NJ's historic Raceway Park shuts down drag strip, cancels NHRA Summernationals
- Thread starter 1978 NYB
- Start date
C Body Bob
Old Man with a Hat
WOW that's a surprise. My local track closed two years ago. Someone bought it back in November at a public auction sale. To everyone's surprise the new owner has announced it will reopen in March & plans a full race schedule. It's changed owners several times in recent years. This may be its last chance. It was opened in 1958 & all the legends from the 60's raced it.
They've been trying to force that for years
I am heart broken over this as I have been racing there for a handful of years and was at the Summer Nationals in '86 & again in either '87 or '88 - whichever year Don Garlists stood his dragster all the way up pointing to the clouds and somehow got it to turn 180 degrees while on 2 wheels up in the air and also managed to bring it down relatively softly and rolled back to the starting line. That happened directly in front of where I was sitting. This totally sucks but I know that operating the track was very expensive. Funny thing is the track had already worked out a schedule with the SuperCar Racing series that I race in.
Newport 66
Old Man with a Hat
They can make more money storing flooded cars for insurance company's than from racing?!!?
JC68vert300
Senior Member
Ugh...more good new for my state. The land is probably worth more for a giant condo development or giant storage facility.
rexus31
Senior Member
I'm waiting for the news Pomona suffers the same fate. The local residents have been complaining for years about the noise which has forced them to use the facility but a few times a year. The drag strip was there long before the homes so those that purchased/built in the area knew what they were getting into.
That is exactly what happened to E town. I first started going in 83, there was NOTHING along pension road but a few small houses
I've been to E-town many times. I was there when Berstein Jr put his dragster over the guardrail and I was there when (I don't remember the name) funny car driver crashed and died. The best races there for me were the "Showdown at E-town" ProMod race they use to have late in the race season.
I like going to Atco too!
Atco sucks , always has
Xenon
Senior Member
Drag racing was a very large part of many of our lives..
The 20/30 year olds do not seem to have the attraction that we did at that age..
And now that many of us are in our 60 / 70s drag racing is a memory...
Time marches on and as such many things are going to fall to the wayside....
The 20/30 year olds do not seem to have the attraction that we did at that age..
And now that many of us are in our 60 / 70s drag racing is a memory...
Time marches on and as such many things are going to fall to the wayside....
LocuMob
Fluid Technician with a hat
That sucks. One less place to race.
Ripinator
Old Man with a Hat
I saw this story this morning too. So sad to see it happen. Seems like more and more of these historic drag strips are going away.
Years ago, I used to go up to York U.S. 30 Dragaway just west of York, PA. It was an airport runway, and they would suspend racing whenever a plane had to land. Many of the big names in drag racing raced there from time to time.
On our first date, I took my girl friend (now my wife) to York to see some motorcycles drag race. It was a bit of a disappointment, since there were only four bikes racing. But. . . Art Arfons was there with his Green Monster jet-powered drag car, and his run was the most exciting thing I have ever seen - before or since. Sadly, Art is gone now, and so is York U.S. 30. My wife and I are still here though. . .
Scott Kalita?
A lot of the local guys raced regularly at Englishtown. Myself, I loved the racing but just never liked the facility itself. It's a shame to see the place close though.
I hate to say it, but this is the way it's going to be. I've seen so many tracks close and never heard of a new one opening.
There were rumors of a new track opening in our area with Glenn Donnelly (the guy who started DIRT racing) being involved, but it's never happened. All the guys that were the "movers and shakers" of building/owning/promoting drag strips are all getting older and have retired or passed on. One of the founders of the local drag strip (ESTA in Cicero, NY) just passed away a couple months ago. There are some in his family that have carried on with it, but they fight with the locals over noise and it's just a matter of time when the land becomes more valuable as a housing development. There's been some fighting within the family too... and they aren't that far away from retirement either...
Interesting... A friend of a friend was seriously interested in that track. I'll have to make a call later and see if he was the buyer.
C Body Bob
Old Man with a Hat
Housing/Construstion guy out of Virginia
Not him. He's out of Atlanta and in a different line of work.
C Body Bob
Old Man with a Hat
Hum, would it be the guy who puts on those Atlanta 10,000 races because he held a race at that track. I won my class in it. Big promoter guy out of Atlanta. Think he runs a speed shop down there too
Nope, not him. He's in the movie business.
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