The greatest Motorsports location in America?

In reply to STM317:

Hey.... you left out snowmobiles. LOL

Lof8 wrote: I'm in southwest FL (Sarasota/Bradenton). There are circle track races, boat races, International endurance races, nascar races, drag races, autocrosses, rallycrosses, track days, mud bogs, dirt drag races, swamp buggy races, motorcycle races all within 2-3 hours of me. You could be doing something motorsports related every single weekend if you chose.

As a resident in Clearwater, I agree with this. Daytona and Sebring have the obvious plethora of races, but you also have the FIRM for Rallycross, Jennings GP for motorcycles, Gator Nationals for 1/4 drag racing and a ton of smaller other types of racing all within a couple hours of each other.

Weather is nice year-round (July in Florida is debatable as "nice" to many), so there is little to no down time for racing.

It sounds like Cali has a lot of good options as well, but no state tax in good 'ol Florida!

Kreb wrote: California's high cost of admittance is largely The San Francisco Bay Area and the Southern Coastal regions. If you are willing to live an hour or so out of the hotspots, the cost of living is relatively reasonable, and in most cases, you're closer to the motorsports venues anyway. Sacramento gets you everything, (although a bit hot for my tastes, but still a lot better climate than most of the country) I'm seriously considering retiring near Monterey/Laguna Seca. Phenomenal weather and natural beauty. Killer racetrack in my front yard. What's not to like?

This:

The median home value in Monterey is $727,100

Compare that to about $170K in Central FL, or $205K in the Atlanta area, and Monterey loses a bit of it's luster. It's a wonderful place, beautiful, nice climate, great food, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca........but ouch....it ain't cheap!

In reply to Ovid_and_Flem:

Maybe for people who are tougher than me, but I'm not going to freeze my hootus off going across the tundra at 20+ mph.

I'm in the Chicago burbs between Milwaukee and Chicago. Hour and a half to Road America, Blackhawk Farms, Autobahn, Chicago Speedway, Wi Dragaway, multiple autox clubs bmwcca, porsche club, three hours to indy. A little further to Gingerman in MI. About a dozen dirt ovals within 2 hours. There's Rocky Glen, Cliff's Insane Terrain and Fox Valley Offroad parks within 2 hours and there are a couple of indoor kart tracks around. You can be as urban as you want around here or head a little north and west and be in a cornfield in no time. Actually lots of folks are heading across the border to Wisconsin since IL government is so berkleyed. We bought an acre last year.

Titan4 wrote: I'm in southeast Pennsylvania and it's OK here. Obviously no desert, no swamps and no F1. Several road racing tracks within a reasonable distance (Pocono, NJ Motorsports Park, Summit Point) but probably more than 120 miles. The Pennsylvania Hill Climb Association does 6 or 7 hillclimbs each year and a couple of track time trials - mostly in the eastern half of PA. Autocrosses are all over the place around here. NASCAR is at Pocono and Dover, Delaware (not too far south of Philadelphia). There are drag strips in eastern PA and NJ.

I was thinking South Central Pa. is hot for a lot of racing. Cecil, Capital, Mason, Numidia, Maple, South Mountain, Beaver, Island, Atco, Englishtown, New Alexandria are all within 160 miles for Drags. Pocono, Dover, Richmond for Nascar. Pa Hill Climb. Tons of auto-x. Williams Grove, Susquehanna, Lincoln, Hagarstown, Flemington, Bedford, Port Royal, Grandview, Sellings Grove for dirt. Summit Point is 90 miles away. Hershey, Carlisle, Maple, Harrisburg, Macungie for flee markets. Street Rods National, Jalopy Meets, Slip Stream for events. Buck and many other tractor pulls. Penske, Amato, Jenkins, Stahl, Strickler, Stewart, Ganasi, Leberman. There are 78 tracks in operation in PA at this time. Just sayin'.

