New Circuits near me

[Nial McCabe]

When I say "near me", I mean within 10 hours of towing from my New Jersey home in the northeastern USA.

All of these circuits look well-suited for vintage/historic racing.


The first one is "Pitt-Race" which is really just reconfigured. It was formerly called "BeaveRun" and is near Pittsburgh, PA. I've run BeaveRun many times since it's part of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. The previous circuit was 1.6 miles. It's now about 2.3 with more elevation changes plus high speed parts. I ran the first event there in 2005. The original track was designed by GP track architect Alan Wilson. I'm not sure who designed the new, additional part of the circuit.

Here's the new, longer Pitt-Race

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkH-EkFFB7U

Pitt-Race Website: http://www.pittrace.com/

Another new circuit is Whiskey Hill also called Palmer Motorsports Park in western Massachusetts. The circuit was blasted out of the side of a mountain and has much elevation changes. This property was originally owned by the SCCA and they intended to do this many years ago.
But nothing happened and the property was sold to new owners who immediately began the process of creating this new track.
Our club (VRG) will run the first official event there on August 15-16.
This first year there will be almost no buildings or amenities......just Porta-Potties and a few portable buildings (so it was probably feel very "old time" to us, like when I first ran Bridgehampton in the late 60s).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWM7-A9YNBE

Whisky Hill website: http://palmermotorsportspark.com/

The next new track is Dominion Raceway in Thornburg, Virginia. The circuit is currently being paved so we are really crossing our fingers that this one will be ready for our event scheduled on October. 9-11. The property already has a drag strip and sprint-car "oval" circuit so there are amenities in place.
Part of the reason we are going to run an event at Dominion is because our normal Watkins Glen date is unavailable this October due to repaving. But it's very hard to get a weekend at Watkins Glen so we will have to see if we go back to the Glen or stay at Dominion in 2016. I'm sort of torn: I was the person who originally arranged our Watkins Glen October date in 2006 when I was RaceChair of another club and that club was giving it up due to cost (it's super expensive). The October date is late in the season and a few years ago we even had snow there! But Watkins Glen is also a sentimental favourite to many of us so we'll have to see how the group feels.....

Here's a Dominion video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqN5-SXEOO4

Dominion website: http://www.dominionraceway.com/

Last year our club also did a "first run" at Thompson Raceway, a road course that originally opened in the early 50s but closed in the 70s due to property disputes. It reopened in 2014 after resolving whatever those problems were. The track is in northeast Connecticut and many people think it will draw racers away from Lime Rock (another Connecticut track with has a long history). There is a sprint car oval circuit already on site so amenties already exist. It also has a golf course on site! Here's a video from my car at the first Thompson event in 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYXlQEBfuBI

Thompson Speedway website: http://www.thompsonspeedway.com/

A little closer to (my) home we also have the relatively recent New Jersey Motorsports Park (NJMP). This is a "destination track" with on-site condominiums, two road courses and a karting track. It is somewhat modeled after Virginia International Raceway (VIR).
NJMP is built on the site of an old WW II era military airport and they found unexploded bombs during construction! The place went into receivership about 2 years ago but they have resolved the financing and things seem OK now.

http://www.njmp.com/

We also have the new Monticello Motor Club about 90 minutes from New York City, which is "members only" (and joining is pretty expensive).
I won't be running there.

http://www.monticellomotorclub.com/

There are at least three other circuits being planned for the northeast US right now but no paving down.

[Gary Critcher]

NJMP is a circuit I had planned to visit for the last couple of years with a friend from Philadelphia. Sadly he passed away a couple of months ago, but I'd still like to attend a vintage meeting there, it looks rather fun.

[Gary Critcher]

I say, that Thompson Raceway looks rather fun as well

[Lancsbreaker]

Whiskey Hill looks like one of those circuits where you have to be careful not to be distracted by the scenery......

Out of interest, you describe Watkins Glen as being expensive......what sort of cost is it - either per minute for track hire time for a club, or per race for a club racer....? Just wondering how our prices compare.

Incidentally, over here people moan at anything over a 3 hour haul to a meeting....

