We here in Arizona are in jeopardy of losing one and possibly all of our drag racing venues. One of those is a facility know as SpeedWorld Raceway. I regularly race at this facility and it will be a sad day if it closes. Here is a petition that is being circulated to plead our cause. Thanks for your attention. http://signon.org/sign/keep-speedworld-raceway?source=s.em.mt&r_by=4717940
Signed the petition Gene, just hope they don't do this as I was really looking forward to bring the Maverick over while my wife will be attending UofPhoenix. Have you heard anything about Firebird closing?
signed. I thought this was already half way sorted out and was just transferring owners and was going to remain an active racewat? or was that another track?
That was Firebird Raceway. The native Americans are taking control of the property and not renewing the lease to the old proprietor. The rumor is that they will reopen after some time with new management. Speedworld has lost their lease as well, but it is state trust land. There are many rumors flying as to why and I personally don't know which ones to believe. Like Gene, I'm totally bummed out about this. The reason I chose to live in Surprise was because of the close proximity to Speedworld (makes more sense when you understand that back in MN it was 2 1/2 hours to any dragstrip). Now that sounds like a stupid thing to say, but even if Firebird stays open (it will be closed at least for some length of time for sure) it becomes over an hour drive for me and the car gets towed instead of driven to the track. Don might laugh at that since he races in Tucson a lot, but for me (and my Exxon Valdeze pickup truck) it is a haul and costs a ton.
I can certainly feel your pain. I live in the land where drag strips used to be like "belly buttons", and now to get to the nearest track (Infinion Raceway, the old Sears Point) it's two hours of driving towing the car/trailer, and if I want to go to Sacramento Raceway it's 3 hours! Whatever happened to the property that Charlie bought to build a new drag strip.........................? Next year could be the end of the Redding Drag Strip, the oldest continuously run NHRA drag strip in the USA.....................it's a shame!
Personally.. I think many straightline tracks need to be diversifying by adding autocross and drifting tracks too. But.. if they're already struggling to stay afloat as it is.. I'm guessing it's pretyy tough to get loans for even more blacktop and the required stands/saftey equipment to do that. Our car culture is certainly changing and it's sad to see these changes affect so many people from an older generation.
It's not just affecting older guys like me, but much younger guys/gals from enjoying a really great sport!
I signed an wish you all the best. You would think, the city would help keep this place open. It would keep youg people off the streets from racing.
