A new proposed track in New Jersey

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Nascar24rainbow

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With a proposal for NASCAR racing at the Meadowlands making little headway, a developer is pushing to build a race track in Linden, in an industrial section off the New Jersey Turnpike. Liberty Speedway at Linden would include a 100,000-seat grandstand -- expandable to 140,000 seats -- a .92-mile speedway in accordance with NASCAR regulations, a 400,000-square-foot entertainment center and a 20-story hotel and conference center, said developer Morton Salkind, who has included a number of celebrities and politically connected people on the project. Among them are actor and race car driver Paul Newman, race car driver Mario Andretti and political operative James Carville. If built -- significant hurdles remain -- the track would be the only NASCAR facility in the North Jersey-New York metropolitan area, a lucrative market for a sport that is second only to football in television viewership. If the proposal sounds familiar to racing fans, it is. Salkind, a former state assemblyman, submitted a similar plan last fall for the Meadowlands complex in East Rutherford. While that proposal is technically still on the table, Salkind said the Linden site has more advantages. Salkind's case was not helped by the fact that the Meadowlands Commission was more interested in a proposal submitted by International Speedway Corp. But the ISC plan appears to be stumbling because it required hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding. Local concerns over noise from the track didn't help matters, either. Salkind's race track, hotel and virtual reality entertainment center would be built on a 140-acre site off the Arthur Kill, on the old GAF property in the Tremley Point section of Linden. He recently took his $401 million proposal to the Linden City Council, members of which have wanted to see the aging industrial area redeveloped for years. The project would be privately funded and not require any subsidy from the city. In addition to reaching an agreement on the purchase price for the Tremley Point property, there is a problem with NASCAR itself. "All of our dates are taken," spokesman James Hunter said. "We just could not put any races down on that track." But Salkind said he was sure an arrangement could be reached with NASCAR. "They'll make open dates for the New York metropolitan market," he said. "They have reserve dates for themselves, which they can share. They'll give us the dates happily." The closest NASCAR tracks to New Jersey are Watkins Glen, Pocono Raceway and Dover International Speedway. If this track becomes a reality, racing will have come full circle in New Jersey. In 1954, one of the earliest Grand National races was held on the grounds of Linden Airport, which had a two-mile road course.(Newark Star Ledger)


I hope this track gets approved. It will be great to get the Winston Cup cars back in New Jersey. And finally someone realized that tha fans do not like the cookie-cutter tracks, but they do love short-tracks.
 
I do think It would be very neat to have another short track, but I think It should be included in a place like Seattle...where Nascar fans are scarce.

:salute:
 
That would bee cool to see. Any new short track is welcome anywhere!!
Build it out of Concrete, and you will have better racing!!
Think they heard me?
 
Originally posted by ward22@Apr 22 2003, 08:34 PM
I do think It would be very neat to have another short track, but I think It should be included in a place like Seattle...where Nascar fans are scarce.

:salute:
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It rains every day in the Seattle area though
 
They should just race the cars at old Flemington Speeddway in NJ. Now that would be fun to watch!
 
Don't tell me about that, 4xchampncountin, b/c I might be moving to Seatle in the next few years!
 
Originally posted by rpmallen@Apr 23 2003, 09:48 AM
They should just race the cars at old Flemington Speeddway in NJ. Now that would be fun to watch!
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The only problem with that is Flemington Speedway has been closed down for over a year and the last I heard there where trying to rezone the land so they can build a mall there.
 
Originally posted by rpmallen@Apr 23 2003, 06:49 AM
Don't tell me about that, 4xchampncountin, b/c I might be moving to Seatle in the next few years!
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I lived there in a town outside of Seattle called Auburn for almost 10 years. Yeah, it raines almost everyday. Snow is beautiful there, with all the pine trees and with Mt. Rainer in the background. I think they should build a short track in the Oregon area somewhere.
 
Originally posted by PettyBenson4510@Apr 22 2003, 05:58 PM
That would bee cool to see. Any new short track is welcome anywhere!!
Build it out of Concrete, and you will have better racing!!
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A short track, paved in concrete, with compound banking. Sounds perfect to me.
 
I didn't even hear that they closed down Flemington. I used to live by it, but moved away about a decade ago. It was a fun track to watch a good race at. A shame to hear it could become a mall.
 
If it happens, I would be very interested in going. New Jersey is not that far away. Would be worth the trip for a short track race.
 
that news fired me up, i love the shoerter tracks, as long as their not flat :cheers:
 
It would be cool to see, 12-14 degree banking would be cool, i hope it happens i will be moving back east to Ma. in the fall. Then i'd have 2 tracks to choose from NH and Jersey, sounds like they might have problems with $$ though ...400 mil is a lot of cash to privately fund!
 
To quote a baseball movie & re-phrase it in my own words, "If you build it...will they come?"


Houston wants to build a track & thinks they'll get a NASCAR date, there was talk about one in Pittsburgh & on Long Island...wish in one hand, **** in the other.
 
Originally posted by Nascar24rainbow@Apr 23 2003, 11:54 AM

The only problem with that is Flemington Speedway has been closed down for over a year and the last I heard there where trying to rezone the land so they can build a mall there.
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It is always bad news when a track gets turned into a mall. :(

NASCAR needs to change thier schedule up from year to year so that they can accommodate all these new tracks. One year they can run kentucky, the next they can run Jersey...
 
Article Link


Mentioned in this article is the Texas track, and reference to "New" tracks



A new race track in Houston also was announced last week, but both NASCAR officials said they have not considered that market for a Winston Cup event because the 36-race schedule over 38 racing weekends is pretty much maxed out. Also, a superspeedway in New Jersey has been under consideration, although there have been no firm plans to start construction of the track.

"Texas is a big state - it's like five or six other states put together - and Houston is a huge market area, but we have not expressed any interest in that facility whatsoever," Helton said. "New York City, to be within the skyline of that, would be a bit deal to us. But we're not going to add any more weeks to the schedule."

According to Hunter, NASCAR chief operating officer George Pyne, vice chairman Brian France and Helton have begun discussions with tracks currently hosting Winston Cup races about next year's schedule.

"I only know what I've read about Houston Superspeedway," Hunter said. "There has been no communication between that track and NASCAR. The same with New Jersey. If a track is being built with the express purpose of running a NASCAR Winston Cup race, I wouldn't suggest they build it because we are on record as saying we don't have any dates. The only way we can provide a date is the scenario that we talked about back in January."

Hunter also said it would not be a good business move for any proposed racing facility to build a speedway on the hopes that it would get a Winston Cup date.
 
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