Trans Am Series..The Tracks.
..with the unique track selections for this season Goat thought it would be a good time to give us a little background on these circuits so we can try to capture some of the flavor from the days of thunder when these muscle cars ruled the Streets and Tracks of North America..this page will be updated for each event so be sure to come back and learn a little history about where we'll be competing this season..
Round 9: Mid-America
Mid America Motorplex started as a simple sketch when world-renowned track designer Alan Wilson was asked to take on the project. Mr. Wilson put the track on the map with utmost safety in mind. He created a driver friendly, yet challenging course that would take many laps to master. The finished product is a 2.23 mile longracing circuit, a 40 foot wide polymer surface, with 15 turns of increasing radiuses, decreasing radiuses, long straights, ample passing zones, challenging switchbacks, and a flat out kink.
MAM owner Mark Tincher had been farming the ground that the MAM track was sketched upon. The business plan was read over, and the project began. Non-professional racing is the fastest growing sport in the nation. It is with this in mind that MAM's design was taken from paper to asphalt. The MAM calendar was almost full before any earth had been moved. The Tincher Auto Mall is just 8 minutes away and services Ford, Chevy, and Dodge products, which is a service not found at any track in the United States.
ROAD COURSE - Completed April 2002. Mid-America's road course is a 2.23-mile gem. Designed by world-renowned designer Alan Wilson, the track has already become a much sought after venue for many of the nation's top motor sports organizations. The track surface is second to none with an incredibly tire-friendly compound that will greatly reduce tire wear, and will promote safer adhesion for all types of vehicles.
Not much more than 40 years ago the piece of land that we know today as Mosport was a farm. At that time, standing on a hill, looking over the fields and groves of trees, who could have imagined that the best drivers and the fastest cars in the world would come to this pastoral place and race on what would be named as one the most challenging tracks in the world and provide the best excitement and entertainment that motor racing has to offer.
But they did come: racing legends like Stirling Moss, Gilles Villeneuve, Bruce McLaren and even stock car king Richard Petty. No fewer than 16 Formula One World Driving Champions - men like Juan Manuel Fangio, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti and Nick Lauda have raced here. Some 10 Indianapolis 500 winners including Rodger Ward, A.J. Foyt, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, Rick Mears and Gordon Johncock have also raced at Mosport. There have been Formula One cars, Indy cars, Can-Am, stock cars, World Endurance, Formula 5000, Formula Atlantic and Super Vee. Add Formula Fords, GT cars of every description, Superbikes, karts, snowmobiles and off road machines. Throw in a couple of rock concerts, some air shows, and sky divers and one begins to wonder if there is anything that hasn't been seen at Mosport. Anyone standing on the hill in 1959 would not believe what has transpired over the last 40 years. Fortunately, there were some people who did believe in what could happen. They had a dream, a plan, and the combination of resources and expertise to make it happen.
As early as 1958 the British Empire Motor Club (BEMC) formed a development committee to investigate the possibility of selecting and buying a piece of property for a road racing course. By mid summer of that year the founding committee, whose members consisted of Dick Byatt, George Hill, Chuck Stockey, Fred Hayes and Ray Liddle, had found a 450-acre tract north of Bowmanville. Recognizing the enormity of the project, the committee members realized that one club (BEMC) could not undertake the entire task and so a separate entity, called "Mosport Limited" was born in the fall of 1958. The name Mosport (a contraction of Motor Sport) was coined and applied to the new business enterprise.
At the start there were seven directors, each on in charge of a particular phase of the project. They were Alan Bunting (track design, site layout and general coordination); George Hill (public relations); Dick Byatt (trade relations and advertising); Harold Hunter (financial planning and fund raising); George Grant (structural architect); and Chuck Stockey (utilities and access roads).By 1960 development was moving forward, Alan Bunting's design featured fast, sweeping bends that rose and fell over the contours of the site. In order to accommodate the design, great chunks of earth would be gouged out of parts of the hills; in the oneplace the whole side of a hill was scraped away and leveled. In the summer of 1960 Stirling Moss paid a visit to Toronto, at which time he saw the plans for the track and the work that had been done so far. While he was generally enthusiastic about the layout of the course, he did recommend that the single-radius carousel hairpin at the south end be changed to a 90-degree right followed by another right leading onto the back straight. Moss was convinced that this combination would be a much greater test of driving skill and provide a more interesting show for the spectators. The two turns, 5a and 5b have since become known as "Moss Corner".
