Abandoned Tracks?

[SSLByron]

Thought this would be a fun topic. I did a search for it and came up dry, but if somebody's done this already, forgive me.

I'm going through a phase where I'm really fascinated by localized automotive history. In that spirit, I pose this question:

Are there any abandoned racetracks in your area? Drag strips, road courses, kart tracks, whatever. Name them, tell their stories, show us a pic in Google Earth... pay homage to your local racing history.

Rule #1

Lakeland International Raceway

[jbell]

abandoned pennsylvania turnpike

http://www.pahighways.com/toll....html

(not a track, but could make for some fun high-speed runs )


Modified by jbell at 3:15 AM 10-2-2006

[SSLByron]

Quote, originally posted by jbell »

abandoned pennsylvania turnpike http://www.pahighways.com/toll....html

Very cool

[VDub2625]

No abandoned tracks, but in Fall River you can drive out on the old airport runway (they just recently started building things on it, though).

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=...ab=wl

Also, if you look in the area, there are a lot of roads seemingly to nowhere in the woods to the west and northwest of the airport. Looking at maps from the 40s and 50s, this area had planned to be a huge suburb of the city. Now, it is a state park, with lots of roads that were once paved, and are perfect for 4-wheelin' (some houses still exsist in the area as well, some inhabited, some not).

[rx7racr]

Bridgehampton - - out at the end of Long Island - - haven't been out there in a while, but I hear much of it is still in tact.

[Bob Opla]

my sisters friend photographs abandoned mental hospitals if that counts lol

http://www.opacity.us/locations/

[vr6fanatic]

Quote, originally posted by VDub2625 »

No abandoned tracks, but in Fall River you can drive out on the old airport runway (they just recently started building things on it, though). http://maps.google.com/maps?f=...ab=wl Also, if you look in the area, there are a lot of roads seemingly to nowhere in the woods to the west and northwest of the airport. Looking at maps from the 40s and 50s, this area had planned to be a huge suburb of the city. Now, it is a state park, with lots of roads that were once paved, and are perfect for 4-wheelin' (some houses still exsist in the area as well, some inhabited, some not).

I know exactly what your saying. They just built a few years ago a Fire station, that airport would have been a great place a drag strip/ and GTG.

[TurboWraith]

Quote, originally posted by Bob Opla »

my sisters friend photographs abandoned mental hospitals if that counts lol http://www.opacity.us/locations/

she has creepy hobbies.

there is an abandoned mental hospital not far from here, in Bartonville IL. Its usually used now to terrorize highschool freshman on the football team.

[merckx56]

There's an abandoned 1/2 mile, banked, short track here in town. We went out and cleared it and now race our bicycles on it.

[Son]

Keimola race track in Finland is one. The first race of the track was in 1966 (with Frank Williams himself attending to the race, BTW).

Some pics I found on the internet. They had some serious races, even European championship level ones (Interserie) there.

I have to introduce you to one of the coolest cars (if not THE coolest car) the track ever saw...



The M-B Waxenberger. The car had and still has plates on it, it was street legal also during its racing days. Only three Waxenberger special models of the 300 SEL 6.9 were ever made, and this is the only one that's still alive. Mercedes-Benz has wanted to buy the unique car from the (late) owner's foundation to put up on display in their Stuttgart museum, but with no luck. The car is in a small car museum in Finland.
A 1971 magazine article (road test) on the Waxenberger: http://www.m-100.cc/6point3/ma....html

Anyway, Keimola even had a karting track. Mika Häkkinen was one of the future champions who started his career from there.

And Mika Salo as well.

Keimola track didn't have races after 1979 anymore. In late '80s motorcyclists used to have fun at the closed track, but the fun ended when the city dug ditches across the track pavement to keep people away from using the track illegally.

View from the timing tower in 1995. The track can still be seen there, but there are trees growing thru the pavement already.

During recent years the area served as a tire recycling storage area...

Then someone set the tires on fire...

And this is pretty much the current condition of the track area...

[thesteve]

Quote, originally posted by Son of a B...5er! »

Keimola race track in Finland is one.

