens of smaller aerospace companies "competing to get solar panels into orbit so we can put AI data centers in space," he said. "We've got this huge demand for aerospace manufacturing and not enough land. We fit the bill, because over the last 25 years, we've amended development code here to allow aerospace manufacturing on the site. So we're about ready to experience a huge demand increase for our commercial development."Maddi Gordon racing at this year's Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.NHRA"That's what's going to save the track," Fiorito said.AdvertisementAdvertisement"We're building a master plan right now to allow the coexistence of the racetrack because candidly, if I was a great businessman—which I've proved myself not to be over the years—I would put aerospace manufacturing on every square inch of this property. But my grandfather built this place. The [surrounding] cities rely on the economic impact. I'm a racer. I love the place too much to turn it into strictly an aerospace manufacturing hub," he said. "So we're configuring a master plan right now that'll allow enough parking in between the buildings to continue the NHRA nationals and even segue into… there'll never be enough parking in this configuration for a NASCAR Cup race, but… O'Reilly, NASCAR Truck Series, IMSA, even IndyCar, those are all on the table as we develop the commercial real estate and rob income from that to put it into the track."So I'm actually more optimistic. I've always struggled with demand for the buildings. I know I can make money on buildings, but we never created enough demand to put up enough buildings that we kind of hit the perpetual motion machine. And with this aerospace manufacturing angle, we're there," Fiorito said. "We're just in permitting right now at the county to get it all approved and then we're going to move forward in a really significant way."However, he cautioned, "The Rule of Enough takes over at some point—we can get enough manufacturing in the aerospace industry to pay the bills, and then the racetrack continues and actually becomes much more healthy because I've got a great ecosystem from which to rob to put the improvements in.Pacific Raceways"And I know everybody is like, 'Oh, here Jason goes again with these pipe dreams of grandiose.' But I've been down enough rabbit holes now that we've found a culture that has demand that is permitted, and we're just a great partnership away from realizing what we've always envisioned here, which is a world-class innovation campus alongside a world-class racing circuit.AdvertisementAdvertisement"I'm not going to turn this into a straight industrial development," Fiorito vowed. "My grandfather built this track. I've got Dick Kalivoda, who won the first race here July 4th, 1960, Independence Day 1960. And then all the drag-racing greats—[Don "The Snake"] Prudhomme and [Shirley] Muldowney and [Kenny] Bernstein and [John] Force and all of the current crowd all raced here on the dragstrip. But equally as important, I've got pictures of Parnelli Jones and Ken Miles and Mark Donahue and Dan Gurney and Dale Earnhardt Sr. and Richard Petty who have raced here on the road course. So I have to preserve the legacy of both the road course and the drag strip. I'll go to my grave, whether it's a good business decision or not, preserving that history and legacy for the next generation.