I doubt this will go anywhere, but I was wondering if we could do a thread on racetracks that are currently closed or unused? I can think of I-70 raceway down the highway and I see that Mid-America raceway was finally destroyed and developed (into farmland?) back in 2005. I suspect there are zillions of various dirt ovals that are closed, too.
Those would make for some pretty cool pictures to see.
The Saratoga Auto Museum has a yearly program called Lost Speedways. I covered the NE area.
Since most of the lost tracks have been talked about, the program is now mostly a nostalgia thing. Lots of photos and memorabilia with an interesting feature speaker.
There are folks looking to get this facility going again.
I read a book called Ghost Tracks or something like that. It’s interesting stuff.
I had a old friend who started a website called "Ghost Tracks" where he gave the history of a number of road race tracks that came and went here in the midwest.
Sadly the website went away after he passed.
The most famous tracks that he had a history of was "Meadowdale" northwest of Chicago. It didn't last very long but it held a number of pro races and it's still mostly all there.
It's now a forest preserve with the track used as a walking path.
They have a website: http://www.mirpa.org/home-1.html
Another small club track that's gone but not gone is one that was build in southern WI. It closed and was turned into a housing development with the builder using the track as it was and just adding pavement as required. He even named some of the streets with "racing" names.
The last one is a drag strip called "U.S. 30 Raceway" it's also still there just overgrown. https://www.google.com/maps/@41.4751478,-87.2835804,889m/data=!3m1!1e3
Karacticus said:There are folks looking to get this facility going again.
Looks like a fast layout. I don’t see how long it is.
There was a track in Mannford, OK, War Bonnet, held SCCA races and others back in the 60s.
IIRC, much of the track has been preserved.......................as surface streets for a neighborhood.
We went through this with horse racing over the decades. At one time, horse racing pulled bigger crowds than basketball, football, baseball, combined.
I remember flying somewhere North out of Florida about 30 years ago, and seeing abandoned dirt ovals all through North Florida and into Georgia and the Carolinas. They were all horse training tracks.
The most memorable one was in North Florida, a seriously big mile track that had a big tree growing right in the middle of one of the turns.
You can own a race car without having your own place to practice every day, but a race horse has to be trained.
I know of three around here. One within walking distance (sorta) of where I live. The Atlantic City Speedway. It's now part of the road leading to the USPS regional warehouse and the NJTA bus depot in Pleasantville. My father used to race there.
Another is near Hammonton NJ, along Rt 30/ White Horse Pike. You can still see it's outline on Google maps out in the woods. Supposedly it once rivaled Indy.
And the last I know about is on the grounds of the Cumberland County College. That one still exists, more or less. It is part of the walking trail on campus.
In the complete opposite direction of this topic, nearby where I was rally crossing today is an abandoned turn pike tunnel that has been used as a testing grounds for race cars on and off since the 70s.
Odd, this article says constructed in 03, but I have heard rumors of it since I was little.
Mid-America was renamed Raceway Park of the Midlands. I ride by it on the way to Sturgis and there has been plenty of activity there since 2005. Linky.
The one I miss is Bridgehampton. I was lucky enough to get to race on it a couple times back in the 90s before it was turned in to a golf course. It was the only track that I really respected. It was one of the fastest tracks I raced on and It would bite you with even the smallest laps in concentration.
I really wish something like project cars would model some of these old tracks.
The cool part would be finding these tracks, and hosting a no holds barred, “run what ya brung”, dirty street race.
There's a drag strip in middlepoint Ohio that's been closed for years. You can still see the tower in the overgrowth.
Dr. Hess said:Mid-America was renamed Raceway Park of the Midlands. I ride by it on the way to Sturgis and there has been plenty of activity there since 2005. Linky.
The one I was referencing is in Wentzville, MO near St. Louis... Closed in the mid-60's as a road racing course but I think the drag strip ran for a while after that.
I first started Kart Racing at a Wet Clay Oval called Bear Creek Raceway in North Carolina. What I've learn in working tires and Kart Chassis came from there. At times, It was so wet, You could had a mud bog event. It's currently for sale but hasn't been used since 2015 when the owner's health became more Ill.
Then there's the old East Bend Dragstrip where my Dad won many stock class races back in the 1970s. It's still has the layout but Mother Nature took over.
The old Hillside Kart Oval track in Mount Airy, NC closed in 1997 and is a flat, grassy field. The reason why Bear Creek opened.
And or Course, North Wilkesboro Speedway.
Not much to discuss about the old tracks in California; they're all under housing developments, malls, or golf courses.
The only one that still "exists" around San Diego is the parking lot of the Del Mar fairgrounds, but it always been just that, with no evidence remaining of what drove there in the past (all the way back to the 1950s).
Jungle Park Speedway has an intersting history. They have annual reunions there still with the old racecars, but most of the facility has been reclaimed by nature.
Lime Rock Park was originally conceived with both a long and short course, but the long course was never completed. I've casually tried to look for evidence of its existence, but, beyond the runoff area at the end of the main straight, it's nearly impossible to see.
Is Marlboro Raceway in MD still there or has it been developed yet?
Oh.
http://www.marlbororacewayevents.com/Motor-Speedway-About-Our-Speedway-Upper-Marlboro-MD.html
Well that's cool.
Augusta International Raceway existed for ten years outside of Augusta, GA. It was a multi-track site that included an oval, a drag strip and a 3-mile road course.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusta_International_Raceway
For quite a few years the road course at Thompson Speedway (in CT) was abandoned but it has been resurrected. This is where I saw my first oval and first sports car race. The track was and still is a "roval".
http://www.thompsonspeedway.com/about-thompson-speedway/history?nid=150#1
VIR was pretty much a ghost track for a while, pretty incredible to what it is now
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