Just off the Mount Baker Highway, near Deming, there’s a place where excitement is never in short supply. That place is Deming Speedway, a 1/6-mile oval racetrack, which hosts multiple classes of sprint cars on Friday nights from April through September.
As Whatcom County’s only auto racing track, Deming plays a major role in the lives of local families who come to race, spectate, and have fun. The track is owned and operated by Paul Lemley, who grew up around local sprint car racing. His father, Elbert, was instrumental in establishing Skagit Speedway, a 3/10-mile dirt track located in Alger.
The open-wheel racecars that speed across Deming’s banked, clay-based surface are known as “mini-sprints” – slightly smaller, less-powerful versions of full-size sprint cars. They run on four-cylinder motorcycle engines of various cubic-centimeter displacements, up to 1200cc. Most sprint cars also have large overhead aluminum wings that add downforce and help cushion the impact of rollover accidents, which can be relatively frequent.

Deming’s current track record is 9.68 seconds, which equals an average speed of roughly 62 mph. The fastest cars reach over 70 mph at the end of the straightaways. Although that might not seem fast, it is when you’re sliding sideways into a turn, running inches apart from other competitors as dirt flies everywhere.
“You put 20 of those cars out at one time, it’s pretty incredible,” says Lemley. “When you actually see how close the cars are at that rate of speed, it’s…wow.”
The Road to Now
Sadly, Lemley’s father died when he was 10. As an adolescent, Lemley learned about racetrack management from Jim Raper, one of his dad’s best friends and his successor as Skagit Speedway manager. Lemley eventually left Whatcom County for the U.S. Army and, after several years abroad, returned in 1974. The next year, he began driving sprint cars. Eventually, Lemley became involved in operating Deming Speedway, and bought into the facility in 1979.

Lemley continued driving, but running the track took more and more of his time. He decided to hang up his helmet in 1984, after driving in the track’s first Clay Cup Nationals. The race has since become the track’s signature event, with three days of intense action in mid-July. Clay Cup draws top sprint car racers from across the U.S., and past participants have included former NASCAR drivers Brian Scott and Kasey Kahne. Car counts are typically huge: last year, there were 140 entries. This year, the IBEW/NECA Clay Cup Nationals features a $57,000 winnings purse – its biggest ever.
In the early days of owning Deming, Lemley had to work a day job, often pouring significant portions of his welding paycheck back into the track. Over the years, he managed to split his calendar between racetrack management and offseason welding. This April, he’ll finally retire from the latter, focusing solely on Deming. Lemley says if he didn’t have the racetrack to stay occupied, he’s not sure what he’d do with himself.
“It’d ruin me, probably,” he says.
A Family Affair
Racers at Deming Speedway range in age from 6 to 66. Children ages 6 to 13 compete in the Clean Crawls Junior Sprints category, previously called the Kasey Kahne Junior Sprints. Kahne, the former NASCAR star, provided financial support of the division for years, ensuring no team paid entry fees to race. Despite being driven by children not yet old enough to hold a learner’s permit, the cars near 50 mph at top speed.

“That’s what makes it so amazing,” says Lemley. “You watch those kids and you forget they’re little kids, because they’re really racing. And when you see those junior sprint drivers get out of their cars, it’s the coolest thing in the world. They’ve got the biggest grins on their faces.”
Unlike many youth sports, racing is an activity where parents can work side-by-side with their children, not just on race day, but in preparing the racecar during the week.
“It’s one of the few sports where you have that opportunity,” Lemley says. “Most sports, you can go watch them play games, but with the exception of being a coach, you can’t really get involved with it.”

Watching the ‘racing bug’ pass from generation to generation, he adds, is extremely rewarding. Lemley’s watched children who’ve raced at Deming grow up, have children of their own, and then return to watch their children race.
Family atmosphere reaches from the pits to the grandstands at Deming Speedway, and Lemley makes sure the track is an affordable, welcoming place for everyone. Tickets are only $10 to $12 per person, with children 7 and under free. Admission is also free to anyone living within a mile radius of the track. Free dry camping is available, and there’s also quality concession food. In fact, the food is so good that neighbors sometimes get food but skip the racing. Deming even has a mascot, Speedy the Turtle, who helps maintain a sense of fun.

“Whole families have a lot of fun when they come here,” Lemley says, and that includes his own family. Paul and his wife of 45 years, Bev, live in a house on the racetrack property. Their son Brock, 37, has raced since age 12, and their three daughters, ages 20 to 42, all grew up with the track. The Lemleys have five grandchildren. Unsurprisingly, almost all of them race.
Although the track is now profitable, Lemley is quick to point out that it’s not why he’s in the racing business.
“If I was doing it for the money, I’d be charging a lot more for everything,” he says. “I used to say, years ago, before the track started making money, that if I could get somebody in the stands to have a big smile on their face, it’s worth it.”
Judging by the number of smiles these days, it seems like things at Deming Speedway are working out just fine.