Etown done with racing
 

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More bad news for the NHRA. Losing Englishtown sucks.

I've been going there since 82, it shocking to think its over. The way I understand it, the problem lies between the Napp family an NHRA. Raceway Park will still remain open, no nation event schedule yet.

Hard to believe a strip running a national event would eliminate it.

But I did read that the runoff area was too short, so perhaps the issue wasn't financial viability but safety? OTOH, safety is number one for NHRA.

This has happened before at Gateway in Madison IL. New ownership usually fixes the problem in a year or two.

IAA (I think) wants to use the property to store cars, apparently.

Possibly. The shutdown length is 2000'. However Pomona is only 2000' and that's in NHRA's backyard and the Winternationals are in 3 weeks.

I'd bet there is a back story to this, since it's just the dragstrip and not the whole complex.

Copart is leasing space which includes the shutdown area of the track to store cars. They had planned to run the season right up until the deal was finalized. Everyone got blind sided including the nhra. They will still run their mx and road coarse tracks (drifting) along with karting events. Only drag racing got eliminated, which the long time track announcer said "drag racing doesn't pay the bills anymore." The writing has been on the wall for a while, they eliminated saturday a friday night racing over the last few years. They were down to just sunday and wend night, and the car counts where not great on sundays. They plan to expand in other areas that include events like tough mudder and outdoor concerts in which they will be using the grandstands and tower. Etown is huge and can easily accommodate 1000's of people so I would not be surprised if they attract some big name recording artists. Cars shows and swap meet will also go on as planned.

it is sad to see tracks close no matter where they are located but if you look at the change in interests the racing fan base isn't as strong as it used to be and it is becoming a very narrow contingent of competitors too. Financial burdens on all involved are tough to absorb and even the big names struggle to stay afloat. I sold all my equipment and bought my Corvette paid off bills and I drive anytime I want now. I hope that they will try to find a track that will pick up the summer nationals. If they can stand the heat and humidity Florida has some nice tracks still operating but I would hope they would look closer to the northeast for all the fans there. Bring back the 1320 in all classes.