By Alice Perry Linker

Observer Staff Writer

Some Starkey residents are asking the Union County Planning Commission to put an end to the popular Fourth of July 4×4 races.

Greg and Doris Tsiatsos, who bought the Starkey property where the annual races take place, are asking the planning commission to end the land-use permit that allows the races.

County Planner Hanley Jenkins said the county gave property owners Pete and JoAnn Able permission in 1983 to run the annual races, and the permit does not have to be renewed. The races began 27 years ago.

Stan Case, president of the Starkey 4×4 Club, said this year’s races probably will be the last to take place at Starkey. The club has 160 acres near the Union County Airport that will be developed in the future for a number of racing events, including the Fourth of July races.

"We’ll have a full facility, with a dirt oval track, a place for motor cross, a mud bog pit," he said. "We’ll have BMX bicycle races, Go-Karts, maybe even lawn mower races."

In a letter signed by about 40 residents of the Starkey area, Tsiatsos criticized the July races as an "increasingly violent and disorderly event that endangers the public, assaults the environment and compromises the wildlife habitat."

The letter also alleged the races are a "haven for under-age drinking" and many are ignoring the speed limits.

"The race club has been unable to maintain adequate control over the participants and spectators, placing an added burden on local law enforcement," Tsiatsos wrote.

Case said there were few problems at the Starkey races until last year, when some mud-bog racers caused trouble.

"We’re eliminating the mud-boggers this year," he said. "They haven’t attended any of our meetings. They just show up."

This year, the club is hiring a service to provide 24-hour security.

The events will include the sand drags, obstacle course, the tough truck and team relay. The Big Bucks Shoot-out, a sand drag race, will have a $1,000 purse, he said.

Planner Jenkins said the land adjacent to the race course is zoned for rural residential use and has been divided into individual parcels over the past 10 years.

Several Union County participants, including former Starkey 4×4 Club president Dave Kennedy, have been racing for many years, and at least one family, Jan and Jerry Hudson of Summerville, has seen two and three generations of racers at Starkey, according to a story published last July 4 in The Observer.

The event attracts racers from throughout Oregon.