Columnist Ron Kantowski: It’s time to honor LVMS founder

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

On Friday afternoon, when Las Vegas Motor Speedway is dedicating the new 22,000-seat Dale Earhardt Terrace in a special ceremony, I think I'll dedicate my one seat in the press box to Richie Clyne.

Clyne, in case you've forgotten, is the guy who built LVMS before Bruton Smith put the finishing touches on it. Every time I bring up Clyne's name to speedway officials, they assure me something's going to be done to honor his vision and commitment.

Obviously, it's not going to be this weekend.

Not that I blame LVMS for wanting to name the new grandstand after Dale Earnhardt. After all, he has won seven more NASCAR championships than Clyne, and even if Clyne had a car number, I doubt that you'd find it plastered in decal form on the back window of every Monte Carlo and Silverado in the parking lot.

But as far as I'm concerned, winning the Daytona 500 is easy compared to what Clyne managed to pull off. He got two bazillionaires on the Las Vegas Strip, Circus Circus' Bill Bennett and Ralph Englestad of the Imperial Palace, Clyne's former father in-law, to agree to spend a fortune (albeit a small one for them) on a project they really had little interest in.

I've always been impressed with guys who put their money where their mouth is. I'm more impressed with a guy who can put somebody else's money there.

Perhaps it's a good thing that Clyne's partners didn't know all that much about auto racing. Anybody willing to part with $200-plus million on a speedway without the promise of a NASCAR Cup race needs to have his head examined by Dr. Jerry Punch.

"Building that place without a Cup race ... those guys were unbelievably brave," said local auto racing historian Mike Henle. "I think that racetrack is one of the best construction stories in Nevada state history. Who would have figured that any of it would have happened, especially in a town where talk is so cheap."

If you don't think Clyne's sales pitch was both crucial and timely to LVMS' creation, consider this: Bennett and Englestad are no longer with us.

Did Smith have the resources and business acumen to start LVMS from scratch, as Clyne and company did? Absolutely. According to Forbes magazine, Smith could buy North Carolina -- the state, not the speedway -- with the spare change in his pocket.

The $64 million question -- make that the $200 million question -- was whether Smith would have had the patience and savvy to deal with the BLM and Nellis Air Force Base and all the other agencies and entities that had to be coaxed to jump on board before ground was broken.

Had I been Smith, my strategy would have been to beat Roger Penske to Fontana, Calif., and remind fans making their way back home to Tobacco Road that Sam's Town is a good place to hook up the ol' R.V. and spend the night.

But with Clyne having already put LVMS on the map, writing a check for it was the easy part.

I'll never forget my introduction to Richie Clyne. I went to his office overlooking the Imperial Palace auto collection, expecting to find some important looking guy wearing a starched shirt and pressed slacks -- somebody like Roger Penske. I had no idea that the guy with his stocking feet propped up on the desk and his shirt unbuttoned dangerously close to lounge lizard level was the same guy who was going to build the Garage Mahal of auto racing. I mean, Clyne had an autographed picture of Hulk Hogan on his desk.

He also had more crazy ideas than Ron Popiel, such as placing attendants in the LVMS restrooms. He showed me artist renderings for superfluous amenities such as a wedding chapel, a driver's memorial and Hall of Fame and living quarters for himself, which looked like a cross between the White House and Southfork Ranch. And I have yet to encounter anybody who has a degree from Clyne's proposed "University of Motor Sports" hanging in his den.

So you had to figure it would only be a matter of time before Clyne got smart and sold the track to somebody who knew a little more about running it than he did. There's no question that LVMS has flourished and prospered -- especially prospered -- under Smith's leadership.

As for Clyne, well, like Elliott Sadler at Daytona, he has pretty much faded into the background. Nobody at LVMS was aware if he even would be attending the race on Sunday.

That's a shame. Because if it wasn't for Richie Clyne, there probably wouldn't be a race here on Sunday.