Building a race track, or not...

[Sherlock]

Back in 2011 our only local race track closed, the City of Calgary ended the lease and eventually demolished the buildings and track... There has been considerable work done to get approval for a new track just north of Calgary, last night rejected unanimously... Back to square one

I do enjoy watching car racing, even though the old Race City facility was rather mediocre, every option I have to watch live road racing is a road trip away... Although there is some local rally racing...

And don't people realize that no race track means that people who want to test the limits of their performance cars will just take it to public roads instead, endangering the public...

Frustrated... :rapture:

https://calgaryherald.com/news/loca...heir-support-behind-proposed-motorsports-park

 

[Boink]

I wonder if there are growing liability issues these days.

 

[Sherlock]

I wonder if there are growing liability issues these days.

I also have a general feeling that it's politically incorrect these days to build such useless things like race tracks, when cars are supposed to obsolete soon anyway, plus some of the growing NIMBY syndrome around almost anything...

 

[Boink]

I also have a general feeling that it's politically incorrect these days to build such useless things like race tracks, when cars are supposed to obsolete soon anyway, plus some of the growing NIMBY syndrome around almost anything...

Seems like developers would have to move these further and further out... and maybe space is difficult to find.
Unfortunate, too, that some tracks become surrounded by developments that then complain about noise (these being late-comers).

 

[Sherlock]

There is lots of space here in rural Alberta, but someone owns the land, if you know what I mean...

 

[PAUL161]

Seems like developers would have to move these further and further out... and maybe space is difficult to find.
Unfortunate, too, that some tracks become surrounded by developments that then complain about noise (these being late-comers).

Small airports have fallen by the wayside for the same reasons. People want to build by them and then complain of the noise. Go figure. PJ

 

[JPSmit]

And while the noise is a big deal - so is insurance and the enormous cost of developing the site for (relatively) little return. Many golf courses (quiet) are still closing for similar reasons.

 

[aeronca65t]

We've had several fairly new race tracks open in the northeast USA.

One (Thompson, Conn.) is an old track that already had a roundy-roundy track on site, so that wasn't as bad to set up. Opened last year so it's too new to tell how it's doing.

Another, (NJMP in southern NJ) is next to a fairly busy airport so noise wasn't as big a deal. Built about 8 years ago. They have two circuits.

And Pitt-Race (formerly BeaveRun) was built about 10 years ago in western PA (just expanded in length this year).

The two latter tracks are built in economically depressed areas (which helped approval). Both have suffered financial problems and had reorganized management. But they both seem to be viable so far.

We've also had two high-dollar "country club" tracks built that seem to be surviving (you have to join to run there). One in Montecello NY and one in NH.

We will get the all new Palmer Motorsports in western Mass. next year.
Also, the New York Safety Track (opened last year) which is used by police for training but can also be rented out by clubs. I'm told it's pretty crappy, built on an old airport.

And Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Pocono (3 road courses), Summit Point (2 tracks), NHMS and VIR all seem to be OK.

We have a lot of good choices here within about 8 hours of me.

 

[Trevor Triumph]

There is a race track on Phoenix's west side near Luke Air Force base, and a track near Wilcox.
T.T.