Palm Beach International Raceway closes, Apr 23, 2022

Cujet

Cujet

Joined
Feb 15, 2003
Messages
15,674
Location
Jupiter, Florida
As has been my custom for decades now, I go to the racetrack (PBIR, road and dragstrip) nearby my house. Friday night was the last "test n tune" and it was epic. Plenty of people were there to get last minute times on their cars. And as one would expect, a good number of stupidly fast exotics were there. A Porsche ran 9's at about 150, the Plaid was also stupidly fast. The Mclarens ran 10's. Shelby Mustangs were as fast as the exotics.

Overall, it was a wonderful night, with tons of racers, a good number of spectators and a fine time was had by all.

I know there is already talk of a street racing league. Racers are going to race.

Plaid: 9.4x @ 145
McLaren 10.1 @ 139



The last 2 jet cars to go down the track! 5 seconds at 275

s5I43Jb.jpg
 
Closed for good ?

I used to go to Hollywood Sportatorium and Hollywood Speedway back 35 years ago.

Pembroke Pines was building houses and didn’t want Test & Tune or weekend shows like Super Chevy or Fast Fords. Today there’s a Sedanos Supermarket where the entrance of the former drag strip was.

en.wikipedia.org

Miami-Hollywood Motorsports Park - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
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I'm not saying this is the case here, but so many times around the country I've seen where neighborhoods were built near an existing race track and then they complain about the noise, traffic, etc. More often than not, the city/county sides with the home owners.
 
What a shame another venue is closing and the last one down this way. Even more street racing to come I'm sure and it's bad already. Not to mention the idiots doing donuts and burnouts in the middle of intersections and the interstate..
 
chainblu said:
I'm not saying this is the case here, but so many times around the country I've seen where neighborhoods were built near an existing race track and then they complain about the noise, traffic, etc. More often than not, the city/county sides with the home owners.
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Here in Colorado Bandimere drag strip has been in the same location since 1958 when it was out in the boonies at that time.
They built a major freeway next to it years ago and now are building houses across the road with in a 1/2 mile.
Cant wait for the new home owners to complain about it,especially when they have jet cars. LOL.

Bandimere Speedway, also known in the NHRA as Thunder Mountain, is a quarter-mile dragstrip located just outside Morrison, Colorado and Lakewood, Colorado. It opened in 1958 and hosts the NHRA's Dodge//SRT Mile-High Nationals. The facility has a seating capacity of 23,500 spectators.
 
The company that owns PBIR has a "track record" of selling tracks to developers. It's quite a lucrative business model, as the land is already zoned for commercial use.

The plan for warehouses is downright diabolical. It's a HUGE plan, with millions of square feet of storage area, and hundreds of truck ramps. The access road bisects my neighborhood and really can't support the traffic. They are going to have to widen it.
 
Cujet said:
The company that owns PBIR has a "track record" of selling tracks to developers. It's quite a lucrative business model, as the land is already zoned for commercial use.

The plan for warehouses is downright diabolical. It's a HUGE plan, with millions of square feet of storage area, and hundreds of truck ramps. The access road bisects my neighborhood and really can't support the traffic. They are going to have to widen it.
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That's why the city has rejected the plan for warehouses: too much traffic and too many improvements needed.
 
ekrampitzjr said:
That's why the city has rejected the plan for warehouses: too much traffic and too many improvements needed.
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Some cash under the table from developers will have them quickly changing their minds….

That drag strip land is flat and very few trees to be removed to build warehouses.
 
E365 said:
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That's funny! I posted pics of the jet cars and the Tesla v McLaren race. It was an EPIC night.

Sadly, I flew my Cessna over the track last Fri nite and there was nothing going on. It really sucked to see the track dead. Also, I did see some people turning around at the entry way. I guess they did not get the message.

And as mentioned above, street racing is picking up. Watching some of it from the air and I can hear it from my house. Lots of new burnouts on the airport road too.

Too funny, I saw myself and family in the stands in the video you posted!

As the night went on, more and more people filled the stands. That video makes it look like it was empty, probably because many of the videos were taken earlier in the day. Not so. There were tons of people there.
 
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I was on PBIR when it first opened. I got my first SCCA license from "Smokey Drolet" there. I raced many types of cars on that road course with many good results. We were "Pa-Hay-Okee Racing Team" running an A-Sports Racing Corvette, then later we were "Competition Technology" out of Miami running IMSA I-100 class formula cars with several victories at PBIR in the Formula Ford class.
 
Unfortunately it comes to economics, the land can generate more income as something other than a racetrack. This is a dying sport/pastime. Most kids arent in to cars anymore. Also look at an NHRA event today, 90% of spectators are over 60. Then look at a video from NHRA in the 70's I dont think many are over thirty. The writing is on the wall. Like horse racing except racetracks wont be propped up by state governments. I live near Englishtown, who would have thought they would ever close.
 
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chainblu said:
I'm not saying this is the case here, but so many times around the country I've seen where neighborhoods were built near an existing race track and then they complain about the noise, traffic, etc. More often than not, the city/county sides with the home owners.
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Home owners pay much higher rates of property taxes,and all govt. cares about is more money, and power. Miami-Hollywood became our home track after it opened, and was much closer than PBIR, a very sad farewell to such a perfectly located track.
 
Sorry to hear of your raceway closing! Many fans I'm sure have great memories! My local track is located inside of the fair grounds thank goodness, that protects is quite a bit!
 
Man that stinks. Our saving grace is that our track is located near East St. Louis which doesn’t have a lot of development.
 
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