Thanks for the story.

[atomicalex]

Detroit Belle Isle, however, it will be uncovered again next year!!! Currently there is grass growing on it.

Modified by atomicalex at 8:57 AM 10-2-2006

[Triumph]

Quote, originally posted by jbell »

abandoned pennsylvania turnpike http://www.pahighways.com/toll....html (not a track, but could make for some fun high-speed runs ) Modified by jbell at 3:15 AM 10-2-2006

Wow. I have got to find those places and explore.

[username]

Quote, originally posted by atomicalex »

Detroit Belle Isle, however, it will be uncovered again next year!!! Currently there is grass growing on it.

its not really "abandoned" though, all but maybe a 1/4 of the racing surface is public use roadway on the island, and belle isle was a city park LONG before it was ever a temporary road course

edit: after a little looking its not even a quarter of the track that's under grass, its a short straight on the east end of the track. should be right in the center of this image left and parallel to the normal road
link


Modified by username at 9:19 AM 10-2-2006

[Egz]

VIR was abandoned for a long time until they reopened it back in 2000. And they did an amazing job. I just love that track.

VIR back in 1957:

1965:

These were taken in 1998, and the track was abandoned for 24 years at this point.

Reopening:

More here: http://www.virhistory.com/vir.html

[Boomy]

The Brooklands race track here in the UK has plenty of history.
I visited around 10 years ago now and it was quite sad to see that most of the banked circuit was just overgrown and decaying or simply gone.
Only a small section remained although they still have various meetings and activities going on at the circuit, it's a busy place still.
There is also a rather good aircraft museum on site aswell as the motor sport stuff on smaller circuits.

As i looked at the pictures, stood on part of the track and read up about how the circuit came about, i could only sit and ponder what it must have been like years before.
I know it's not exactly abandoned like some mentioned here, but the circuit itself and the even that was Brooklands is long, long gone.

There are various sites you can view to read all about it, this one below for example shows some great images.Here are just a few:

http://www.hartlana.co.uk/bphoto/index1.htm

Aerial view of Brooklands track taken 1926

Howe’s Bugatti and the Barnato-Hassan at the "bump"!

Start of the 1937 inaugural Campbell Trophy Race

Some history:

"Brooklands was the brainchild of a wealthy landowner, Hugh Fortesque Locke-King who decided during a European tour in 1906 that Britain had to have its own motor testing track if it's fledgling car industry was to develop and prosper in competition with the Europeans.

Brooklands took its name from the 12th century lord of the manor, Robert del Brok. In the sixteenth century Henry VIII used it as a hunting ground, his local residence being Oatlands Palace. The 700 acres that made up Brooklands Farm and Byfleet Park Farm were owned, during the 19th century, by the Duke of York who sold them for £28,000 in 1830 to Peter King the 7th Baron of Ockham. Hugh Locke-King was Peter King's son; the man who was to build Brooklands.

The site, approximately 300 acres of swampy and wooded land was crossed by the River Wey, bounded to the west by a railway, even boasted it's own sewage works. In retrospect it may not sound like an ideal proposition for building a 100 foot wide egg shaped, banked concrete race track measuring about 2.75 miles around, but this was to become Brooklands, the world's first real race track, enclosing its own aerodrome.

In Europe, motor racing on public roads had been commonplace since before the turn of the century but in Britain it was actively discouraged. In 1906 Hugh Locke-King had attended both the Italian Targa Florio and the French Grand Prix, both run on public roads with not a single British car to be seen. The speed limit which on Britain's roads was 20 miles per hour was to remain in force until 1930. British car makers obviously had no chance at all of competing in Europe on equal terms and it was obvious to Hugh Locke-King that an English off-road track and testing ground was sorely needed.

