LANSING — In his first year of ownership of Chateau Raceway, with his brother-in-law and partner Jerry Nelson, Darrin Toot learned some lessons. And a few came the hard way.

Perhaps one of the biggest lessons was: it’s a lot different being a driver than it is running a race track.

But Darrin has proved to be a fast study, and those mistakes that led to a rough first year have been corrected and has led to steadily improving tenure including this past season.

“Every day is a new day,” Darrin said from the tracks shop this past Friday morning. “You learn something new every day.”

In the three years Darrin and Jerry have owned Chateau, Darrin has tried several things to make Chateau as successful as it could be. Some of the changes, including a no-fault rule he brought from his racing days in the International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) proved very unpopular, but most have turned out well for the track.

But before change could be made at the track, Darrin had to learn to change himself from driver to promoter.

“I had to change myself,” Darrin said. “I had to become a people person. Being a racer for 19 years, that was hard for myself and some of the drivers to adjust to.”

In doing that Darrin came to see that there was a trianglular relation between himself, the drivers and the fans. Or as Darrin calls it, a three-legged stool.

“The grandstand needs the races, racers need the promoter and the promoter needs them both,” he explained.

Since that first year, Chateau has been motoring along so to speak and this third year has been the most successful yet despite seven rain-outs this season, most of which took place at the beginning of the season.

The staff at Chateau has worked tirelessly on the track adding 250 loads of clay last fall with the help of former owner Wally Bustad. They’ve also added to the racing itself.

This season, after a seven year absence, Darrin brought back the WISSOTA Super Stocks.

“We added Supers because, No. 1 they are run at other facilities and No. 2, we have locals from the Austin area that drive,” Darrin said.

There is a core group numbering between 8-12 Super Stocks on any given night with an average of 10 to 11 showing up every night.

But perhaps the biggest change to the classes running at Chateau is the splitting up of the Hornet class into two divisions: Junior and Senior.

“That’s are future,” Darrin said. “We have to get the younger generation involved.”

It was a move planned from the get go.

“Even when we started the class last year, our intention was to break it up by age,” he said.

The reason as simple: let drivers gain experience. The purse is only $50 to the winner.

“By no means is this a money-making deal for the racers,” Darrin said. “It’s about getting them involved.”

On the fan side of things, Chateau has worked toward making it a family involved facility all the way from Monkeywrench, the track’s mascot, a rentable deck, to theme nights.

One of those themes, the wildly popular driver rides, gives kid a chance to take a spin around the track on their favorite cars.

“In our second year we devoted ourselves to involving the family,” Darrin said. “ Every night we do something different for the kids.”

Even high gas prices hasn’t affected the track as some might think considering its a sport that is run on fuel.

Darrin has some theories as to why, including that people aren’t taking as many vacations. Chateau leaves people something to do, for both fans and drivers, that doesn’t take a whole lot of driving to get to.

“In this industry it hasn’t been as big a factor,” Darrin said.

Looking back on it all Darrin is happy with what’s been done and how the track has progressed and where it is going.

“We’re still enjoying doing it, each day,” he said. “We’re ahead of last year. We’re really comfortable with how things are going. I know we’re not going to be the Daytona of the dirt class, but we’re learning and getting better. We’re trying to become better.”

There still is some season left in Chateau including a USMTS Modified show this coming Friday, the Third Annual Cedar River Race. It is the second time the touring modifieds have come to Chateau, the first recording both a high car count and fan turnout.

Racing begins at 7:30 p.m.