autoclub speedway...is done

Track days only these days at Pocono with a mostly or entirely infield course. Nothing like racing there with WERA in the early-mid '90s.

 

I haven't been in awhile, but when the AMA records were set, you didn't have the chicane coming out of the back straight that WERA always implemented after someone killed themselves hitting the bridge. That is how I remember it, so I could have the details wrong, but I think that chicane has been used since around 2010.

EDIT...looks like that was already covered. Didn't realize that WERA quit running it around 2014? Did they repave the back straight and get rid of the bump that initiated it?

 

I am a local and attend most Fastrack Rider events. They have been saying this for the past couple of years.....nothing has happened. Plus in this economy....nobody wants to build unless there is instant revenue.

I heard down the grapevine that the whole package is still in the planning stage so we should be good for a few more years.

 

This.
I am local, too and last year we thought it was the last year but it got pushed out and there hasn't been much said about it this year at all. The place is busy with go-karts, RC car track, drag strip - you'd think they could find a way to make money, but I can see how the large oval is not so popular for NASCAR, you can't see the whole track and they always seem to want to run the races when it is punishingly HOT outside, seems brutal for spectators.

Definitely not an area where houses would go up, but all around Fontana and Ontario in the last few years they have been putting in huge distribution centers (Amazon, etc.), anything near the freeway and especially near the 15/10 or 15/60 interchanges must be really desirable plus it is close to Ontario airport, where a lot of cargo is flown in and out.

 

I dunno. I've always heard the chicane is mostly-open because the bumps are so bad

On my R6, I turn early and am straight-up before the curbs, bumps, and seams - WOT the whole time. Maybe the big bikes roll off some. I know the slower riders definitely roll off.

 

Fastrack is still advertising events.
It is more fun when it stays in “two digit temps” all day.

 

im in rancho . arrow and ettiwanda

 

they are already taking down the grandstands and who knows what else...so pretty sure time is getting short

 

Sorry to hear as I did my first track day here at the half way point of a cross country motorcycle ride. I'd never been in the infield of a track, and I remember thinking how cool it was. It was (to me at that time) unfathomably badass.

Good memory for sure.

 

Got a pic?

I think many big NASCAR tracks have been reducing the grandstands for a couple years - because attendance has been low. Empty grandstands look bad, so just reduce the grandstands. It probably saves them on maintenance and personnel costs too. I'm not surprised Fontana would do the same.

 

Too lazy to check, is a NASCAR race scheduled for 2022 or any year after? I know they previously reduced the grandstand @ what, ten years ago or so. ? In any event the long term viability of the track doesn’t appear to look good.

 

no man, no long term viability - its done...done deal. going going gone - theyre turning it into a short track for nascar...rest of it is done.

 

Well, Fastrack is running next weekend (it’s the cancelled WERA weekend) guess we’ll see if things are being changed or dismantled already.

 

Ok that was what I was told by someone, I don’t remember who, but not a WERA official.

You did run it straight when we first started racing and you did add the chicane at some point and it was that way with the chicane until we quit racing.

My son liked it much better when it was straight.