Experienced race driver and car dealer, 29 year old Charles Jarrott suggested a very large high speed track. Selwyn Edge, whose London based Motor Power Company held the agency for Napier cars, was keen that the cars should be visible to the spectators for as much of the circuit as possible. The conclusion was that the track would have to be banked, 100 feet wide and nearly 30 feet high in places. To end on a high note, Selwyn Edge surprised everybody by announcing that he intended to book the track for an attempt to drive a Napier unaided at sixty miles per hour for an entire day and night - twenty four hours. A feat that was thought absolutely impossible, medical opinion at the time being that he would "lose his reason after eighteen hours".

The outcome of the meeting was that Hugh Locke-King was to spend over £150,000 building Brooklands and Selwyn Edge was to later attempt and achieve his 24 hour record.

For nine months over seven hundred men worked almost around the clock for seven days a week, the only breaks being on Saturday and Sunday nights. The river Wey was diverted, smallholders were re-housed, thirty acres of woodland were felled and 350,000 cubic yards of earth were moved. Seven miles of rail track was laid and 200,000 tons of gravel and cement were brought in and cast to become the race track.

During the excavations 1,600 year old Roman coins and urns were unearthed thus proving that the Romans had indeed formed a settlement at Brooklands

The top layer of the track was originally to be tarmac but ultimately a six inch thick layer of gravel and Portland cement was laid. Asphalt could only be laid on concrete and so would have been too expensive and tarmac would have had to be rolled. This of course was a near impossibility on the steep banked sections, so the final decision was to use concrete which could be laid in shuttered sections from the bottom of the banked sections upwards.

Today if you take a short walk from the clubhouse to the member's banking you will see how well this has survived in nearly ninety years of use and abuse. Bumpy because the ballast underneath has settled but largely still intact at the surface. The track surface although damaged during the first war by military vehicles was repaired afterwards but never really recovered and by the thirties was heartily disliked for its bumpiness by many drivers including the Great Tim Birkin who voiced his disapproval in his autobiography Full Throttle. The second war saw major destruction as part of the banking was demolished and trees were planted through the concrete as camouflage against enemy aircraft which could pick out the track from over sixty miles away.

On Monday June 17th 1907 the track was officially opened with an informal lunch party in the clubhouse for the various motor and horse racing leading lights of the time, with many of the press in attendance. A long procession of road and racing cars left the clubhouse for an initial tour of the track headed by Ethel Locke-King in her Itala after which one make groups of cars went out to be followed by the sight of a Darracq which ran high up the banking achieving a top speed of about 90 mph! Yes, it is true - 90 mph in 1907 while just over the fence the speed limit was 20 mph.

There are hundreds of images here, including many from the construction.

http://www.brooklandsarchive.co.uk/index.htm

One of the time keepers huts.

EDIT.

Also just seen a web page that shows the hidden tunnels near the track that people used to hide in during air raids!.

Taken from here:
http://www.abandonedpast.co.uk...01187



Modified by Boomy at 12:30 PM 10-6-2006

[gtivr4]

There is an old drag strip up in Milton, Vermont -

Google Map

[ATL_Av8r]

Place I lived in high school had this old Air Force runway we could run on. $3 range pass and we could use it, bike trails, running trails, a CRAPLOAD of 4-wheeling trails. There used to be these red fences that bordered the bomb testing sites.....we tended to stay clear of those Doubt it's as open it is now, but we used the hell out of it back in the day.

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF...&om=1

(There was still some pavement at the time)

[atomicalex]

Thanks, Andy. I wasn't sure where to look.

[Zanardi]

Riverside then:



Now:

[ToledoTDi]

Quote, originally posted by Son of a B...5er! »

Keimola race track in Finland is one. The first race of the track was in 1966 (with Frank Williams himself attending to the race, BTW). Some pics I found on the internet. They had some serious races, even European championship level ones (Interserie) there.

I was gonna post about Keimola. I live just 10-15mins away.

Yes, some serious racing indeed. Several world champions have race there.

Helsinki GP 1967:

[GR8ST GTI]

That picture of Ontario Mills Mall is out of place. The Moreno Valley (****hole) Mall sits on top of the old Riverside Speedway.

