Town seeks to legalize storage of drag-racing equipment left on EPCAL runway by promoter months ago

Equipment, jersey barriers, trailers and a truck were some of the items left on a town-owned runway at the Calverton Enterprise Park by a drag-racing promoter after the end last year’s “Race Track, Not Street” drag-racing series in September.

Riverhead Town officials are currently negotiating an agreement with the drag racing series promoter, Peter Scalzo, to make the occupation legal and collect a fee, according to Town Attorney Erik Howard. Howard said Scalzo initially left the items there without telling the town.

“It’s a pretty simple license agreement for leaving the stuff on the runway, but we are ironing out what the monthly fee would be,” Howard said in an interview Wednesday. “The monthly fee will be retroactive through November, December, January, February, and go out into the summer towards when his first event is supposed to be, after the bird-nesting season,” Howard said. Scalzo’s next drag-racing event is scheduled for August.

Without an agreement, Scalzo has no right to be on the property. The Town Board has not executed an agreement to license the property to Scalzo for any storage on the runways.

However, Scalzo in an interview said he has had an agreement with the town since October to store the equipment on the runway. He said he even signed an agreement drafted by Howard and sent two checks to the town with the amount specified in that agreement, which he declined to disclose. He simultaneously acknowledged that the agreement was only a draft, was not signed by Supervisor Yvette Aguiar, and that he is still in negotiation with the town for a fee.

Howard said Scalzo’s representation of the draft agreement “is more or less accurate.”

“We started discussing an agreement in the beginning of December and I sent him a draft at the end of December. He and I then agreed in principle and before I fully consulted the Town Board and finalized the agreement, he delivered a signed version of the draft I prepared with a check for the first six months of the agreement,” Howard wrote in an email. “However, after discussing with the Board members, several were not satisfied with the monthly fee. As such, I have since met with Mr. Scalzo and will be looking to further negotiate and agree on a monthly amount, ideally within the next week, so as to have a resolution for the next Town Board meeting.”

The town has approved two special event applications for Scalzo’s popular drag-racing series, which would run from the middle of August to the end of October, pending the sale of the land and the runways. The board also approved the application of a separate drag-racing event for the first weekend of April.

The items left on the 7,000-foot runway, which is currently inactive, includes bleachers, jersey barriers, traffic drums, many barrels, home depot buckets, trailers and a sweeper truck. There are also barriers stationed on the entrance to the runway from the taxiway, which is where cars line up to race for the events. 

One of the barriers is also vandalized with obscene graffiti. Scalzo said the barrier was bought from JFK and were already vandalized when he bought it. The barrier faces the grasslands surrounding the runway.

Also left on the taxiway of the 7,000-foot runway were two trailers labeled as the property of Launcher, a rocket engine company that was licensed to use the space in 2019 until September 2021. In the window of the trailer sits a “Race Track, Not Street” poster. In front of the Launcher trailers is an ATM machine. 

Scalzo said the trailers are not his property, but he is in agreement with Launcher to use the trailers.

Launcher did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

The matter of equipment being stored on the runway was originally raised by Northville resident John Cullen, who said during a Town Board meeting on Dec. 6 that he had seen what Scalzo left behind while riding his bike on the runway. In response to Cullen’s comment, Howard said that Scalzo had reached out to his office the day before and that his intentions were to “try to work out some kind of deal to accommodate storage.” That meeting was two and a half months after the last drag racing event occurred on the runway.

Howard said in a phone call Thursday that the interaction with Cullen was the first time it came to his attention.

Since then, Howard has had communication with Scalzo to work out the agreement. “I asked him to sort of straighten it up and make it — I think there were some complaints that it was sort of like haphazardly left out there,” Howard said. “So I asked him to arrange it in a more orderly way, and remove a couple of vehicles that were out there.”

Howard said Scalzo has liability insurance for his events indemnifying the town against claims in the event anyone is hurt, per the requirements of his previous runway use agreements. Scalzo said his current insurance expires in April.

Scalzo has stored items on the runway without an agreement with the town in the past. Last summer, he started setting up for his summer drag racing series in August, and was staying in an RV on the runway, before he had a runway use agreement with the town. It was still being drafted at the time, according to officials.

MORE COVERAGE: Drag racing promoter makes himself at home, living in RV on Calverton runway as he sets up for summer racing series

“I think there’s a general feeling amongst the Town Board that the event has been a good thing for the community and it’s not something that we want to nitpick on, as long as he’s ultimately doing right by the town, which I think he is,” Howard said.

MORE COVERAGE: Aguiar says she would support making Calverton drag strip permanent

“From his perspective, it’s something that he knows he’ll find a way to work out with us,” Howard said. “I mean, he’s been very easy to work with. And it hasn’t been difficult to reach agreements with them. There hasn’t been a lot of haggling, back and forth on things, he’s a reasonable person to deal with. And I think ultimately, you know, he genuinely wants to put on a good event that he thinks is good for the community. And to the extent that the town board agrees with that, I think everybody’s been willing to work together and with each other in a reasonable way to make sure that that happens.”

MORE COVERAGE: Drag racing returns to LI: ‘Race Track, Not Street’ event draws big crowd to Calverton

Scalzo said people who complained about his items left on the track were “naysayers,” who oppose drag racing events at EPCAL, and also complain about noise and traffic associated with the events.

“Everything has been terrific. We’ve had wonderful events,” Scalzo said. “They’re busting balls about keeping equipment there. I don’t keep the equipment there for free. The town charges me to keep the equipment there — not like everybody is knocking on the door to use the facility.”

Editor’s note: This article was edited after initial publication to reflect comments made by Peter Scalzo post-publication about his agreement with Launcher to use trailers on the taxiway.