Motor sports enthusiasts who argue that lack of a legal racing venue on O'ahu leads to more street racing appear to be facing an uphill battle to get the city to reopen Hawaii Raceway Park in Kalaeloa.

On Tuesday, the Honolulu City Council's Zoning Committee will meet to deliberate Bill 53, which would rezone the 66-acre parcel from general agriculture to intensive industrial use. The zoning is one of the keys to the new landowners' plans to tear down the raceway park structures and develop an industrial park.

Meanwhile, two council resolutions that would lead to condemnation of the property with the intent of having the city purchase and operate the dormant facility as a racetrack have been put on hold.

Tracy Arakaki, who has been the promoter for a number of drifting events at Aloha Stadium, including one this weekend, believes speeding on Hawai'i roads has increased since the raceway park closed.

"Since Hawaii Raceway Park has closed down, you have wolfpack mentality now," said Arakaki, who also produces Punish 'Em Motorsports, a monthly television show. "You have groups literally of 100, 200 drifters hunting around O'ahu to find places for them to drift." In drifting, drivers maneuver their cars in a controlled slide.

"What's the alternative? There is none," Arakaki said. "These young kids that are growing up who never had a chance to go on the racetrack? All they know is the street."

Police say racing has been a long-time problem. They have not seen an appreciable increase in drifting or racing since the park closed.

However, racing and speeding continue to be issues that confront O'ahu neighborhood boards.

Last week, the Kapolei Neighborhood Board heard from beat officers who said they cited a number of drivers who were racing along H-1 Freeway as well as Kalaeloa Parkway on the straightaway heading into Campbell Industrial Park.

The Waipahu Neighborhood Board, in recent months, has also heard police and residents report drifters driving after hours in the parking lot at the Waipi'o Costco and residential streets in Kunia.

California-based HMC Gateway Hawaii Raceway Investors LLC purchased the Kalaeloa raceway park land last year and wants to subdivide the property into about 90 industrial lots.

Members of Save Oahu's Race Track, or SORT, want the city to step in, insisting that since the raceway closed in April 2006, racing, drifting and activities have shifted to other locations, such as public roads and parking lots.

"We're against the upzoning; we don't think it's necessary," said Evelyn Souza, a SORT spokeswoman. She said there are other large tracts in the Campbell Industrial Park region that are suitable for industrial uses.

Keith Kurahashi, a representative for Irongate, said the company bought the property last year, intending to develop industrial lots. "That's what they're proposing to do and that's what they're planning to do," Kurahashi said.

"We know (SORT) is trying to get a track out there, but we're hoping they have other options available to them."

SORT is close to finalizing a deal with the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to lease a site for a temporary race facility several miles away at the Kalaeloa redevelopment region. But Souza said that is not meant to be a permanent fix and that no one has offered any other solution.

"There is no place else for us to go," she said. And while the organization understands the seriousness of condemning property, no one is being displaced from their homes. "It was a raceway park, and we want to keep it that way. We've been here since dirt."

Souza and others say O'ahu's streets have become more dangerous since the raceway park was shut down and that there clearly needs to be an outlet for racers to keep O'ahu's streets safe for other motorists.

Souza said her husband, Franklin, had his vehicle blocked on the freeway by youths who stopped traffic to allow drivers to race through.

"Our caliber of racers don't do that," Souza said. "These are the impulsive kids, the ones that need to be educated. But you know what? We can't educate them if we have no track to go to."

Honolulu Police Chief Boisse Correa, through a spokesperson, said street racing has been an ongoing historic problem on the island.

"There were illegal racers even when the park was open, and after it closed, police did not see a significant increase in illegal racing," he said.

Correa said whether the raceway park is reopened is up to the community. Meanwhile, police will continue the anti-speeding enforcement program from time to time and push for tougher traffic laws, he said.

Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com.