The Ontario Mills Mall sits across the street from the old Ontario Motor Speedway. OMS was identical to Indy and closed down in the late 70's

[Zanardi]

Quote, originally posted by GR8ST GTI »

That picture of Ontario Mills Mall is out of place. The Moreno Valley (****hole) Mall sits on top of the old Riverside Speedway. The Ontario Mills Mall sits across the street from the old Ontario Motor Speedway. OMS was identical to Indy and closed down in the late 70's

Yep, I realized that was the wrong image after posting it.

[scottracer]

We had some great tracks in NoCal that are long gone, like Cotati and Vaca Valley Raceway. They've both been buried under Outlet malls and subdivisions. There was another track in Contra Costa County that was on an old military base, and it's gone as well. As high as property values are in California, I'm surprised Sears Point and Laguna Seca have survived this long.

[badbricks2]

You might want to check this site out

http://www.thevintageracer.com/JZ/MasterLinks.aspx

[Akirasoft]

posting for a friend:

Meadowdale international Raceway (Illinois):
http://home.comcast.net/~achil....html

Discussion on NASIOC:
http://forums.nasioc.com/forum...10093

[GR8ST GTI]

Very Cool right near my house, I'll have to check it out.

[G-grip]

I don't have time right now to google for pics, but what about BridgeHapton in L.I. NY??

[xvxax]

What ever became of the track near U.S. Air Arena in Washington D.C. the host of the 2002 Caddilac Grand Prix/ IROC race?

[GTI0125]

Marlboro Raceway in Maryland

One of Mark Donahue 's first races at Marlboro, MD in his first real race car in 1961. He is leading the race.
"Marlboro Raceway in Upper Marlboro, Maryland (the track was abandoned about 1975). The road racers used a 1/4 mile (1/3??) stock car oval as part of the raceway. The picture you have looks like Mark and Jay exiting the oval onto the "road course" portion of the track. That's why there appears to be a hump. . .There was a hump, and the cars would usually leave the ground for a short distance there. Mark and Jay Signore both raced frequently at Marlboro starting in, I believe, 1959. . .though it could have been 1960. Both Mark and Jay were driving Elva Couriers at that time." from http://www.unfairadvantageracing.com/memories.html[/I]

Map of the Track
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=...&om=1

http://www.thevintageracer.com/tracks/marlboro.htm

Modified by GTI0125 at 12:08 PM 10-2-2006

Modified by GTI0125 at 12:14 PM 10-2-2006

Modified by GTI0125 at 11:13 AM 10-3-2006


Modified by GTI0125 at 11:16 AM 10-3-2006

[LaFerrari]

[QUOTE=Son of a B...5erThen someone set the tires on fire...

[/QUOTE]

wow...that is the most depressingly beautiful picture I've seen of a race track

[BryanH]

It was never really a "track"...it was a parking lot with temporary barriers.

And it wasn't US air...It was JFK.


Modified by BryanH at 12:13 PM 10-2-2006

[VWVan]

We had a race track in Port Coquitlam. I forget the official name of it. Of course its all houses now. My dad used to race there in the 60's.

In Vancouver there was the Vancouver Indy, it started in 1990 or 91' and ran until 2004 or? Sure, it wasn't too old but fun while it lasted. Again, development took it over.

[VWVan]

Quote, originally posted by Bob Opla »

my sisters friend photographs abandoned mental hospitals if that counts lol http://www.opacity.us/locations/

Cool, thanks for the link.

[AKADriver]

Quote, originally posted by xvxax »

What ever became of the track near U.S. Air Arena in Washington D.C. the host of the 2002 Caddilac Grand Prix/ IROC race?

That was at RFK Stadium, and it was a parking lot course.

google maps image of the course

The course area is still there and could physically be brought back at any time with no plans I know of to redevelop the area. It'll never happen, though. Locals complained about the standard things locals complain about whenever there's a special event (noise, traffic... but apparently being the home of the Washington Nationals and DC United is no problem, as well as the venue for very loud rock concerts like the old HFSTival). The biggest factor that ended up killing it is that people saw it as class warfare.

"US Airways Arena" was located in Maryland, renamed the Capital Centre in the '90s, and demolished to make way for a mall in 2002.