Quote:
Originally Posted by jjvincent
Road Atlanta has 46 events on their calendar for 2018. That doesn't count the private team testing, sanctioning bodies renting it out, tire testing, tv ads and manufacturers that rent the track for new car or motorcycle releases/sales training. They don't have to be spectator events to generate income.
Maybe it's not busy for 365 days per year but that is a lot of events as compared to let's say 1980. There are 27 car track days and 4 motorcycle, NASA, drifting, gridlife and LeMons. Those didn't exist back then. So, all of those days those groups rent the track out, keep it busy thus money keeps coming in. Back in the day, the track sat empty for months, thus no income, no racers spending money and no noise. So, it was easy to look at it like a nuisance back then.
Tracks like VIR and WG are nowhere near any homes and growth yet both failed. Today, they thrive and only because they can stay busy. A friend of mine runs three separate track events at WG and he even tells me, the track is 100% full from when they open to close. When the track had to repave and shut down, the town took a hit because of no racers in town spending money.
I wouldn't worry about Road Atlanta closing down. If it does, there are lots of other tracks to run that 10hr event at. So, it's no big deal.
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I'm well aware of the events at the track and was being facetious. Should've added a
to the previous comment. I wish I could go to most of them like I did a decade ago.
I don't worry about much and I'm not worrying about this; just saying it's more possible than others previously listed in this thread.
To your point of having a 10 hr race elsewhere being "no big deal"; I beg to differ!!! I live 40 mins from the track and PLM is my "fall break", so moving it elsewhere would be a big deal for me.
Just today, I've seen another improvement to the facilities by adding a walking lane around turn 10. I'd like to see some comfort station improvement and grass seeding in some locations, but the point being, they are doing some decent investments to the facility and hopefully, adding some more races. To this subject, I'd love to see the Busch/Xfinity/Insert Sponsor series have a race there.