The chances for a temporary racetrack on Hawaiian Homes land at Kalaeloa have dimmed due to a falling out between the partners of the Save O'ahu's Race Tracks organization, which has fought for two years to bring legal racing back to the island.

Meanwhile, hundreds of racing enthusiasts on O'ahu are stuck with no track for their vehicles and many have shipped their cars and cycles to the Big Island, Maui and Kaua'i, all of which have such facilities.

Two couples — Franklin and Evelyn Souza and Jeanette and George Grace III — once worked together to build the Kalaeloa racetrack but have had a falling out and blame each other for delaying development of the track.

O'ahu's racers have been without a racetrack since April 2006, when Hawai'i Raceway Park in the Campbell industrial area closed.

Motor sports enthusiasts argue the lack of a legal racing venue on O'ahu leads to more street racing. However, police have said they did not see an appreciable increase in racing after the park closed.

Fans of drag, drift, sports car and motorcycle racing have held rallies at the state Capitol, including one in April 2006 that drew about 100 people.

Franklin and Evelyn Souza, leaders in the fight to salvage Hawai'i Raceway Park, say George Grace III's actions have delayed plans for a temporary track on a 38.7-acre parcel owned by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands in Kalaeloa.

George and Jeanette Grace say it is the Souzas who are in the way of the project.

DHHL, for its part, last week recognized Grace as the contact person and responsible party for the property, and is urging the racing community to work out its differences on its own.

Grace recently changed the lock at the gate to the property, effectively keeping the Souzas out.

ORIGINS OF DISPUTE

Save O'ahu's Race Tracks was formed as a nonprofit corporation in March 2006 with Evelyn Souza listed as the "agent" and chairperson for the "racing organization." Business registration documents list the officers as Evelyn Souza, George Grace, Franklin Souza and Jeanette Grace.

In August 2007, DHHL signed a month-to-month revocable permit ostensibly with the Save O'ahu's Race Tracks group, allowing the group to put a temporary racetrack on its Kalaeloa "Parcel 24," a plot of land with several military bunkers on it off Coral Sea Road.

Evelyn Souza told The Advertiser at the time that she expected to have an oval dirt track available by the end of summer, with asphalt tracks, including a drag strip, to be built later.

DHHL's contract, however, was actually listed as being with Save O'ahu's Race Tracks, a limited liability corporation. The contract was signed by George Grace on behalf of Save O'ahu's Race Tracks "by authority of its board of directors."

But no limited liability corporation by the name of Save O'ahu's Race Tracks or SORT existed before March 21, 2008, when Grace registered it and listed himself as the sole officer.

"Mr. Grace is the point of contact and the person responsible for that property," DHHL spokesman Lloyd Yonenaka said last week. That decision was made "because his signature is on the revocable permit."

Additionally, Yonenaka said, when the contract was agreed to in August, all parties including the Souzas agreed at a meeting that Grace should be the contact.

The Souzas said they had always asked to have their names placed on the lease but were told it was not needed.

Said Yonenaka: "We wanted one point of contact. We're not interested in dealing with four or five different groups."

The Souzas also said they were not aware that the permit was with a limited liability corporation.

"We thought we had a nonprofit," Evelyn Souza said.

George Grace, however, told The Advertiser that the intent was always to set up a limited liability corporation because that was what DHHL put in the lease contract.

"That is how the DHHL wanted it," Grace said, adding that a nonprofit would be set up later. Grace said he asked Evelyn Souza to set up an LLC and only did so on his own when she failed to do so.

Since January, the nonprofit Save O'ahu's Race Tracks group has been paying $2,000 a month lease to DHHL with checks signed by Evelyn Souza. Money for that lease has come from rent the nonprofit has been collecting from a New York-based company that has stored fireworks in the military bunkers under a sublease that began when the property was still under DHHL's jurisdiction.

On April 9, Grace wrote a letter to the Souzas asking them to "stay off of any of my properties," including the DHHL parcel.

ACCUSATIONS ARE FLYING

A number of accusations have flown in recent weeks between the Souzas and the Graces.

One of the issues is the dumping by Grace and other trucking companies of more than 1,800 truckloads of dirt on the Kalaeloa property from an Ewa Villages public housing construction site.

Both the Souzas and Grace agree that dirt is needed for the racetrack. But the Souzas feel Grace and the other truckers are taking advantage of the situation and have put too much dirt on the property.

Grace said he and the truckers did nothing wrong.

"The dirt was given to us and it was free; we didn't have to go buy the dirt," he said.

In early March, DHHL officials wrote a letter to Save O'ahu's Race Tracks asking that the dumping and stockpiling of dirt be stopped, citing an anonymous complaint. The letter said DHHL needed a soils analysis report and that Save O'ahu's Race Tracks should obtain grading and stockpiling permits from the city.

Grace and SORT LLC won't be allowed to put more dirt on the property until it gets its permits from the city, said DHHL's Yonenaka.

In an April 15 letter to Grace recognizing him as Save O'ahu's Race Tracks's responsible party, DHHL Director Micah Kane said "unity in the racing community is paramount in order for DHHL to remain committed to this effort."

Yonenaka said "if there isn't unity, then that permit is not going to be continued."

Those in the racing community are split.

Les Vallarano has backed the Souzas and is one of about half a dozen new members on the nonprofit SORT's board.

"The Souzas' racetrack plan is more realistic because what Mr. Grace is proposing in his layout would cover over a pond and archaeological sites," Vallarano said.

But Fred Humphrey, a member of the Hawaii Road Racing Association, said he and other racers back Grace because his plan accommodates more types of racing and "we just think he has the ability and the assets to do it."

Vallarano and Humphrey agreed that most racers don't care who wins out in the power struggle.

"I think the majority of the racing public will support whoever gets them a racetrack," Vallarano said.

"To be honest, the vast majority of the people just want to show up, pay their money and race," Humphrey said.

Humphrey said he has nothing against either the Souzas or the Graces and wishes they would stop fighting.

"This arguing back and forth is not going to speed up the process. If anything, it's slowing us down."