Joe Gearin wrote:

Kreb wrote: California's high cost of admittance is largely The San Francisco Bay Area and the Southern Coastal regions. If you are willing to live an hour or so out of the hotspots, the cost of living is relatively reasonable, and in most cases, you're closer to the motorsports venues anyway. Sacramento gets you everything, (although a bit hot for my tastes, but still a lot better climate than most of the country) I'm seriously considering retiring near Monterey/Laguna Seca. Phenomenal weather and natural beauty. Killer racetrack in my front yard. What's not to like?

This: The median home value in Monterey is $727,100 Compare that to about $170K in Central FL, or $205K in the Atlanta area, and Monterey loses a bit of it's luster. It's a wonderful place, beautiful, nice climate, great food, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca........but ouch....it ain't cheap!

Yeah, but I'm living in a place where nice houses are automatically in seven figures. Besides, there's other communities like Salinas and Castroville nearby.

There are certainly places with much friendlier economic realities, but CA's just awesome in so many ways.

On second thought, no. It sucks, stay away.

Even though it would be a cold day in hell before I would ever move there, I would have to say California would be the hotspot for motorsports activities.

I'll leave the political arguments to the others but I will say that if it wasn't for COTA being there Austin could get swallowed up by a giant whole in the ground for all I care based on traffic alone.

I do think it's funny that we praise California for being so car-centric, but it's also probably the least friendly and most strict environment for modifying vehicles. It seems like there are so many things that are more difficult, or totally impossible for an average enthusiast to do there than many of the other places in the country.

In reply to STM317:

I agree, it is very funny. But a ton of badass builds happen in Cali. Tracks are everywhere. Desert, mountains and beach all pretty close. I mean look at what Freiburger and Finnegan manage to do in that environment.

DocV wrote: loosecannon, do you mind if I ask where you are from? I echo the above (positive) sentiments about Georgia. I myself am a "transplant" to GA, but have lived in most parts of the state. What forms of motorsport are you most interested in? We sadly do not have rally or hillclimbs like the northeast does. I haven't done much actual participation to date but intend to change that soon. There are active SCCA (autocross/rallycross) events in Atlanta and Middle Georgia.

I'm in the Canadian prairies and our summer is nice but far too short. We say that we live in a land locked island because you have to drive 7 hours at least to get anywhere with a decent population, and that would just get me to Minneapolis. I'm so tired of shoveling snow and all the salt that goes along with icy roads. My plan when I retire is to load my snowblower into the back of the truck and drive south until somebody says "what is that?". I am into almost any form of motorsports but am partial to autocrossing, karting, rock climbing and Formula 1. Right now Las Vegas and Salt Lake City are on our radar because there are so many motorsports available around both those places, and the weather is about perfect for us. We are still a few years away from moving but we are already thinking about places. In my original post, I never said one place had to have ALL those forms of motorsports, I was simply listing off stuff that I think are cool and I would enjoy.

In reply to loosecannon:

That gives a much better perspective. What parts of the US have you visited? Have you ever visited the Deep South or Southeast? And I don't mean Florida

Sheesh, nobody has stuck up for Michigan yet? Where's Adrian?

Fine, I'll do it. Road racing, we have Indycars and sports cars on Belle Isle every summer. Drag racing, there's Milan, Stanton, and the one up in Lapeer that I'm forgetting the name of. NASCAR visits MIS twice, and you can go do the "NASCAR experience" thing there, as well. Smaller circle tracks include Flat Rock and dozens of dirt ovals in various small towns all over.

For amateur road racing and track days, there's Waterford Hills, M1 Concourse, Grattan, and Gingerman, and we're not far from Mid-Ohio, Putnam, and others in the IN/OH region. We have rallying in northern Michigan with the Sno-Drift, and hundreds of miles of groomed snowmobile trails up there, too.

There are also other kinds of motorsports like hydroplane racing on the Detroit river, and the Red Bull Air Races have been known to come by, too.

For general car culture, it's hard to beat the Dream Cruise, and we have one of the most significant auto shows in the world. Great car museums, too, from the Henry Ford to Chrysler's corporate museum to the Gilmore Museum near Kalamazoo.

