JW: Hey Kaleb! It’s great to finally connect with you after going back and forth earlier in the summer. Before we get into too much, do you mind sharing a but about your background and how you got into racing, for those who do not know who Kaleb Hart is?
 
KH: Dads fault! “Race track announcers are not found, we breed them now!”, as my dad once said. He was a radio host and disk jockey back in the day. He was brought to Skagit Speedway as a kid and passed the racing gene to me. Around 85/86 he was recruited by Wenatchee Valley Raceway (Eastern Washington State) at the time. They plucked him out of the radio station and he started there. Bounced around a bit in Washington as a radio disk jockey; including, some work at Skagit Speedway from time to time. After working at Wenatchee [Raceway], Skagit [Speedway], and Evergreen [Speedway] for a year, and ended up settling in Wenatchee, WA around 1995. He was asked to come back to the speedway in Wenatchee and work Saturday nights. My dad brought me along to help out and work with him. My job was the old timing light during time trials. I helped with working it during any night I was in attendance for time trials - easing my way into it. At the time, the track had a “can’t come into the pits until you are 16”, which made my role very limited then. Garrett Evans bought the track in 1999 and wanted to expand the roles of positions at the track. He wanted more people working in all areas at the track. I did all the stuff in the grandstands and helped out in the booth a bit. June 28th, 1999, I became the on-track announcer and pit reporter at Wenatchee Valley Raceway. Then I got the head job at the track in 2001 spending the whole year in the booth at Wenatchee Speedway Dad brought me onto it and I had some wonderful people give me really cool opportunities from the beginning. Right place, right time. It’s been a theme in my career.
  
JW: From that part forward, how did you got onboard with Skagit Speedway? You have been with the track for many years now. How did everything start on your end?
 
KH: I kind of retired… Haha. Wenatchee didn’t go particularly well… I was very young and had a lot of maturing that I needed to do. At the end of the year [2001], I was replaced. I spent 02’ moonlighting at Yakima [Speedway] and a night or two at Tri-Cities Raceway. Then in 2003, I did a full night at Yakima [Speedway]. But really, that year was only a couple of races that came up for me. I was working at a local Target at the time as I wasn’t getting regular work at any track. In between 2003 and 2004, my dad committed to doing another year at Ephrata Raceway Park the following year. The problem was my dad got a full-time job at Skagit Speedway. So, I ended up meeting with Mike and Reno Witty (Ephrata Raceway Park) to fill in. I had the absolute best time being a fan and a track employee. It was very low-stress, easy, and absolutely fun. I did that for a full year. I was treated so well, made a ton of friends that I still have to this day, and re-discovered my passion for the sport; particularly, working at a track and being involved in the announcing level. After that year, Steve [Bittler] had another position open at Skagit [Speedway]. He called in late 2004/early 2005 to ask if I wanted to work at the track full-time. It was a no-brainer for me! That was my first year involved with the track on a full-time level. You either have the option to work at Target full-time or Skagit Speedway full-time? Yeah, it was a no-brainer! Haha. Here we are today. From then on, it’s been a blast. It was a dream come true. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to have been involved with Skagit Speedway all of this time.
  
JW: You have been able to experience first-hand a lot of notable changes in the sport of dirt track racing (as a whole) since you started working at Skagit Speedway back in 2005. What changes have stood out the most for you, whether it’s to do with the tracks or the on track action we see week in and week out during the year at Skagit?
 
KH: I don’t know if sprint car racing has evened a bunch from the early days. Obviously, the technology in the sport like the shocks have changed tremendously. The cars themselves have been very similar for the last few decades with little changes made here and there. When it comes to the racing on track, it’s always been the same since the beginning. A sprint car race has always been a mix of a time trial, heat races, and features. Nothing has changed in the way a sprint car race goes down. If you watch a Dirt Cup video from 1989 and compare it to the most recent one, the format is relatively the same. High speeds, high intensity, and quick racing. I’ve always felt that has been the main appeal compared to any other kind of racing out there. That said, your fan base has changed drastically over the years… The fan base has gotten extremely older. It’s a very niche sport when it comes to the awareness that it once had with cable TV. The broad national knowledge that the sport once had isn’t there like it was. I was able to see firsthand what that did to our sport throughout the 90s and early 2000s in particular. Our fan base has consumed the sport completely differently when it comes to streaming and other forms of online content. When it comes to us, the new ownership group [Rudeen & his team at Skagit Speedway] has invested in some new forms of media to get younger fans to come out to the track. Electronic video boards on the I-5 and track promotion out on the ground at different events are some of the ways they are approaching getting a younger audience. We have experimented a lot with different forms of online content to see what generates the most interest and what doesn’t. This inflation has hit in our current environment at the moment, where our ticket prices are more competitive as you get more for your dollar than say a Mariners ticket out here. The one aspect I’m really proud of with our track is that compared to other professional sports in our area, our pricing gets you a good bang for your buck when it comes to entertainment dollars.
  
JW: For someone in your position, when it comes to being a local employee at a dirt track, how do you prepare for each upcoming season as a staff member? How does your schedule from the offseason to race season change?
 
KH: My offseason is strange because it’s interrupted to go down to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the Chili Bowl. For me, there is a decent amount of offseason stuff that happens at Skagit Speedway that keeps me connected. This is a nice carryover from one era to another. We used to get together for an offseason dinner to chat about the year that happened. That has grown over the years and with the new ownership group. We have a group get-together around October/November to celebrate the year with the entire staff and say ‘thank you’. A lot of us have become friends and do things with each other outside of the track. WARPA is an event that I have done with a few other employees down in Portland, Oregon from time to time during each offseason. We get together in January for an advertiser's shin dig. Around eight to ten of us are there interacting with our advertisers and sponsors. Checking in prior to our upcoming season. Prep starts for me around the beginning of March. I get my database together and start picking at them until our first practice day. I get to the track in late April, sometime early May, to prep and get the audio going at the track. As we get closer to race season, we ramp it up!
 
