Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Noone has done anything for any politician in particular, we are speaking with different towns trying to find a suitable piece. We Do have the money lined up for when we find a piece of land that will work. I have been attending Englishtown my whole life to view and was planning on racing there this season, so now I’ll be going further. And I was only 14 when West Hampton closed, what was your excuse? If you just want to complain and say that it’ll never get any better that’s fine, but don’t try to stop people that are tryig to improve the situation.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

BTW, the story hit the Google News sports page for a while on Wednesday afternoon.

Its off now; here's the full coverage

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Exactly James, there isn't a community on Long Island that would accept a race track. Not one!!!

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Probably can’t make more money, but......a heck of a lot less headaches.....

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Isn’t Numidia to far west?

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Sadly, it was just a matter of time and the time has come. The community no longer embraced it and apparently the Napp family didn't either.

I have many great memories of E-town starting from 1973.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Not for the many people from PA that would normally travel to E town.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Were screwed. Hope some one might pick up a couple of racing dates?

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

I wonder if they are thinking of replacing the Division race? Whats the chances of turning the Dutch Classic into a Divisional?

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

It s very sad to see a venue with such a rich history closing its doors to drag racing. The E Town national event was the premier event on the upper eat coast for sure.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

I was just thinking about you guys the run Street E.T., I think atco my pick up some of the OGS1320 events.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

I would think that Englishtown`s market competitors, would step up, now that their biggest rival is gone. If you own Island or Numidia, this has to be good news. Atco might be too far for many Long island racers.
Mike A114

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

The latest story is the track was offered by a national car salvage company to buy the track for $300 plus million. They settled on a lease for $75M. All the cars that come from flood zones are restored and exported over sea's. When hurricane Sandy hit most of the cars went to the track over the winter for storage and were moved out prior to the track opening in the Spring. This would be storage plus restoration.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Did NHRA change the national event schedule. I just looked and june and july look full.
Where will the missing Nat go?
I think it is gone this year. Maybe Virginia next.
R.I.P. Raceway Park.
Sure wish I raced there more. But that is life.

Atco and Cecil it is. Never been to Island.
I know Im just a wannabe index racer
But I loved taking off Friday mornings from work to watch the record runs at points meet as one of the couple fans there at E Town.
Chris

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Trivia question: Who was the last Stock or Super Stock racer to win a round at Englishtown? Probably was at an ECSSSA race. A bitter sweet point of notoriety.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Russell Linke in Stock and Joe Santangelo in Super Stock

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

I dunno....ask the owner of Royal Purple Raceway if he cried on the way to the bank with the money they made off of storing Hurricane Harvey cars.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

ECSSSA race was rained out in 2017

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Sad new indeed. I always liked racing there and the other events. I hope the E-Town regulars will come to the other tracks in the area. Island, Atco and Cecil County. Some travel to Numedia and Lebanon Valley. Please support these tracks.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

After 53 years burning rubber, drag racing ends at Raceway Park

"The Napp family, which opened the raceway in 1965 and continues to operate it privately, decided to end drag racing, and convert the grandstand and about half the strip into an outdoor concert venue, Mamakas told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday, after he met last week to discuss the changes with Raceway Park President Michael Napp."

Read the rest of the article here:

http://www.nj.com/monmouth/index.ssf...cing_ends.html

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

They only leased the track for six months, losing parts of two seasons.

Houston-area drag strip is dumping ground for 30,000 (and counting) hurricane Harvey-damaged vehicles

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Who were the two Summernationals Stock finalists the year there was no Stock winner?

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

[QUOTE=Mike Schwartz;554132]They only leased the track for six months, losing parts of two seasons.

Houston-area drag strip is dumping ground for 30,000 (and counting) hurricane Harvey-damaged vehicles[/QUOTE

It was 100,000 cars and they didn't really lose much in the way of racing. They already had their bracket points completed by time the Hurricane hit. They only run Friday T&T's after that, sprinkling in a few specialty races. So they traded a few T&T days that would gross a few thousand dollars in revenues in the millions of dollars in storage fees.

I was told by the girl who administers the bracket points that they'd be open for racing by early March. I drive past there at least 3-4 times a week; it looks like they have the pit side 80-90% cleared.

But back to Englishtown, as the shock and disbelief wear off, I'm not regretting leaving New Jersey nearly as much.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

My money is on the @ssh@ole neighbors moving in in february and bitching in march about the noise !! Time to build low income housing there !!!

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

I read in another post on here, the Napps leased part of the property ($5M a year for 15 years, $75M) for car storage. Sounds like a no brainer. No more overhead, dwindling gate etc. etc. Also starting a music venue, no doubt to serenade their neighbors:D
Mike A114

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

I bet the NEW Gov. will do that soon !

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Obviously, I'm not privy to any of the details, and I understand big money talks very loud, and I think we all knew it was inevitable at some point, but the more I think about how this was done, the more distasteful it becomes. Raceway Park didn't operate in a vacuum. There are so many people, businesses, organizations, etc., to whom this place was very important for any number of reasons.

From the local kid who has invested all his money in a car that he races, the local shop that sold him a pair of tires and got paid to install them, the serious racers who have been going there for years, the people for whom this place has been a big part of their lives for many years. The local businesses and shops who's incomes will take a hit. And even all the way up to the NHRA, which by all accounts was also surprised by this and are scrambling for a response.

The history, the legacy, the people and organizations got no warning, all they got was a "Thanks for the business, see ya". So much for respect for the history and the people who brought 'cha. I hope the neighbors are happy with their new junkyard and the truck traffic in and out of there to support that operation.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Yeah, if the neighbors thought drag race traffic was bad, just wait til the trucks roll thru at all times of the night. I live about a mile from Copart and, yes, the trucks are aplenty.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

The neighbors are well aware of the truck traffic ... this same company rented Raceway Park and filled it with Hurricane Sandy flood cars that same winter ,,,, I had friends buying cars and sending trucks for weeks to bring them back to Long Island for resale

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

Don't forget the other issue they have a few years ago ...Now their neighbors can build their new mosque / temple , nice and quiet now... Those homes in that area are now just middle income homes now a days in good old N.J.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

The last verse of "Casey at the Bat" pretty much sums it all up!!

Oh, somewhere in this favored land the sun is shining bright;
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light,
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout;
But there is no joy in Mudville - mighty Casey has struck out.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags
 

I was thinking the same thing, best I could discover is it was one of the events without a sponsor. Seems to be a gap in June now.

Re: Englishtown Closed To Drags