For those of you with to much time on your hands

Been gone for years, they mined it.

 

The North Central Region had Wentzville MO on the schedule back in the 80s and it's closed long ago. Ken would know more about it btw.

 

You're being too much of a bitch

 

Arguably, every track I’ve fallen at has been subject to excavation…

 

And you kept leaving before they could finish digging the hole.

 

Hey, I was being courteous!

Didn’t want anyone penalized for passing under the waving yellow.

 

What was changed at RA? My first race there was 96 or 7 so I remember the real kink/back straight as there was no chicane/bus stop between the Carousel and Canada Corner but other than that think it’s been relatively the same…

I rode ATL in like 94 so I think I experienced all of the original things like the gravity cavity and old 12 and 2-3-4 and 10 a/b

IRP and Memphis, I don’t miss them, Gateway was around but I never went as it was supposed to be dangerous… other two before my time…

 

That sucks. Met CE there back right after he won the WSBK championship. He said “if you can race here you can race anywhere!”

Grass growing between the seams in T1. It was impressive.

 

Westwood is another one that is now a subdivision

https://www.reddit.com/r/coquitlam/...y_accurate_location_of_the_old_westwood_race/

 

From the bookshelf:

 

Really cool book:

 

That was the big change at RA and I don't miss it, it alwaays scared me with the guard rail there. But the track feels way different to me now. I have never ridden the new layout at Road Atlanta. GAteway was dangerous. I never said I liked it, just like Rockingham is the only track I vowed I would never go back to afetr running an endurance race there. I hated everything about it. I disliked IRP until I realized that I always finished well there and changed my attitude about it. It appeared worse than it really was.

 

I lucked my way through another’s blown engine in the old back straight kink at RA two
Wheel drift spun up on the limiter… super scary shit… two others went down luckily none too bad… ATL sucks now comparatively but safer for 12 and 3-4… I’ve only ridden there 3 times as I have a really bad premonition there… I kind of owe my decades career to Gateway as a buddy demolished an F2 there and said it couldn’t be fixed… sold it to me for $500 and it got me started… IRP straight was sketchy but the rest wasn’t dangerous really I don’t think just not really a track but better than Memphis… I went to a few tracks that I never went back for safety or hatred…

Memphis, Beavrun, Autobahn, MAM, Blackhawk, Kershaw, Talledega, Savanah, Summit, Loudon, Topeka, Nelson, Nashville, Richmond

wow… I guess I’m pretty picky… wonder how many tracks I’ve raced at now… there are 14 that I only went to once off the top of my head…

 

What didn't you like about Summit?

 

Was curious what golf course in the Hamptons was built on top of the track, and it sounds pretty interesting.

https://www.top100golfcourses.com/golf-course/bridge

 

That one was mostly just not liking it… that wall after the short shoot was way too dangerous but air fence helps that now I’m sure… my one ride there was 20 years ago in 2004

 

The old Moroso was pretty dangerous with nothing but a tire wall at the end of a 3/4 mile straight. Plus the pit wall sticking out by the old kink, if you lost it through there, good chance of being dismembered. Then of course the old turn 1 where you would end up in the canal that was loaded with gators.

PBIR they flipped the direction around and added some runoff, but lots of concrete walls, and no air fence, due to a screwing of the AFF. It's still there but was under contract for over $80M for industrial property. The deal fell through and there's still petitions going around to "save PBIR". I laugh because the economics of a race track really don't make sense if it's worth $5 million, let alone 80.

The new Circuit Florida just opened west of Orlando, but it's private with Condo sales being the big motivator. Looks to have lots of walls, too. Same with the Podium Club in Miami.

Private with the main focus being condo sales seems to be the only way these projects work out economically. Unless it's a big corporation that can invest the money up front in making all of the infrastructure improvements to host real racing. Or the land is dirt cheap. i.e. not in Florida.

There's a private track out by Clewiston, FL that is in the middle of nowhere, the straightaway is actually a runway and I believe there's power and water out there. I flew over it once and tried to research it. I've also been shooting out at the property next door. Owner says they fly in and drive cars around it once in a while, but that was all years ago. It was listed for sale in the Robb Report magazine, but nobody would answer the phone. I finally got through to someone and they quoted a $10M price tag.

 

Mid-America Raceway, Wentzville, MO:
https://www.thedrive.com/news/41339...ceway-get-reclaimed-by-suburbia-is-depressing

https://www.undergroundozarks.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9975

Find more tracks here, perhaps?
http://www.na-motorsports.com/Tracks/MO/MidAmerica.html

 

I grew up very close to a small quarter-mile oval track, the Pines Speedway.



About Pines Speedway
The quarter-mile track, opened by Oscar “Cannonball” Ridlon and John Smith in 1940, was home to ‘midget car’ racing. ‘Midget cars’ are a class of four-cylinder racing cars that are small with a remarkably high power-to-weight ratio.

The track closed during WWII and was reopened and paved in 1946.

The track officially closed in 1973 and was home to thousands of race car drivers and fans. The Town of Groveland bought the 38-acre property of ‘The Pines’ which included the speedway in 1974.



http://www.speedwayandroadracehistory.com/pines-speedway.html
https://www.hemmings.com/stories/article/the-pines-speedway

You can see pics of a lot of the cars that raced there at these sites.
Pines Speedway Reunion - 2006
http://www.pangalacticconsortium.com/cars/CarEvents2006/PinesSpeedway_2006/index.html
Pine Speedway Reunion 2007
http://www.pangalacticconsortium.com/cars/CarEvents2007/PineSpeedway_2007/

http://www.seniortourautoracers.com/pinesreunion.html
http://www.seniortourautoracers.com/starcars.html

 

Hot Rod Lincoln! Model A with Lincoln V12 - cool!