Posted on 04/01/2022 2:26:06 PM PDT by Impala64ssa
Many were shocked when back on March 25 NHRA dropped the bomb that Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park is set to close down for good next year. The tracks and other facilities in the park are doomed thanks to an expansion project for Interstate 10 in the Phoenix Metro Area. Since I live in the area and frequent there, this literally hits close to home for me.
Just over a year ago, there was a proposed plan to redevelop the increasingly valuable land Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park now occupies. With real estate prices absolutely rocketing out of control in the Phoenix area as the city continues to grow by leaps and bounds, the Gila River Indian Community hatched a plan to raze the motorsports park and replace it with a sports and entertainment district with restaurants, retail spaces, sports facilities, parks, and an office complex. Mind you, there’s already a casino and mall just down the road, not to mention restaurants and retail on the other side of I-10. This redevelopment plan was supposed to be put into action several years down the road, maybe as far into the future as a decade. That all changed when Wild Horse Pass suddenly let the cat out of the bag, announcing the facilities would be closing within a year.
Right now, there’s no official plan to open a comparable motorsports park in the Phoenix area. If you’re not familiar with the complex, it houses an amazing quarter mile NHRA sanctioned track, 1.6-mile road course, 1.25-mile road course, 1.1-mile road course, an off-road course, plus a 2.4-mile oval lake which is one of only two purpose-built boat racing lakes in the United States
Unfortunately, we’ve all seen this same scenario play out endlessly just in the past few years. If I were to try listing off all the tracks which have been shut down to make way for new developments, I’d definitely miss at least a few, there are so many. One notable closure which also was recently leaked to the media is Memphis International Raceway. The rumor is it’s been sold to a “non-racing party” or in other words it’s most likely a goner. The land will probably become the site of some luxury condos or something like that.
What drives the closure of so many tracks and motorsports parks usually comes down to one thing: money. While racetracks generate revenue, for the space they take up they’re not highly profitable. As cities continue expanding and developers get dollar signs in their eyes, they find ways to gobble up the ever-more-valuable land occupied by these facilities. They don’t care what these changes do to communities because they have to get paid, period.
Local news station ABC 15 ran an article after the closure was announced. The headline read: “closing of valley racetrack could result in more street racing.” Yes, it’s the most obvious statement ever, but what is anyone doing about it? If there isn’t a financial incentive to establish or keep open racetracks, some people will turn to illegal street races. That’s not true of all enthusiasts, but to ignore the problem by only focusing on part of the group would be dishonest.
American racetracks are dying in droves and nobody in government at the city, county, or state level seems to care. Yet everyone cares about illegal street racing, which seem to be growing in popularity once more, and understandably so since it’s incredibly dangerous. Then again, with law enforcement leveling fines and seizing the cars owned by street racers, maybe the decision by the government to not support building new tracks is really about money as well.
Won’t be long before motorsports are outlawed.
That is a godforsaken stretch of flat desert. Pass it going from Phoenix to Tucson all the time. Was a perfect place for a track, and one of the few drag boat spots anywhere.
Someone sees $$$ and wants the land. Arizona is out of water, but the developers do not care.
Phoenix is pretty much a suburb of Los Angeles these days.
I remember back in the early 70s when the media was demanding motorsports shut down because of the "oil crisis" and Bill France of Nascar pointed out that the planes used to transport professional ball players used many times as much fuel. For some reason, there was not more talk of that.
ICE motorsports. Battery-powered will flourish.
I live in Phoenix, and besides NASCAR racing, I took my daughter to the dirt track races once. (They were more fun, NASCAR is big and kinda boring).
I had no trouble finding locations. I also have no problem with landowners cashing out. The house we live in was cotton farmland not so very long ago, and we are in the Phoenix city limits.
If a location is desirable, you can build UP (NYC, Chicago), sprawl out (Phoenix), or make it too expensive or impossible to do either (Seattle, San Francisco). Phoenix-metro is well situated for sprawl. No matter how much development there is, there will be room for a new race track farther down the road until Phoenix meets Tucson (minus the Indian reservations), or possibly out west past Avondale, or east towards Globe.
Yeah because everyone just love the low whine of electric motors
buzzing down the track.
“Gentleman, start your eggbeaters!”
I’m going to Austin next week to see world class motorcycle road racing. Lots of fun. Hope it isn’t the last time. It’s the COTA race track. They do Formula 1 stuff too. Great venue.
R.I.P. Neal Peart. He’s with his wife and daughter now.
Rush wrote a song about that to which you allude. :-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYIQcZ66gzM
Gun ranges also being sold to developers.
“Gentleman, start your eggbeaters!”
Now, that’s funny.
Anything dudes like to do.
Now, that’s funny.
Ease up, there is at least one oversized electric golf kart fanbois here that is very touchy about laughing at the wretched things.
Wish I could join you.
Raced there with IMSA in the mid 1980’s. Nice track, middle of nowhere, but nice
I remember Tom Cruise talking about Global Warming, back when he made that Days of Thunder movie.
The water problem is a huge issue and they do not want to talk about it because they think they can steal it from the Northwest AZ...And they have been somewhat successful. Again, Agenda 21....Move people away from rural areas.
I saw Racetrack was closing and all I could think of is where is the next closest QT?
The track in Mt Clemens Michigan was destroyed for a flea market.
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