Tracks Visited Once but Sadly Never Again

A column by our publisher, Tim Suddard, has been making the rounds on our online outlets recently. In this piece from last summer, Tim details some of his favorite race tracks. And although he missed a couple that I may have certainly included, it’s a solid list.

I won’t bore you with the exact same topic—I’ll wait a far …

Read the rest of the story

I'll put Hallett on my list since my distance from there is a factor. I went there for a special gathering of Fiat 850 guys back in the early 90s. 

Second Creek (I may have been there twice) - it was quite fun and is quite gone now.

I'll throw in mine.

Riverside, the NASCAR layout, I remember it most because I went 130mph on a 125CC GP bike there. The downhill mile long back straight made this possible.

Stardust International Raceway; the track was defunct and falling apart but we used to sneak out there and ride our motorcycles around it at night.  Turn two was partially washed out but there was still a 3ft wide section of good pavement, which was just enough for a bike.

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember driving Second Creek. I also remember doing the Danny Collins Driving School there. 

All of that is gone now but I heard there is another new track in the area. 

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember driving Second Creek. I also remember doing the Danny Collins Driving School there. 

All of that is gone now but I heard there is another new track in the area. 

High Plains Raceway is the replacement. I never drove Second Creek, only crewed there, but HPR has a whole lot more vertical going on and is pretty entertaining. Especially if you have some horsepower.

As for me, I got to drive Eagle Canyon before it was finished. I understand it got reconfigured before it opened, which is a real shame because it was really fun. 

Tom1200 said:

Stardust International Raceway; the track was defunct and falling apart but we used to sneak out there and ride our motorcycles around it at night.  Turn two was partially washed out but there was still a 3ft wide section of good pavement, which was just enough for a bike.

IIRC Stardust became the Speedrome a.k.a LVIS which is now all under the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Keith Tanner said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember driving Second Creek. I also remember doing the Danny Collins Driving School there. 

All of that is gone now but I heard there is another new track in the area. 

High Plains Raceway is the replacement. I never drove Second Creek, only crewed there, but HPR has a whole lot more vertical going on and is pretty entertaining. Especially if you have some horsepower.

High Plains is a looonger drift from where I am. If I were to fire up the 850 I would stick to Pueblo or maybe La Junta if they still use those tracks.

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember when RMVR ran at Steamboat Springs. It was the event of the year. Augie Pabst and even Zora Duntov showed up at those races. I also remember when they raced at Aspen Raceway which was right down the street from Hunter S. Thomson's Owl Farm. I wonder what happened to that place?

High Plains seems to be closer to Kansas than to the Rocky Mountains. 

L5wolvesf said:

Keith Tanner said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember driving Second Creek. I also remember doing the Danny Collins Driving School there. 

All of that is gone now but I heard there is another new track in the area. 

High Plains Raceway is the replacement. I never drove Second Creek, only crewed there, but HPR has a whole lot more vertical going on and is pretty entertaining. Especially if you have some horsepower.

High Plains is a looonger drift from where I am. If I were to fire up the 850 I would stick to Pueblo or maybe La Junta if they still use those tracks.

HPR is in the boonies because of what happened to Second Creek :)

Pueblo is still up and running AFAIK, but it's not as fun as HPR in my experience. Never driven La Junta.

Texas World  people who had driven it raved about it, I discounted it and skipped it for 2 years as I only heard great things from a handful of people but was fortunate enough to catch it in it's final two years. I wish that I had gone earlier as it was a brilliant track. It was fun it, had character and it had soul, it was everything that COTA isn't.

Keith Tanner said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember driving Second Creek. I also remember doing the Danny Collins Driving School there. 

All of that is gone now but I heard there is another new track in the area. 

High Plains Raceway is the replacement. I never drove Second Creek, only crewed there, but HPR has a whole lot more vertical going on and is pretty entertaining. Especially if you have some horsepower.

As for me, I got to drive Eagle Canyon before it was finished. I understand it got reconfigured before it opened, which is a real shame because it was really fun. 

 

I haven't driven Eagle Canyon yet but I did see a few vintage events there. I lot of guys in that club drive 914s. I really need to get my Miata back on the road so I can do some time trials there. 

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember when RMVR ran at Steamboat Springs. It was the event of the year. Augie Pabst and even Zora Duntov showed up at those races. I also remember when they raced at Aspen Raceway which was right down the street from Hunter S. Thomson's Owl Farm. I wonder what happened to that place?

High Plains seems to be closer to Kansas than to the Rocky Mountains. 

The Woody Creek (aka Aspen) track is a private club track, has been for some time. You can get on it occasionally but rarely. It's probably on the list of "tracks I have driven but will not drive again" just because it's just a PITA to get time there.

HRP is worth the visit. Denver's not really in the Rockies anyhow, it's really in Kansas. It's just Colorado adjacent.

Keith Tanner said:

L5wolvesf said:

Keith Tanner said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember driving Second Creek. I also remember doing the Danny Collins Driving School there. 

All of that is gone now but I heard there is another new track in the area. 

High Plains Raceway is the replacement. I never drove Second Creek, only crewed there, but HPR has a whole lot more vertical going on and is pretty entertaining. Especially if you have some horsepower.

High Plains is a looonger drift from where I am. If I were to fire up the 850 I would stick to Pueblo or maybe La Junta if they still use those tracks.

HPR is in the boonies because of what happened to Second Creek :)

Pueblo is still up and running AFAIK, but it's not as fun as HPR in my experience. Never driven La Junta.