From 1998 to 2001, CART (Champ Car's predecessor series) held a race on Houston's downtown streets, adjacent to the George R. Brown Convention Center. This event was sponsored by the oil company Texaco, and named the Texaco Grand Prix of Houston. However, construction in downtown Houston resulted in the race not being renewed for the 2002 Champ Car season.
In 2005, the Champ Car World Series announced that it would be making a return to Houston in 2006; for some time, series directors had wanted to make a return to the city. The 2006 event was held on May 13 as the second round of the 2006 Champ Car schedule. However, this time the race was held on a 1.7-mile temporary street circuit on the Reliant Park complex instead of the downtown streets and was the first race held on a street course to run at night in the history of Champ Car or its precursor series (in 2003 and 2004, Champ Car ran under the lights at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio). Also, the American Le Mans Series held an event, the Lone Star Grand Prix, on the previous night, marking only the second time Champ Car and American Le Mans promoted their own events in the same city on the same weekend (they joined in 2003 for the Grand Prix Americas in Miami, Florida). For 2007, JAG Flocomponents picked up the naming rights to
the previously unnamed street course, naming it JAGFlo Speedway at Reliant Park.
Round 6: Mid Ohio
The track was opened in 1962 by Les Griebling and several Mansfield-area businessmen as a location for weekend sports car racing. In 1982, Mid-Ohio was purchased by Jim Trueman, a renowned road racer and the founder of Red Roof Inns. Trueman added permanent grandstands, amphitheater-style seating, garages with spectator balconies, a five-story media and hospitality center, underground tunnels and an updated paddock area. In 1990, the track underwent a refurbishment. A new retaining wall was built, the entire track was resurfaced, widened, and concrete was paved in the apexes of the turns to prevent asphalt deterioration. In addition, a straightaway was paved through the chicane, allowing for two different track layouts, the original 2.4-mile (3.9 km) circuit, and a new 13-turn, 2.25 mile (3.62 km) circuit. In 2006, the track again underwent extensive renovation. The track and pit lane were completely resurfaced and connectors were added to the track's famed Keyhole section to allow for three separate road course configurations. Also completed was the removal of concrete patches from the track, the relocation of the wall and guardrail at Turn 1, the expansion of gravel traps at the exits of Turn 1 and the keyhole, the replacement of all remaining old-style catch fencing, and the standardization of curbing throughout the circuit. These changes have resulted in a faster, safer, more competitive and attractive facility for drivers, riders and race fans.
The sports car course operates from April through November each year. During this time, the facility is host for a number of nationally sanctioned race weekends, all of which are open to the public. Additionally, on site motor home and tent camping spaces are available
With its rise from ragged infancy in 1948 to its position as America’s premier racing facility surely qualifies The Glen as an astounding and unlikely success story, which continues to be written over 60 years later. Law student Cameron Argetsinger dreamed of bringing European style competition to the village where he spent his summer vacations and he drew up a challenging course that encompassed asphalt, cement and dirt roads in and around the village of Watkins Glen. The dream became reality on October 2, 1948, "The Day They Stopped the Trains," in the first post-World War II road race in the U.S. For five years, the top names in American sports car racing visited the small village and huge crowds came out to watch them race. Competition moved to a temporary course in 1953, and 2.3-mile permanent circuit was built in 1956. The following year, The Glen hosted its first professional race, a NASCAR Grand National Stock Car event won by Buck Baker over Fireball Roberts. True international competition began in 1958 with the running of a Formula Libre race.
The Formula 1 stars all visited The Glen in 1961 for the first Watkins Glen U.S. Grand Prix, which would be a fall tradition at the circuit through 1980. Innes Ireland won the inaugural running, with great drivers such as Clark, Hill, Stewart, Lauda, Fittipaldi and Hunt among the winners of later Grand Prix. The circuit itself was expanded in 1971, as the seventies brought a wide variety of competition to The Glen, including the Can-Am, Trans-Am, Six Hours, Formula 5000 and CART Indy Car Series. Race winners included many of the top names in international motorsports, including Mark Donohue, Mario Andretti, Jody Scheckter and Bruce McLaren. Alan Jones' victory in the 1980 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen marked the close of an era. Financial difficulties led to the Watkins Glen date being dropped from the Formula 1 schedule and as a result, the bankrupt track closed following a CART race in 1981. Over the next two years the track fell into disrepair, hosting only a few non-spectator SCCA weekends. Corning Enterprises, a newly-chartered subsidiary of Corning Glass Works, purchased the track in early 1983 and formed a partnership with International
Speedway Corporation forming Watkins Glen International. The Glen reopened on July 7, 1984, with Al Holbert, Derek Bell and Jim Adams winning the inaugural Camel Continental at the renovated facility.