The local autocross scene is very active in Detroit, but it's not the only game in town, as there is a pretty good group on the west side of the state, too. Detroit SCCA does rallycross and TSD rally, as well. There's a hillclimb in Empire every year, and probably others I don't know about.

Dayton. Reason: 2 hours from Mid Ohio and Indy.

Indy is the real answer, but I split the difference between everything that city has to offer and Mid-O. Detroit is 2 hours away if you somehow skip the construction nightmare that is Toledo these days and do ~ triple digits most of the way up. Nelson Ledges is sadly closer to 4 hours away because the only highway that runs right by it is the turnpike, which I never use. Pittrace/BeaveRun is about the same as Nelson. Puttnam is about 3 and a bit hours. We have a drag strip in town with a roundie-round that they only use for autocross and drifting anymore.

I guess basically just make sure you don't live in one of the Dakotas and get used to driving to wherever you're headed. That's the real solution.

I'll throw my $0.02 about the Houston area. Not perfect, but worth considering. If you like autocross, we have SCCA events the first Sunday, BMWCCA the third Sunday, PCA events sprinkled in, TAMU events an hour away in College station and if you want to drive a couple hours SPOKES has events out of town. I think we figured you could autocross 40-45 weekends a year. Rallycross and now short stage rally over by Austin. F1 over there too. MSR Houston is the road course in town, we still have Texas World Speedway for a while, obviously COTA, Cresson and Eagles Canyon up by Dallas, and NOLA over in New Orleans. You're also half way between the coasts, so you can pick which long drive you want to get to either. They just built a new proper kart track six miles from my house that I need to visit.
No elevation so no rock climbing, weather is inverse of the majority of Canada. Nice for three months, ok for another four to six, and intolerable for the rest. It's just that instead of hell having frozen over, it's literally hell.
Property is cheap if you stay away from the cool areas, which is easy to do. No income tax. One of the best medical centers in the world. NFL, MLB and soccer teams.
Would I retire here? No, in fact we'll be leaving in a cloud of tire smoke with middle fingers in the air in another decade, but while we're here I have more automotive things to do than I have time for.

wheels777 wrote: I was thinking South Central Pa. is hot for a lot of racing. Cecil, Capital, Mason, Numidia, Maple, South Mountain, Beaver, Island, Atco, Englishtown, New Alexandria are all within 160 miles for Drags. Pocono, Dover, Richmond for Nascar. Pa Hill Climb. Tons of auto-x. Williams Grove, Susquehanna, Lincoln, Hagarstown, Flemington, Bedford, Port Royal, Grandview, Sellings Grove for dirt. Summit Point is 90 miles away. Hershey, Carlisle, Maple, Harrisburg, Macungie for flee markets. Street Rods National, Jalopy Meets, Slip Stream for events. Buck and many other tractor pulls. Penske, Amato, Jenkins, Stahl, Strickler, Stewart, Ganasi, Leberman. There are 78 tracks in operation in PA at this time. Just sayin'.

I live in Frederick, MD about 1 hour south of wheels777. I will add:

Road racing: Summit Point (45 min) PittRace (3 hrs) NJMP (3 hrs) VIR 5(hrs) Watkins Glen (5 hrs).
Car Shows: Carlisle Events in Carlisle, PA (1hr from wheels or I)
Karting: Numerous places within an hour (indoor and outdoor)

Hal wrote:

wheels777 wrote: I was thinking South Central Pa. is hot for a lot of racing. Cecil, Capital, Mason, Numidia, Maple, South Mountain, Beaver, Island, Atco, Englishtown, New Alexandria are all within 160 miles for Drags. Pocono, Dover, Richmond for Nascar. Pa Hill Climb. Tons of auto-x. Williams Grove, Susquehanna, Lincoln, Hagarstown, Flemington, Bedford, Port Royal, Grandview, Sellings Grove for dirt. Summit Point is 90 miles away. Hershey, Carlisle, Maple, Harrisburg, Macungie for flee markets. Street Rods National, Jalopy Meets, Slip Stream for events. Buck and many other tractor pulls. Penske, Amato, Jenkins, Stahl, Strickler, Stewart, Ganasi, Leberman. There are 78 tracks in operation in PA at this time. Just sayin'.