I thought Second Creek was the boonies. At least it was until the built the airport. 

Is that what happened to Second Creek? 

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

Keith Tanner said:

L5wolvesf said:

Keith Tanner said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember driving Second Creek. I also remember doing the Danny Collins Driving School there. 

All of that is gone now but I heard there is another new track in the area. 

High Plains Raceway is the replacement. I never drove Second Creek, only crewed there, but HPR has a whole lot more vertical going on and is pretty entertaining. Especially if you have some horsepower.

High Plains is a looonger drift from where I am. If I were to fire up the 850 I would stick to Pueblo or maybe La Junta if they still use those tracks.

HPR is in the boonies because of what happened to Second Creek :)

Pueblo is still up and running AFAIK, but it's not as fun as HPR in my experience. Never driven La Junta.

I thought Second Creek was the boonies. At least it was until the built the airport. 

Is that what happened to Second Creek? 

Eaten by suburbia AFAIK. Airports and racetracks make good neighbours, but suburbs don't get along with either. Unfortunately, Second Creek didn't get developed before the 2008 housing crash so it's still just a vacant lot, but the lesson was learned. HPR is not going to get turned into a strip mall in our lifetimes.

Keith Tanner said:

Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to L5wolvesf :

I can remember when RMVR ran at Steamboat Springs. It was the event of the year. Augie Pabst and even Zora Duntov showed up at those races. I also remember when they raced at Aspen Raceway which was right down the street from Hunter S. Thomson's Owl Farm. I wonder what happened to that place?

High Plains seems to be closer to Kansas than to the Rocky Mountains. 

The Woody Creek (aka Aspen) track is a private club track, has been for some time. You can get on it occasionally but rarely. It's probably on the list of "tracks I have driven but will not drive again" just because it's just a PITA to get time there.

HRP is worth the visit. Denver's not really in the Rockies anyhow, it's really in Kansas. It's just Colorado adjacent.

I remember pulling a dead rattlesnake off the track when I was a corner worker at Aspen. I wonder if they still have those. 

Two off the top of my head: Bridgehampton and Road Atlanta with the Dip. 

In reply to L5wolvesf :

The Stardust Raceway was a completely separate facility located on the west edge of town in the vicinity of Buffalo Drive and Flamingo Blvd.

The Speedrome / LVIS / LVMS is 20 miles Northeast of the Stardust Raceway location.

I've been here for 43 years and driven or ridden all of the LVMS configurations.

In reference to that track on Vancouver Island?

Probably this one:

https://islandmotorsportcircuit.com/

One of my local Autocross clubs used to do a higher-than-normal-speed AX (not quite a HSAX) on the Milwaukee Mile road course, with slaloms and some other assorted cone magic to keep the speeds from getting too high.

I did that for my first autox ever, and it was awesome. Then the club went into hiatus and stopped renting the Mile because the price got too steep.

I'm hoping to drive it again sometime, but I'm still a little afraid to do a real track day there (which does happen). One day.

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

Texas World  people who had driven it raved about it, I discounted it and skipped it for 2 years as I only heard great things from a handful of people but was fortunate enough to catch it in it's final two years. I wish that I had gone earlier as it was a brilliant track. It was fun it, had character and it had soul, it was everything that COTA isn't.

TWS is it for me..

never got to drive it in anger.. but worked my first weekends as a corner worker and did a bunch of "parade laps" there.

Mazdeuce and I went by in the R63 in 2016 and it's forever immortalized with the video I took. Very special track that I'll forever miss.

Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:

In reference to that track on Vancouver Island?

Probably this one:

https://islandmotorsportcircuit.com/

 

It wasn't a track, it was an airport. And I actually just got an email from a guy at Subaru who was on that launch, and we've been going back and forth piecing things together.

First, I was wrong about the date. it was actually the 2009 launch of the revamped WRX, not the STi. We drove from Nanaimo to Tofino, and that Tofino Long Beach airport is a prime suspect at the moment.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

So you enjoyed my part of the world as I’m in Qualicum Beach roughly a block from the old Island Highway. 

Rons said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

So you enjoyed my part of the world as I’m in Qualicum Beach roughly a block from the old Island Highway. 

Literally one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, and I keep promising my wife I'll take her there someday. There used to be a huge parrot sanctuary not far from you that we drove past on the Subaru thing, and we always wanted to go check it out, but apparently they hit some hard times and had to close within the last few years. 

Still absolutely on our list someday once Canada starts letting us back in, though. 

spacecadet (Forum Supporter) said:

captdownshift (Forum Supporter) said:

Texas World  people who had driven it raved about it, I discounted it and skipped it for 2 years as I only heard great things from a handful of people but was fortunate enough to catch it in it's final two years. I wish that I had gone earlier as it was a brilliant track. It was fun it, had character and it had soul, it was everything that COTA isn't.

TWS is it for me..

never got to drive it in anger.. but worked my first weekends as a corner worker and did a bunch of "parade laps" there.

Mazdeuce and I went by in the R63 in 2016 and it's forever immortalized with the video I took. Very special track that I'll forever miss.

I did two events there. My first ever track weekend in the V wagon and my first Time Trial weekend in my Civic. Camped up on the walkway that last weekend without a tent. It was run down and needed a cash infusion it was never going to get, but it was a good place to go hang out with your buddies. 

In reply to spacecadet (Forum Supporter) :

Wrecked my first race car there and flagged many events there as well. It definitely had the spirit of a club track and had many good times there. Many multi-car pileups at turn 4 coming up the hill into the back 40 part of the track.