Topeka ? Millions of dollars of improvements are being made at Heartland Park in an effort to attract more events and racing fans.

Local and state government funding is helping to pay for the project, which is expected to cost between $15 million and $20 million. Along with repaving the road course and drag strip, planned improvements include a 22-acre paddock addition for racing teams, 30 new garages, a new facility maintenance building and a 17,000-square-foot technical inspection building.

The project is scheduled to be competed by next May.

Track owner Raymond Irwin said the project is intimidating.

“I’ve seen guys do this – buy a brand new street car and take it to the race shop and tear it completely apart to make it into a race car,” he said. “When you first start, it’s like, ‘Oh man, what are we doing here? We just took a beautiful car and took it apart.’

“The idea is that you’re making it better certainly. It’s the same circumstance here, but on a much larger scale, so it’s very intimidating.”

Though about $200,000 had been spent to repair cracks and smooth out the 2.6-mile road course, Irwin said it still needed the most attention.

“It still was just so bumpy and so nasty that it was just not fun to race on,” he said.

Earlier this year, the park landed the October 2006 Sports Car Club of America National Championship Runoffs. The track is scheduled to be finished well in advance of the event.

Several other regional and national SCCA events will use the track. Heartland Park also will host the Solo2 National Championships in 2006, with that event moving from Forbes Field.

Irwin also was excited about improvements to Heartland Park’s quarter-mile drag strip, which has been one of the nation’s fastest. New asphalt will be installed from the 660-foot mark through the shutdown area at the end of the track.

Irwin anticipated that the improvements would translate into a larger fan base and more events.

“Our growth, we do believe, will continue at 20 percent or beyond per year,” said Irwin, who expects to add go-cart and motorcycle events in the near future.

Hopefully someday the park could consider an Indy Racing League or Champ Car series race, he said, “once we have a facility capable of handling that.”