Looking into building a track - Have some questions

A friend who i met at track days last summer spoke high regards of both Miller and Barber. He has actually paid for a secure a spot for one weekend at the end of August doing track days at Barber of course. Apparently that weekend is already booked solid. Most likely i will go down in 09, and 2010 for sure cos by then we won't have a track any more here in Calgary.

 

dude i think miller is sick!

 

Ok, next quick question:

Using your current tracks as reference, how much land do you think a world-class facility would need to feel comfortable? Do you feel your favorite tracks have too much/little in terms of space, parking, accessibility, entrance gates for participants and spectators, etc. etc.?

 

500+ ac.

 

I think you need to see what the Barber folks have done. It's a nice compact track with plenty of parking and access to it. Can't speak for Miller because I've never been there. Road A seems like it takes up a ton of space, but no facts, just perception.

 

640 acres = 1 square mile so I would guess 300 acres..... bare minimum. 400-500 would be much more comfortable.

 

Yes, I like what Barber has done, but are there enough entrances? Atlanta seemed awfully confusing to me for some reason. It feels like a maze. Am I alone here?

 

Barber only has the one entrance, but it's far enough of the road to not cause too many back ups. Also, there are quite a few entrances that seem to get it moving fairly quickly. I would have a bigger access road though, that two lane road can be painful when someone wants to hang a left.

 

You also have to consider the surrounding area. If the track is built in the middle of corn fields, you would not need much of a sound buffer area. But if you build it close to houses/city, you would need additional land as a noise buffer. Not to mention the usual sound buffers of hills, billboards, walls, and/or trees. Building close to airports, military bases, or railroad tracks/depots usually allow for adjustments in sound buffering.

 

FYI don't build any where near a Church. Judging by your avatar and being in TN, I would imagine this track would be north of knoxville or in between knoxville and nashville. . Don't count Ed bargy out of the track design. Remember. As the investor, you get the final said. let him have a bid and a design.

Things to consider. at least one straight length at least 1/2 mile. LOTS of run off room for corners. Get enough plus some, so the "safety" factor won't get thrown in. Accessible power. Lots of garages.

500 acres I would say would be the bare minimum of how much land you would need. And at least 80 million invested in the property.

 

To get an idea on the amount of land: the Barber track is 2.3 miles in length, and IMO its a bit tight. According to an article I saw,
"The Barber Motorsports Park was built on a 740 acre plot of land."
Granted, that includes a museum, a lake, and rv/camping areas, but that may give an idea.

 

Here's Barber from the air to give you an idea of the access. There's only one road in/out, but it's pretty long. I read somewhere that when they were talking to the FIM about getting GP/WSBK races there, they were told they really needed more than one entrance road. A couple of other things that were supposedly brought up by the FIM were that they wanted more garage space and a longer straight (something along the lines of road atlanta's main straight).

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=leeds,+al&ie=UTF8&ll=33.532631,-86.612005&spn=0.017493,0.028839&t=h&z=15

Also, the poster who mentioned noise issues has a good point. Barber and Road A both have hours where they have to be quiet because of neighbors who complain. Ideally, you could just locate away from potential problem people, but in reality, it's probably a good idea to think about various things that eat up noise like building in a natural "bowl" that will force the sound upwards (barber supposedly used this theory, but still has people complain), and also just try to have as many trees between you and your neighbors as possible.

Anyway, you can probably figure the rough acreage from the scale on the lower left of the google picture. As someone mentioned, 640 acres = a square mile.

 

On site camping with decent restroom/shower facilites would be a plus.

Also, a motocross/supercross track would be a cool addition, especially if it could be configured for vintage bikes (think AHRMA).

 

Ok guys, I've been running around for the last few days, and then I had a wreck which has slowed my pace a bit. Bike's ok, but I've got some road rash. This was my first wreck not wearing full leathers, and boy does it suck!

I'm working up a plan, and right now I've got feelers out there in a few different directions. There have been some excellent responses from a lot of you from posts, to pm's, to emails. I really do appreciate it. I'll try and keep everyone updated on the progress.

At the very least, I'll be trying to put a small track day style track somewhere in East TN in the next 5 years. If the numbers and connections look good for F1/MotoGP quality track, I guess I'll have to scrounge up the change!

 

How exciting! Please keep in touch.