- #Drag strip near me in illinois driver#
- #Drag strip near me in illinois full#
- #Drag strip near me in illinois professional#
- #Drag strip near me in illinois series#
#Drag strip near me in illinois series#
Louis with the addition of the Camping World Truck Series in 1998. The first event proved exciting to the fans with 14 cautions and 15 lead changes in what remains the longest NASCAR race ever contested at Gateway at 300 miles. Elliott Sadler wrote his name in the record books as the first of 15 NASCAR Nationwide Series event winners at Gateway between 19. In July 1997, the first-ever NASCAR event was held on the 1.25-mile oval.
#Drag strip near me in illinois professional#
Joe Amato (Top Fuel) and Ron Capps (Funny Car) became the first professional category drag racing champions at Gateway and created an event that has continued to be one of the most popular on the championship tour. One month later the National Hot Rod Association hosted its first-ever National Event at the venue to a near standing-room only crowd.
#Drag strip near me in illinois driver#
This was at the height of the CART/IRL wars and was held a day prior to the Indianapolis 500, with Penske driver Paul Tracy running out the victor as the series embraced its first Memorial day weekend outside of Indiana. The first major event held at the facility was a CART ChampCars race on Saturday, May 24, 1997. The infield road course was a mile shorter than the one it replaced and perhaps less of a challenge, but would nonetheless cater for club and regional racing perfectly adequately. The oval was an unusual egg-shaped affair, with one end a much wider radius-turn than the other, though both featured 11-degree banking. The new tracks were complete in time for the 1997 season. A shortened version of the road course remained in use for part of 1996 while construction took place elsewhere. Alongside would be a separate NHRA-sanctioned drag strip. Almost immediately demolition began on all of the courses, as his vision for a new speedway oval and infield road course took shape.
A new name - Gateway International Raceway – was adopted from 1988 onwards.įor the next 10 years the track carved out a good, if largely unremarkable existence, but in 1995, the facility was purchased by former Long Beach Grand Prix promoter Chris Pook, who had big plans to create a new oval course to capture Indycar and NASCAR races. A 1/20-mile dirt oval also opened in 1985 to cater for another popular branch of the sport. The course was flat but fairly fast and soon became host to a variety of road racing series, Trans Am Series, Can-Am and a variety of Sports Car Club of American (SCCA) regional and national events. In 1985 they got their wish, when a new 2.6-mile course opened on the grounds, incorporating the drag strip and part of the shut-down area along its length. Louis International Raceway.ĭrag racing was the staple entertainment through the 1970s and into the 1980s but soon demand increase from road racers, who wanted a local facility to enjoy their branch of the sport.
#Drag strip near me in illinois full#
Four years later, the addition of more land allowed the raceway to grow to a full quarter-mile, at which point the facility was re-christened St. Louis Raceway Park as a simple, 1/8 –mile strip. Drag racing first emerged in 1967, when Wayne Meinert developed the original St.
The current oval and road course dates from the mid-1990s, but that is not the beginning of racing in the St Louis. It's a remarkable turnaround for a track that was once just months away from disappearing for good. Its Gateway Challenge events put individuals and corporate groups behind the wheel of new Chevrolet SS Camaros with full driving instruction and competitive action. Gateway is also adding more opportunities for car enthusiasts to participate in racing activities. Outside of racing, the circuit is expanding into new avenues to develop its business, with a two-story conference centre being added to the infield of the oval track. Now the NASCAR Cup Series will be the highest profile event, alongside its programme of NHRA-sanctioned drag racing events. NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races were first to return, alongside the Ind圜ar Series from 2017 onwards. After a period of uncertainty where closure looked a distinct possibility, World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway, Illinois, is now emerging as success story under new ownership, with a roster of high-profile events bringing the crowds back once more.
0 kommentar(er)
