Denver entries

[BobOrme]

Originally Posted by GarysZ24

I don't know about that, but if a special interest group associated with the (for several years) defunct "Pikes Peak International Raceway" (south of Colorado Springs), wouldn't have defeated the Y2K "Amendment 2F" (that I worked on as well, to try and get a yes vote for), then Bandimere Speedway wouldn't be there today anyway! There location would've been east of Aurora, just south of I-70, and west of a town called Watkins. But funds came in from a New York investor, and a former Colorado Governor's son (I believe it was Dick Lamb's son), all contributed to defeating the amendment. Too bad too, because the newer Bandimere Speedway Park would've been located in a facility named "World Park", and it would've been nearly 3x's the size, and more racer friendly (read no "North 40"), than the land the current facility is on. Moreover, that facility would've been nearly 800ft lower in altitude, and out in the eastern plains of Colorado (minutes from the airport). The only drawback would've been it's being out in the western part of "Tornado Alley"...however, D.I.A.'s out there and it's been good for 15yrs, so I think Bandimere's possible newer home would've been fine too! Funny that within 5yrs after that amendment failed, the raceway shutdown anyway (due to poor ownership & especially, its location)...which proves that "WHAT GOES AROUND, COMES AROUND" after all!!!

Gary,

It's much more complicated than you make it sound. PPIR lost events due to NASCAR actions, and ISCA (the France family) bought PPIR and shut it down to avoid any viable efforts to bring any type of NASCAR events back to it because of their desire to build new facilities out by DIA. This stuff has been a game of political ping pong with racing sanctioning bodies and track developers, as well as politicians and community activists for about 13 years now. FWIW, PPIR is currently open and being used for racing. The original property did contain enough land on the east side of I-25 to build a national event sized drag strip facility, and there were, at least at one point in time, plans to do just that.

More info available about Denver and proposed new racing facilities is available here. http://www.jayski.com/pages/tracks/denver.htm