I live in Frederick, MD about 1 hour south of wheels777. I will add: Road racing: Summit Point (45 min) PittRace (3 hrs) NJMP (3 hrs) VIR 5(hrs) Watkins Glen (5 hrs). Car Shows: Carlisle Events in Carlisle, PA (1hr from wheels or I) Karting: Numerous places within an hour (indoor and outdoor)

As a denizen of West Central PA, I second all of this.

Ovid_and_Flem wrote: In reply to loosecannon: That gives a much better perspective. What parts of the US have you visited? Have you ever visited the Deep South or Southeast? And I don't mean Florida

I was a long haul truck driver for 10 years and have literally been through all the lower 48 states many times. I have also participated or was a spectator at motorsports events all over the place and there are some sections of America I have no interest in living in. Yes, I've been to the deep south, it's not for me. Nevada, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico push the right buttons for climate, housing prices and crime level.

For a die hard motorsports junkie, there's only three areas to pick from. Indianapolis is a huge hotbed for all types of events, but it snows. Charlotte, N.C. has motorsports almost all year round. Something for everyone here. I've got at least 10 tracks within a two hour drive of my door, and many within a 30 minute drive. Helps that there's a bunch of race teams of all kinds in the area. Most tracks on the eastern seaboard are within an 8 hour drive. And finally, Florida has lots of tracks and events and the weather to go along with it.

Oh come on according to the EU commissioner we will be our own country soon. The republic of austin. Has a nice ring doesn't it.

Trust me it's not Austin other than there is a lot of good in a 4 hour radius. But in exchange, you get piss poor government and traffic. Oh the traffic. Can't wait to call somewhere else home.

CA - I live in San Francisco -

Sonoma Raceway, Laguna Seca, Thunderhill, Buttonwillow, and Willow Springs are all a drive away.

For those saying it's hard to "modify cars here" - it's not that hard. Some parts are just silly (certified vs not parts), but otherwise you just have to look at the car culture - it's all doable.

Let's remember, RoadKill builds and "registers" all there cars here and drives them no problem.

Texas also has the "Texas Mile" at various locations near Victoria, Tx. (about halfway between Houston and Corpus). There's a Ford GT that nearly runs 300mph in that. In Austin, you also have the Driveway, a track that does mostly testing and corporate events, and Harris Hill Raceway isn't too far away near San Marcos.

North Carolina was always nice when I went through there and California weather is awesome but I couldn't live in a big California city, I would need to find something a little smaller but still not too far from all the good stuff. Some really good suggestions in this thread, thanks everyone :)

What about the Pacific Northwest?

There's lots of off-roading (Sandlake and snowmobile in the mountains), pro rally, rally cross, hillclimb, auto cross, road racing (car and bike), karting (indoor and out).

Just near me in Portland, there's Portland International, Pacific Raceways, Oregon Raceway Park, The Ridge Motorsports Park, Spokane Raceway, Pat's Acres, Oregon Trail rally, Bible Creek hill climb and a bunch more in sure I'm forgetting.

Thunder hill, Sonoma and Laguna Seca are within a reasonable driving distance and of course 101 is a pretty fun way to see some great small towns and giant redwoods.

If you stay further south the weather tends to be better, of course the Oregon desert is an option if you really want to avoid shoveling snow and the like. Housing prices are much more reasonable compared to Cali or Portland/Seattle and you don't have the rash of drunk drivers to deal with that New Mexico does (I have family there in Belen and Albuquerque, they are amazed at the number of drunk drivers there).

In reply to loosecannon:

OK.. now knowing where you're coming from it makes a lot of sense that you would prefer the south west. I must admit I know not much from my personal experience. Have you considered locations in Arizona? Perhaps others with direct knowledge can chime in.

I'm enjoying the various perspectives from Motorsports enthusiast from across the u.s.