Let’s take a minute to talk about this history of Skagit Speedway. From when you started working at the track to the present day, what are some major changes that the track has gone through since you started working at Skagit?
 
KH: The investment in the track over the last three years has been noticeable from a technology point of view. When it comes to ticketing and online interaction with the customers that come to the track. Changing the way customer interaction goes from before they arrive at the track to when they enter the speedway. Kevin [Rudeen] drives us big picture. He wants us to be innovative and progress to make this as professional as possible. We ask ourselves; ‘How does Kevin want this done? Let’s move in that direction!’, when it comes to pushing forward. Kevin wants to make this professional sports. I like to compare it to the Everett Silvertips vs. the Seattle Kraken when you look at it from a hockey point of view. The experience from the junior hockey level to the NHL level is night and day. We are trying to go from semi-professional to professional racing. Kevin is aiming for us to deliver a professional experience. 
 
JW: Kevin Rudeen is a major part of the new ownership that bought the track a few years back from Steve Beitler back in 2021. Obviously, there has been changes made at the track recently, similar to what you just mentioned to me. That said, how has Kevin been as one of the key people in the new ownership group? What has he meant for Skagit Speedway?
 
KH: Stability. Kevin brings us that stability. Solid human being, knows himself very well, and he knows what his standard is for how he wants to live, how he treats people, and how he wants his businesses to run. We are not lacking any assets that we need with him. Kevin’s influence in enabling the office team at Skagit to make this the best race track it can be. He truly cares about the track, the history of what it means in the area, and ultimately the future of where it goes. Keven wants to help out in any way he can. Not always in the financial area either! He is a big-picture thinker when it comes to building businesses and understands what it takes to make something last and be successful. One aspect of Kevin that I really like is that he is a big believer in letting people do their job and allowing them to excel in their roles. He is a well-rounded in the sport where he has been involved with everything. He has done everything within the sport - everything. That experience helps shape his vision.
 
JW: With everything that we have discussed around the track from the history to the present day, where do you see Skagit Speedway over the next decade?
 
KH: The needle is pointing pretty drastically upward. The best thing we have done is putting more money into the drivers and teams, to get them coming back out each week we operate. It gets them coming out each time we run an event and in turn, it brings out the fans. Getting more money into the team's and drivers' pockets and putting together a better package for fans at each event. We want to keep working on that area of our development, along with the continued update of every area at the track, that will make us a top facility in the country for sprint car racing. I believe we will be a Top 10 facility, up there to be mentioned along with the Knoxville’s, Eldora’s, and the rest of them for top facilities and high-paying races. That’s the goal. For us to be the West Coast Knoxville over a period of time. A lot of the future depends on the coming years with changes in politics and business interests. Part of it is out of everyone’s hands.
 
This year you got yourself a new colleague - Blake Anderson! How has his addition been to the team at Skagit Speedway? Do you enjoy working with him on a regular basis?
 
KH: It’s been great! When Blake [Anderson] got hired the immediate reaction from everyone was that he was taking my job. Skagit management called me ahead of time and told me they were bringing him on to add more talent to the team. I loved it. I thought to myself: “Blake Anderson is coming in to work with us? Yes, yes, yes!” - couldn’t believe it. Blake is a smart guy. Brilliant mind. He has seen a lot of aspects of racing, between the jobs he has done in the past such as being with WRG and working for Tony Stewart with the All-Stars. His brain is the biggest asset we picked up with the addition to our team. I have leaned on him for a couple of announcing things here and there. Why wouldn’t I? Blake is incredible. I’m happy to call him a friend, as opposed to an acquaintance. Great business from Kevin [Rudeen] to take advantage of the situation and hire a great individual in the industry.
 
JW: Let’s talk about some on track action for a minute here. Who is a driver racing in the Pacific-Northwest that you have your eye on that you believe will make a jump to go regional racing, and even possibly go out on a National tour at some point? Is there a standout driver that you believe will be one of the top stars that come from the area?
 
KH: We are a sneaky area for talent in this region… I have to name a few drivers here. Trey Starks. He is one still. More people need to give him his flowers. Not just for beating the Kubota High Limit Series two times this summer, but for his previous resume of results, which include a prelim win at Knoxville and his success in PA - all across the country. Levi Hillier is a top, talent coming. Has the right people in his corner. Incredibly well-spoken, polite, respectful, and very smart. The relationships he has started at a young age with people show you next-level smarts. As a driver, you see the potential grow and come out in his race craft each time he hits the track. Levi [Hillier] is someone that you will hear more people across the sprint car world talk about in the coming two to three years. Having someone like his dad Chad [Hillier] who has been there and done it; including, running the World of Outlaws tour in the past and building up his own program by himself, gives him an appreciation of how hard you have to work to make it happen in this sport. If there is one driver who respects and understands the amount of work that needs to be put in to make a successful career in this sport, Levi [Hillier] is that young man. Finally, Colby Thornhill needs to be mentioned. Thornhill had a rough weekend when the National guys came to town, but on a regular basis, he is the wild card out here. There is a talent that shines through. He is still very young and developing as a driver, but he is someone who can mix it up out here.