Said it before .. and will say it again.. it ALL was nothing more than a ploy for better tax incentives for the Lowes Speedway... of all his facilities it had the lowest tax incentives.....

As far as Bandimere....if he gets it.. it WILL be gone....mark my words and the date... SOP for his companies....

i wouldn't make my reservations just yet for September.... some interesting rumors are about to come to light....


Billy

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I don't know where I saw it but I saw something about the TBA date going to Richmond and Charlotte getting the October Richmond date.

Let's start with a few basics:
Bruton Smith did not decide to keep Lowe's "where it's at." He has decided to keep Lowe's where it is.
Bandimere Speedway will not be able to continue in its current location indefinitely. Residential encroachment, the need for a much larger piece of ground to park all of the equipment for a National event, and the high expense of bringing more water to the current site have made that clear.
Pike Peak International Raceway did not go broke. It is located less than eighty miles from the Denver Metro area and is in El Paso County, the most populous county in Colorado. It did suffer from the usual indifference to motorpsorts demonstrated by "sports journalists" who bumped any news from the place in favor of breaking stories from the world of grade school gymnastics. NAZICAR bought the track. They froze out the IRL race and then closed PPIR largely as retribution for the previous owner's financial contribution to the opponents of the motorsports facility proposed for the eastern edge of the Denver metropolitan area. It would make a great site for a real stock car race, open wheel, sports cars, and has plenty of room for a National event type dragstrip.
If our Governor wasn't such a dope, he'd meet with NazCrap and inform them that they need to schedule events at the site and open it for other sanctions if they expect to receive a favorable welcome for a (insert telephone company here) Cup facility in the future. If.
Denver will continue to have a National event for a long, long time. Denver is the largest market in the Mountain Time Zone. Granted, the Mountain Time Zone is the least populous among Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific. However, the NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, along with arena football, soccer, and la crosse, have franchises here. In order to build a regional fan base, the major sports sanctions have all recognized the key role played by the Colorado Front Range, with Denver as the best known population center.
Colorado Springs has a AAA baseball club and Pueblo Motorsports Park, roughly 110 miles from Denver, has a market area comprised of 750,000 people.
Real racers know that the altitude is the same in both lanes.
Cheers,
Ed

Ed.. i agree with what you wrote.. except for one thing... NASCAR didn't shut out the IRL....

IRL was loosing their rear end there. and ,,since they had a contract with the previous owner.. they went of the option of their long term contract for events... to back out if a new owner for the facility ever came in to place..... according to a couple Robin Miller reports.. the IRL sponsorships don't cover the full purse for evetns.. so they make up the difference form theor money earned at the gate.. problem is Pikes lower than most ticket sales made it so Tony George had to go into his own personal accounts more than he liked.

I believe that the IRL has events at a couple ISC venues now.... plus winter testing at Daytona now.

Billy

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Roger Penske was the man who wanted to build a super speedway out by DIA, and a small group (less than 200) of Adams County residents shot it down. They convinced county commissioners that the track would cause traffic nightmares, and that radio communications at the track during an event would disrupt air traffic control at DIA, both straw-man arguments. Traffic? All they'd have to do is look at the speedway in Kansas City as a model for building the highways to support the facility. Air traffic control? All they had to do was talk to the folks at Forbes Field (across the street from Heartland Park Topeka) or Nellis AFB (across the street from LVMS).

Had Penske been able to build his track, Bandimere was going to join him in the area. ....at least that's what I remember reading in the Rocky Mountain News about the issues.

Make no mistake, Bandi won't be where it is forever, no matter who owns it.

Yeah that part would not change whatsoever. There is a large livestock facility up there somewhere though. I think it's hogs. I've been on the DIA Ramp before when the wind blows just right.... well, let me put it this way, it's not nitro or tire burnouts you'll be smelling!

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That's not going to happen, I just checked NASCAR's schedule and they are at Lowe's the same weekend NHRA is in Richmond.

When NASCAR (aka ISC) bought PPIR they instructed the then track manager to insisit on an IRL date in June knowing that was not possible for the IRL. When IRL refused, as the NASCAR bigs knew they would; ISC announced that they could not keep PPIR open.
Cheers,
Ed

If I remember correctly....FAMOSO HAS THE SAME FRAGRANCE FROM TIME TO TIME!!! or was it LACR???

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It is a real shame how all of that went down. The plans (and money) were in place to expand seating from 40k to 80k if the track got a Cup race. There were also plans for a drag strip on the east side of I-25. The city of Colorado Springs was going to join the party by extending Powers Blvd from I-25 and Briargate to the track, doubling the access to the facility.

I've been a resident of the region long enough to have placed bets on the ponies when that property was home to a horse racing track!

Remember the old CDR - Continental Divide Raceway - down along I-25 between Denver and CO Springs? Or the short lived Century 21 Dragstrip out east. Or Thunder Road out about where DIA is now?

Sorry. I guess these have nothing to do with Lowe's.

I remember CDR, but not the other two. I know there was a strip in Commerce City but don't remember the name of it. There was even an 1/8th-mile strip a little east of Colorado Springs at CSIS. That is now home to rattle snakes and scorpions.

While this is sort of a thread hijack, some of the politics involved in track openings and closings have much in common.

Wasn't there a Strip in Castle rock too? Back in the 70's?

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I found this. CDR was south of Castle Rock alright, and open from '59 thru '72.
Continental Divide Raceways, Castle Rock, Colorado

My uncles took me to my first drag race at Denver Dragway/Thunder Road when I was five. My cousins used to street race on the abandoned strip at Century 21 when I was in Junior high before they bladed up the track. Heck the Century 21 site would still be a good race plant as not much has grown up around it yet.

S/F
D