New road race track in MA
 

Hi everyone,

For those in the New England area who follow road racing, there has been an effort to build a track in Central MA for years. After multiple people tried and failed, it finally happened! The new owner went through all the permitting and hearing processes and survived all the NIMBY challenges against his plans and got the project approved :usa2: He contacted a very good friend of mine (both road racers) to design and build the track. My friend asked me to design the electrical infrastructure for the track.

I was up there this past Friday to meet with the utility company, and after the meeting took my T/A for a leisurely lap around the track.

This is with my iPhone taped to the rear view mirror. You can see some grading at the edges still going on and not all safety barriers in place, so I was not going to push my luck :p

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Oxk...j3rYFElq6d2lnQ

First scheduled race is May 3

:):)

Nice!

How long was the course?
(2.5 miles?)

:)

It looks surprisingly like AMP which is a club track in North Georgia.
The club tracks don't work well for all out racing, maybe small bore light weight cars but I'd never even hit 4th gear on that track.
Fun tracks to play on with limited numbers but not to race wheel to wheel with 25-30 3000 lb 400 hp cars.

AMP video http://www.youtube.com/embed/2TmKmIt...layer_embedded

looks like a couple places cars will get some air.........nice scenery, but not much for run off areas.

You're very close! 2.3 miles :)

I am not a road racer, so I don't know what their plan was when designing the track. All I know is they accomplished something monumental in a state that is as anti car/fun as you can get :usa2:

Awsome Panos!

Good to see your car still tooling around! sounds good!

You can say that again! Make a mistake there and it's concrete or rock wall going to welcome you.
The layout reminds me a bit of our famous Bathurst race track here in OZ ... here's a clip of a 71 Falcon GT doing an historic race there. The field comprises all types of old race cars and starting from rear of grid, he has a fat time working his way through them with some nice driving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toLPTjE1GZk

PMP? Palmer? Years ago there was a lot of effort to try to get a drag strip in Palmer. Like you say, Massachusetts is not racer friendly! Never thought I'd see any track being built here.

Rob...

Thanks Jeff.

Still tooling around, but with two kids now, much less than before. Couldn't turn down the opportunity to work (and play) on this one of a kind project though :)

Yes Palmer. Most all my car friends had the exact same reaction as you. Who would have thought it would happen in MA :eek::p

I like the course, Very Pretty Area. Bet Johnny (the F-bird Hill Climber would like it too).

Much more like a "Hill Climb" course followed by a "Hill Descent" course for a single car or small multiple cars. Sports 2000 cars

Tom V.

Car sounded great - nice driving too :)
Yes - Johnny ( Bigger is Better ) with his 455 80 T/A should have some fun on this one :)

You need a straight like in europe that can handle 180/190mph.. very cool tho there should be mnore Roadrace tracks in the USA..

This is funny as I dont get on the forum often and I saw this thread and saw my name in it haha. And yes I love that track!

twov8sandat4 that is a really good looking track, the altitude changes are going to make it fun and challenging. The down hill sections will be really challenging as the cars will tend to understeer, that first corner after the rise at the top of the hill scares me ;)

Where I come from any race track is better then no race track and its hard to get tracks made as far as land costs and regulations so congrats on the local track.

It is about 200 foot differential from the highest to the lowest point on the track! Hopefully, with some practice, I can get to run my car a little harder there :D