1992 saw a major reconfiguration of The Glen's back straightaway. The addition of the Inner Loop increased the length of the long course to 3.4 miles and the short course to 2.45 miles. The new turns enhanced competition while adding quality spectator viewing. The Glen cemented its distinction as North America's fastest road course when Davy Jones won the pole for the Camel Continental IX with a fast lap of 150.334 mph on the reconfigured 2.45 mile short course.
Watkins Glen International also hosts one of the nation's premier vintage events, the U.S. Vintage Grand Prix. This event was the climax of the 50th anniversary season, returning many of the original cars and drivers to the original 6.6-mile street circuit through the village during the Grand Prix Festival Race Reenactment.
Round 4: 70Sebring
1966: First Trans-Am race held on March 25 is won by Austrian formula one driver,Jochen Rindt, in an Alfa GTA at Sebring. Sebring (pronounced "sea bring") Raceway is one of the oldest continuously-operating race tracks in the United States, its first race being run in 1950. Many consider Sebring to be one of the classic race tracks in North American sports car racing..and the 12 Hours of Sebring, 24 Hours of Daytona, and 24 Hours of Le Mans to be the trifecta of endurance racing. The raceway occupies a portion of Sebring Regional Airport, an active airport for private and commercial traffic that was originally built as a WWII Army Air Forces training base called Hendricks Field.
The first 12 Hours of Sebring was held on March 15, 1952, and would grow to be a major international race. In 1959, the racetrack hosted the first Formula One United States Grand Prix. Due to the poor attendance and high costs, the next United States Grand Prix was held at Riverside. For much of Sebring's history, the track followed a 5.2 mile (8.66 km) layout. In 1983, the track was changed to allow simultaneous use of the track and one of the runways. In 1987, more changes allowed use of another runway. Further changes in 1991 accommodated expansion of the airport's facilities and brought the track close to its current configuration. The entire track could now be used without interfering with normal airport operations. In 1996, the hairpin was removed due to a lack of runoff, and replaced with what became known as the "safety pin"...Gendebien Bend was also reprofiled to slow the cars' entry to the Ullman straight.
This was the layout I grew up going to, seeing those cars way out on the far runway speeding by at night still haunts me..usually all you saw was the side lights, you had to be there! The trackside objects are pretty close to real life, in some places the only barrier between you and the track was a hay bail and some field fence..
Round3: Donnybrooke
Donnybrooke Raceway tells a story of a very successful national motorsports venue in a rather low populated area. DBR is a three-mile road course and quarter mile drag strip located approximately 5 miles north west of Brainerd, Minnesota, the home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Over the years BIR has hosted a wide range of events representing many forms of racing such as the NHRA Nationals, F5000, Can-Am, Trans-Am, USAC open-wheelers, AMA Superbikes, snowmobiles, national and regional sportscar clubs, and more.The track was originally named Donnybrooke Raceway for two well known local racers, Donny Skogmo and Brooke Kinnard who were Killed in racing accidents.
The two were good friends of the track designer, George Montgomery, and he named the track to honor them. The road course features 10 turns, 7 right and 3 left. For the most part the track is very flat. It’s main straight is a drag strip area and is accordingly very wide, leading into a very fast righthander, sometimes touted as “the fastest corner in North America.”Since the track was built, most sources say 1963, some 1968, it has changed very little in it’s basic layout, except for the addition of a squared-off segment in turn 9, to slow motorcycles down a little. Despite Minnesota’s harsh winter weather, there rarely have been problems maintaining the track’s
surface. Generally it has been very smooth, with drivers from different eras reporting specific spots on the track that presented challenges at different times, which usually disappeared with resurfacing.
Round 2: Laguna Seca~Mazda Raceway 1957~present day
The Monterey Peninsula's love affair with world-class racing traces its beginnings to the inaugural running of the Pebble Beach Road Races in 1950. Those sports car events quickly outgrew the public roads of the Del Monte Forest and a beautiful new road racing facility was born. Laguna Seca Raceway opened on November 9, 1957.
