Who wants to own a racetrack

+1


Every one ive ever heard liking that place, now a days, lives in a cornfield with their cousin, littlesheila, over yonder down the road around the bend.

 

I went there once for a school. I probably did 50-60 laps and got the entry on to the banking right three or four times. I couldn't get past the idea of slamming into a concrete wall long enough to concentrate on actually riding. To make things worse, it started raining in the afternoon.

 

How did you ever complete a lap at Topeka?

 

The first time at gateway and brushing the airfence out of 7 make you realize how terrible it is.

 

I never really saw the problem with HPT. Maybe I'm not fast enough? There are walls but you're not turning into them, just running alongside, which is common on many tracks.

 

You guys need to grow a pair!




What was that Mongo said about liking tracks only becuase they are close?


guilty.


At least everything is covered in both airfence and bales. We put a lot of effort into making it as safe as possible and it has worked pretty well.

 

Exactly, now a days Gateway is as safe as it can be (almost) Its still dangerous, but when you actually look at the layout and the lines, and the air fence its pretty well covered. It is however visually very intimidating if your that type of rider.

 

Rob Jensen wadded up the Tularis there!!

 

I would say my concern is less about mortal bodily injury and more about the certainty of destroying a bike if I crash. At a track like Hallett, if you get bumped, run wide, or miss a brake marker, you just ride off into the grass and either slow to a stop or maybe have a low speed tip over. There is no chance of that at Gateway except for a corner or two in the infield.

 

IM just messing with you, Gateway is far from ideal. But we work with what we have. Racing is better than no racing.

 

Where's the photo of the guys bike between the wall and fence at GMP?

 

I raced there five or so years ago. The track surface was okay, the layout was the usual bland Alan Wilson "meh", the asphalt in the pits was crumbling and had huge waves. The really great part was the drag strip runs parallel to the front straight, with the starting line closest to the roadrace pits. The drag cars ran all day Saturday, starting with the slow stuff and ending around midnight with the fast and *really* loud stuff. So the usual post-racing hanging out in the pits, grilling out, sleeping, etc., was challenging to say the least.

The facility is built in the flood plain of the Missouri River, so water damage is inevitable. I wonder if the place is even insurable? While it's not too far from mid-size cities like Omaha, Des Moines, and Kansas City, there's not a whole lot of population from which to draw. I hate to see any racetrack go away, but this one has a lot stacked up against its success.

 

I think it’s great. This country needs more shopping malls, used car lots and kids in front of TV’s.

 

Can't be worse then Nelson

 

7? You were doing it wrong

 

Why have I never heard of this track...?

 

There’s actually an oversupply of tracks in that area - 3 within less than 200 miles (MAM in Omaha, Hastings NE and Topeka KS). Hallett in Tulsa isn’t much further away. I don’t believe WERA has run at any of the tracks.

 

Unfortunately the only tracks that hold actual races and not track days is HPT once a year, and Hallet once a year. For a racer this is far from an "oversupply". And WERA has run at HPT a long time ago. Still got my trophy from that endurance race.

 

That's why I stated an oversupply of tracks and not an oversupply of racing. They're all doing the same thing and there‘s not enough demand to support it. It's a tough combination of expensive hobby, crappy economy and small market.