Silver City car rally meets with opposition

SILVER CITY - Three car rallies through their town within one month is too much for Silver City residents.

Lyon County commissioners received a letter last week from the Silver City Advisory Council stating that so many events in so short a time constitute an unacceptable burden on the community.

Commissioners previously approved an Audi-Quatro event for mid-June. Last week they were presented with a request from a Ferrari car club to conduct a hill climb the weekend of June 24-25 and a third request, from the National Auto Sports Association, for a June 3-4 event is pending.

The winding hills of State Route 341, the truck route through Silver City to Virginia City, has become a popular site for auto hill climb events. Residents along the way, however, say they are abused by spectators, for whom sanitary facilities are not provided.

"They trespass on private property, urinate there, trample gardens, threaten and pilfer," advisory council members wrote.

Access to 10 households in the vicinity of the staging area is restricted during each two-day event and those in the vicinity of the race course endure eight to 10 hours a day of the high performance engine noise from 60 cars.

The Ferrari event is usually run in September, but the road is scheduled for repaving during that time and the Nevada Department of Transportation requested the event be run at an earlier date this year.

Dennis Chiodo, chairman of the Pacific Region Ferrari Club, told commissioners this would be the 29th year for the event and the group tried hard to work with local residents.

"We have provided Sani-huts and have tried to work with residents and not block driveways," he said. "We are the only club who writes letters to residents asking how we can improve."

Commissioners approved the event and Chiodo agreed to abide with conditions set by the advisory council, including moving the staging area so that entrances to homes are unrestricted.