Since then Laguna Seca Raceway has been visited by some of the most prestigious racers in history: Roger Penske, Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Kenny Roberts, Bobby Rahal, Wayne Rainey and Valentino Rossi to name a few. The late 1960's and 70's may be remembered as the "Can-Am Years," but it was also the debut of Trans Am, IMSA and AMA Superbikes. CART Indy Car racing, Grand Prix (GP) motorcycles and World Superbike racing put their stamp on the track in the 1980's and 1990's. More recently, the huge growth of MotoGP has created a phenomenal global following for Laguna Seca.
Located near-by California's beautiful central coast, Laguna Seca Raceway is a jewel of a road course and a fantastic destination. While the track is a favorite of racers and fans worldwide, many focus on one specific section. Officially named Turns 8 and 8A but more commonly known as "The Corkscrew", this is true marvel that makes this Laguna Seca so special.
The Corkscrew is one-of-a-kind in motorsports. What makes it so spectacular is that the apex to Turn 8 (the lefthander and entry to The Corkscrew) has a 12% elevation drop. By the time a racer reaches the apex of Turn 8A (the right-hander), the elevation is at its steepest - an 18% drop. The Corkscrew drops 59 feet between the entrance of Turn 8 to the exit of Turn 8A - the equivalent of a 5 ½ story drop - in only 450 feet of track length. From Turn 8 to Turn 9, the elevation falls 109 feet, or just over 10 stories.
Riverside International Raceway holds a lot of history in it's bowel's, The track was built to accommodate several different races. .By closing off certain sections of the track, the route drivers had to follow could be altered to create various configurations. The three options on Riverside Raceway were the long course~CanAm (3.27 miles), the short course (2.5 miles), and the NASCAR (2.62 miles ) course. The original racetrack had a 1.1-mile backstretch from 1957 to 1968. When the track was redesigned in 1969, turn 9 was made wider and a dogleg was added to scrub speed from the race cars.
This track was used by a multitude of Racing Series throughout it's history..CART, USAC, LA Times Grand Prix, 1960 US Grand Prix, IROC, NHRA, IMSA, SCCA, AMA, NASCAR and it was even used to test the Chevy Corvair in a 24hr event..
... in November 1957 a sports car race featuring some of the top drivers of the day, including Carroll Shelby, Masten Gregory and Ken Miles was held..Another driver entered was an inexperienced local youngster named Dan Gurney who had been offered the opportunity to drive a powerful but ill-handling 4.9-liter Ferrari after better known drivers like Shelby and Miles had rejected it. Shelby led early but spun and fell back. Gurney assumed the lead and led for much of the event. Shelby, driving furiously to catch up finally overtook Gurney late in the race and won. Gurney's performance caught the eye of North American Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti who arranged for Gurney to drive a factory-supported Ferrari at LeMans in 1958 effectively launching the Californian's European career.
Riverside was also known to be one of the most dangerous racing circuits in North America..There were several well known drivers killed and injured over the years, many of the accidents were happening in turn 9..These accidents and others caused track management to reconfigure Turn 9 giving the turn a dogleg approach and a much wider radius.
1988 would be the final year of racing for Riverside International Raceway. On June 12, 1988, NASCAR held its final race at RIR - a race won by Rusty Wallace. In 1989, after the SCORE International held its last race, the track finally closed its gates after 32 years of racing after SCCA Cal Club racer Mark Verbofsky died and the track ended the way it started..with a dead racer.
Fritz Duda turned the "House that Dan Gurney built" into a shopping mall which opened in 1992. The Moreno Valley Mall at Towngate is on the northern end of the former Raceway Property and houses now occupy the southern end of the old racetrack. In a 1994 topographical map the remains of Riverside's Turn 9 and a wall were still visible. However, today nothing is left of RIR except for memorabilia from the racetrack. The old Administration Building remained until 2005 when it was torn down to make way for a complex of townhomes. In 2003, the remainder of the old Riverside International Raceway was torn up, the sign that was at California 60 and Day Street was removed to make way for a Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse and the old Turn 9 of the old track is now
home to houses.
Riverside was the home to many Great racing events over it's time but it's history of claiming the lives of it's racers finally caught up to it..It was a challenging track there's no doubt, maybe too challenging. Speaking to a local California youth some time back, Riverside was mentioned in discussion of upcoming TPG Racing events and he wasn't even aware there had been a Track there..certainly a sad ending for such a Historic track.They have since built the Riverside International Automotive Museum..dedicated to "Preserving the memory of California's rich motorsports heritage".Primary museum exhibits include memorabilia and artifacts from the Riverside International Raceway, the Ontario Motor Speedway, and local racing champion Dan Gurney.