MulletTruck said:The old Go Cart track at Paramount Ranch in Calabassas Ca. We used to film Medicine Woman there along with a lot of videos and smaller productions.
That was no go-kart track. That was Paramount Raceway. There is a URL in one of my above posts to order the book. By the way, I am good friends with Larry Dirk, the old ranger who actually lived on the set of Dr Quinn. He appeared in more than a few episodes.
In reply to Jerry From LA :
Cool, I was always told it was a Go Cart track, I figured those were some big go carts to be going around that big oval.
I worked with the Animals on the show so I was always first one there, last one out so I bumped into Larry all the time. We had a lot of walk ons since it is a State Park and they can lock the location down. Fans would come out dressed for work so they would let them be background.
In reply to MulletTruck :
The Paramount Ranch book shows the whole track layout. It was pretty intriguing with a crossover bridge like Suzuka. The layout was ultimately considered dangerous with at least one fatality. At least one movie used the track as a location. The book also shows pictures of Dr Quinn in production.
In reply to jimbbski :
I used to go to Illiana when I was little, late 60's/ early 70's. We also went to Raceway Park in Blue Island on Friday and Saturday nites. That track is gone too. Tore up to build a grocery store. I took my son to both places before they closed, that was fun....we still have Grundy and Rockford and Rockford runs bus races and trailer races. :D
Woody said: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.
That would have been epic.
Woody said:oldsaw said: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
I believe that Thompson was the first dedicated road course in America. A few years before they resurrected it, I walked the remnants of the track and it was hard to figure exactly how it was laid out. I haven't been back yet, but I'm hoping to drive it this year.
We autocrossed on part of it with Connecticut Autocross and Rally Team, before the track was rebuilt. It was bumpy, fast and a ton of laughs!
The Danbury Connecticut Racearena. Spent a lot of time there as a kid, my dad's partner had a stock car that raced there. It was on the fairgrounds of the Danbury Fair. It was torn down to make a mall, just what we really needed in Connecticut. The story I always heard was that the widow of the owner was told she was preserving the fairgrounds when she agreed to sell. Sad.
I doubt cars were run on it in an official capacity, but there is the Dorais Velodrome in Detroit. A coworker was telling me stories about it, that's all i know...
Before moving to California I worked for Borg Warner in Sterling Heights, Across from Warhoops Auto Salvage. We used the Packard Proving Grounds as a test track from time to time, They ended up selling the land to a developer and most of the facilities have been made into condos the original buildings are there, they use them for weddings etc. It was a pretty cool place to drive around.
docwyte said:Second Creek Raceway and Continental Divide Raceway near Denver were closed down over ten years ago. Both have just been sitting there unused ever since.
I don't understand it, they could've been making money this entire time. Then when the developer, or whomever had their stuff together and was ready to build, then close them...
My very first track day ever was at second creek raceway. I was visiting my buddy for the weekend and we just drove right up to the track to check it out. It was raining like hell! The guy at the gate said $20 bucks each. Have fun. We drove my buddies Subaru 2.5 RS for like 3 hours straight just messing around.
nobody else was there. It was AWESOME!
MulletTruck said:Before moving to California I worked for Borg Warner in Sterling Heights, Across from Warhoops Auto Salvage. We used the Packard Proving Grounds as a test track from time to time, They ended up selling the land to a developer and most of the facilities have been made into condos the original buildings are there, they use them for weddings etc. It was a pretty cool place to drive around.
YOu can still see the outline today between the little boxes. 
car39 said:
The Danbury Connecticut Racearena. Spent a lot of time there as a kid, my dad's partner had a stock car that raced there. It was on the fairgrounds of the Danbury Fair. It was torn down to make a mall, just what we really needed in Connecticut. The story I always heard was that the widow of the owner was told she was preserving the fairgrounds when she agreed to sell. Sad.
My dad used to take me there a couple times a year. Place was always packed with a bunch of drunks and fights broke out in the stands regularly between fans. They "preserved" the merry-go-round from the fairgrounds and put it in the mall food court when they built it. I grew up in Shelton and one of my neighbors ran a car there for several years.
jimbbski said:Just remembered another one. This one was a go kart track but on Sundays car clubs used it to run auto-crosses on it.
Part of the track is still there in the Google Earth pic here: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3617069,-89.0081971,346m/data=!3m1!1e3
I went to an autocross at this one once, I think around 1998-1999? It was a good time. I think it was BMWCCA or whatever the Chicago chapter is called.
I also remember going to Santa Fe Speedway in Willow Springs, IL when I was a kid (Boy Scout outing? That sounds kinda weird) but there's nothing left of that one.
slowride said:jimbbski said:Just remembered another one. This one was a go kart track but on Sundays car clubs used it to run auto-crosses on it.