[Nial McCabe]

Gary:
I will be at the vintage event at NJMP this year. We are hoping to add vintage motorcycles (including vintae sidecars) to the event).

Thompson is very twisty and turny. Many people here call it "too technical" (which sort of means lots of slow-speed turns that grind the tires away). It's actually OK for a Spridget but our formula drivers and V8 cars do not seem to like it. We may drop it from our schedule if it does not prove popular.

Lancs:
Whiskey Hill is actually very wide but it's deceiving with the rock walls on each side. Lots of elevation changes too. It may turn out to be a fabulous track. We'll see.

Watkins Glen costs us somewhere between $50,000 and $55,000 for the weekend (33,000 to 36,000 GBP). We're a small, non-profit club so this is a big chunk of money. Actually NJMP costs almost as much. Summit Point is about 2/3 of that cost.

Since I began this message, construction on another proposed track has started:

This one is in northern New York state, somewhat in the same area as Watkins Glen.

http://www.centralnyracewaypark.com/

[Lancsbreaker]

Those prices don't actually seem too bad.......a Club I'm director of (Alfa Romeo Owners Club UK) organised races at three meetings last year and the charge for a 20 minute qualifying and 2 x 20 minute races, ie 1 hour of track time, was between 6500GBP and 7500GBP, depending on the circuit....

Assuming you got say 7 hours of track time per day (9am - 12noon, 1pm - 5pm), your rates are pretty good at about 2500GBP per hour....(OK - I know there is some "dead time" between races to factor in, but still.... )

[Nial McCabe]

Yes...exactly. We get 7 hours of "mostly active" track time for those prices.

We generally lose money at Watkins Glen but make money on other events.

When I say "we", I mean "Vintage Racer Group". ( http://www.vrgonline.org/ )

I am a board member of VRG. We're a non-profit so US federal rules prevent us from storing up too much money each year. We've actually been doing nicely and have even had some excess cash to donate to charities.

We run about 8 events a year but some are "shared profit" with the track owners.
One of our events (the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix) is run by a local non-profit and only sanctioned by us so we have no real money involvement in the PVGP.
Two of our events this year will be no-cost because the tracks are all new. If things work out, I'm sure we'll have to come to different arrangements at those tracks.

[DAVID PATERSON]

OMFG those track hire prices are horrific! Here in my home state of Queensland, Australia, clubs can hire a circuit for a weekend of club/state level racing for AUD15K to AUD 25K, depending on the venue.

A popular formula for event pricing of club/state racing is (total event costs divided by the expected number of competitors equals entry fee). So, if the entry is what you expect it to be, you break even. If you get a substantial "gate" or commercial sponsorship of the event, you make a profit.

[Lancsbreaker]

"Horrific" - yes, indeed

My Club had pitched the entry fee for our "qualy plus 2 x 20 minute races" at £300 - which is around the normal entry fee, indeed less than many organisers charge. A lower than expected number of competitors meant we made a hefty loss.....we aren't organising any stand-alone races this year

I suspect that our racers pay significantly more than many other countries because of circuit charges, although I do appreciate that running a circuit with limited use limits because of planning issues, and high standing charges such as business rates, is an expensive business.....

[Nial McCabe]

Our events cost racers about $400 to $450 per weekend (2 or 3 days with 2 or 3 sessions each day).

That's about 260 GBP to 300 GBP in your money.

We also pay a bit more for some events. For example, I just paid $780 (about 500 GBP) for the Pittsburgh Vintage event (but that's 5 days of track time).

I've run my Sprite in an average of about 8 events a year for over ten years now. Between hotels, fuel, food, etc, it can get to be a pretty hefty expense.
But, if you want to play, you have to pay!

I don't do any of the "high end" SVRA event. Some of those are over $1200 to enter (about 770 GBP).

[Cliff Ryan]

I've just done the SVRA brickyard Invitational at Indy, which cost $850 (approx £550) for 5 track sessions of 20 minutes each - Practice, two Qualifying, Oval and Race, which is still a lot less than we pay in the UK & it was absolutely fantastic