If you haven’t heard of Mountain Home Speedway, that was by design, but that might be changing. The Idaho dirt track opened in 2018 with an enduro. On Saturday it hosts its first 360-wing sprint car event.
Eric and Mindy Barsness promote the track, which has grown little by little, year after year. It is situated right off of I-84, about an hour south of Boise and an hour and a half north of Twin Falls.
This places Mountain Home Speedway near two pavement ovals, Meridian Speedway and Magic Falls Speedway in Twin Falls. However, Eric said there’s “no crossover” between pavement and dirt racing.
The closest dirt ovals to Mountain Home are Idaho Falls Raceway and Summit Raceway in Elko, Nevada, both of which are more than three hours away.
This required Mountain Home Speedway to develop its car count from the ground up.
“Our two best classes have been the hornets and bombers,” Eric said. “We added modifieds — unsanctioned but based upon IMCA rules — and have been getting eight to 10 cars.”
Eric said that they travel to other speedways with their IMCA modified, but not necessarily to just race.
“I see what is going on, learn what we can work on, and see how we can improve spectator-wise,” said Eric of visiting other tracks. “I talk to other drivers and tell them about our speedway.”
The Barsnesses also operate a four-bay automotive repair shop. As the track grows, they try to find a balance between the two businesses.
“The shop is our livelihood,” said Eric. “At the racetrack, we take every penny it makes and put it into improvements. We’ve been running with portable light towers. Our next big improvement will be to get permanent lights.”
The Barsnesses believe capital improvements like that will further the growth of Mountain Home Speedway. Eric said that they have many people wanting to see it succeed.
“Our sponsors have been great,” Eric said. “The town has been great in working with us. Future drivers are telling us they are building cars for next season. Mountain Home Speedway is young. We weren’t sure it would take off when we built it. Now, it is exciting. We have a sprint car show drawing cars from Nevada. We’re looking forward to our September 7 Championship Night. Modifieds, hornet and mini-mod drivers from Nevada have told us they are coming up here.”
Mike Adaskaveg has written hundreds of stories since the website’s inception. This year marks his 54th year of covering auto racing. Adaskaveg got his start working for track photographer Lloyd Burnham at Connecticut’s Stafford Motor Speedway in 1970. Since then, he’s been a columnist, writer, and photographer, in racing and in mainstream media, for several outlets, including the Journal Inquirer, Boston Herald, Stock Car Racing, and Speedway Illustrated. Among Adaskaveg’s many awards are the 1992 Eastern Motorsport Press Association (EMPA) Ace Lane Photographer of the Year and the 2019 National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) George Cunningham Writer of the Year.