Part of the track is still there in the Google Earth pic here: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3617069,-89.0081971,346m/data=!3m1!1e3
I went to an autocross at this one once, I think around 1998-1999? It was a good time. I think it was BMWCCA or whatever the Chicago chapter is called.
I also remember going to Santa Fe Speedway in Willow Springs, IL when I was a kid (Boy Scout outing? That sounds kinda weird) but there's nothing left of that one.
I went to one there also, probably around the same time. Still have a trophy stuffed in a box somewhere.
Occoneechee Speedway aka Orange in Hillsboro NC was a Nascar dirt track that closed in 1968.
Richard Petty won the last race.
Got this from an article in Autoweek
Pete Gossett said:slowride said:jimbbski said:Just remembered another one. This one was a go kart track but on Sundays car clubs used it to run auto-crosses on it.
Part of the track is still there in the Google Earth pic here: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3617069,-89.0081971,346m/data=!3m1!1e3
I went to an autocross at this one once, I think around 1998-1999? It was a good time. I think it was BMWCCA or whatever the Chicago chapter is called.
I also remember going to Santa Fe Speedway in Willow Springs, IL when I was a kid (Boy Scout outing? That sounds kinda weird) but there's nothing left of that one.
I went to one there also, probably around the same time. Still have a trophy stuffed in a box somewhere.
I started going there as far back as 1975 and I also still have a few trophies saved from those events as well. In the early 80's the car club I belonged to and still do is "The Capri Club of Chicago". We put on 4-6 auto-x's a year back them. Funny but I still know a few people who I met back then and still consider them a friend!
Here's something else. I believe this used to be the Studebaker proving grounds but now owned by Navistar.
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.660603,-86.4798738,3504m/data=!3m1!1e3
While it was not a permanent race track, Courtland, AL did host quite a few SCCA road races in the '50's and '60's, with big names like Shelby, Jim Hall, and other participating. The "track" is actually still there and we held an autocross on part of it in the late '90's. It was an older bomber base during WWII and by the time we autocrossed there the surface was slick, slick, slick with years of built up dirt on it. Some of it I think is still an active airport, but most is unused.
Not an abandoned race track, but they used to hold races at the airport in Cumberland, MD. The airport is still there but racing stopped in 1970. I attended races there form 1958 to 1968. A local group still has an Auto-X there once a year.
I just learned from the Vintage Vegas FB page, there used to be an F1 and CART circuit along the strip just north of Caeser’s Palace
Looks like it was half in a parking lot and half in an undeveloped area.I think F1 ran there from 81-84. The Forum Shops and Mirage Hotel are there now.
There was a road course 15 miles north of San Diego, CA, right on the coast. It used land originally used by an Army training base during WWII, then it in turn was covered over by the now-famous Torrey Pines Golf Course.
There was another short-lived course in the same area, near Miramar Air Station ("Top Gun" was filmed there). It was actually an airfield that proceeded Miramar, and after it shut down, the taxiways and runway were used for car racing. After they found that people went racing "after hours", they shut it down, dug trenches across the property, then ended up selling it to Miramar College, which covered over nearly all of it. Ironically, the portion of the airport tarmac that remained was used for a while by cops to learn car handling skills. Now all gone.
All these stories make me sad - glimpses into our past, gone forever - scenes from a much simpler time.
My very first autocross was on an old abandoned amusement park, it was all overgrown and had a slight creepy feel to it but I was having too much fun to care. Looked like something straight out of scooby doo.
Shireland Theme Park - Hampshire, IL.
now I want to turn the old paths into a rallyX course.
There is an old paved kart track near Einburg NY . Karts ran in the mid 60's. After many years a Corvette club started holding two auto crosses a year. Later on AMEC joined with help running the events. All cars are allowed.
suprising how the pavement has held up for 58 years, it does need some tlc every year.
I ran karts there and later the auto crosses.
jimbbski said: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.
If you can remember the domain name, you might be able to pull it up from archive.org
Pete Gossett said:slowride said:jimbbski said:Just remembered another one. This one was a go kart track but on Sundays car clubs used it to run auto-crosses on it.
Part of the track is still there in the Google Earth pic here: https://www.google.com/maps/@41.3617069,-89.0081971,346m/data=!3m1!1e3
I went to an autocross at this one once, I think around 1998-1999? It was a good time. I think it was BMWCCA or whatever the Chicago chapter is called.
I also remember going to Santa Fe Speedway in Willow Springs, IL when I was a kid (Boy Scout outing? That sounds kinda weird) but there's nothing left of that one.
I went to one there also, probably around the same time. Still have a trophy stuffed in a box somewhere.
Looks like the Utica one is now a winery. There is a very good chance my wife was there last weekend as DD for a bridal party; and an even better chance that my FIL knows the owner.
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