Whatever happened to Bluegrass Motorsports Park?

The Nelson Ledges closing thread reminded me of this course that was supposed to go up between Cincinnati and Louisville. Does anybody know what ever happened there?

I figured it just succumbed to poor timing and the financio-apocalypse, but I just saw a forum post that is it was built with such restrictive land covenants that it basically could never host an SCCA or NASA weekend. What's the story?

Long story short, they lost funding. The track was made, but not fully paved. Now a couple sections have been washed out so it would basically take a complete redo to make a track work there.

On a positive note, the National Corvette Museum track is scheduled to open later this year (about 90 miles south of Louisville).

Wait What? Nelson Ledges Closed? Like for Good?

That sucks about Bluegrass, hopefully someone can save it. What's the story with the Corvette track, will it be open for club use?

Dean: Looks like you found the NL closing thread, again, hopefully someone saves it!

In reply to ShadowSix:

When I get home I'll try to find the photos of how bad bluegrass is at the moment. Kinda tough on the ole phone. EDIT: here you go. http://www.502streetscene.net/forum/showthread.php?t=197955

NCM track is legit. If you're on the book of faces, check out their page. It's chock full of pics of the progress. One of our KY region SCCA guys has already been on the property and on the track itself and it looks pretty damn good. It's in our region (kyscca) and we will be holding autocrosses on their 18 acre autocross pad. We will have our first event there this October. I can't wait!

ShadowSix wrote: What's the story with the Corvette track, will it be open for club use?

I'm pretty sure. We're running a ChumpCar race there later this year. It will be nice having a real track so close (2hrs or so).

Linked from thier FB page. It's looking great and they started paving this week.

Our region (Western Ohio) invested a bit in Bluegrass & has been a hot topic with every freaking meeting. The very latest I believe is it will go ahead as planned. Or get a refund through the courts. It seems to change every month.

(We're hoping it goes through, although I seem to remember a stipulation about sound levels that was crazy unrealistic. When the topic comes up anymore I tend to zone out...)

Spoolpigeon wrote:

I like that track! I want to drive the full course. They should call that configuration "wiggles."

I agree, wiggles configuration looks like tons of fun. My dad and I will have to take a road trip there when it's done.

In reply to Jerry:

Last we heard it was a 55db limit. I can fart louder than that.

for reference here is the Bluegrass track

http://yhoo.it/1mBRUbK

Looks like a small runoff creek runs across it

Found a couple vids where some folks were allowed on track. This one shows how bad the washouts are and it's a year and a half old vid. http://youtu.be/TCS7LvKB6Nc

Looks like it would have been a fun track

It does look like it could have been a very fun track. Lots of elevation and some good corners to it as well.

We have a similar noise level at our track, although I think it is 78 or 80db or something. I will need to double check. When I took my 924 for the sound check last week, I drove up and the inspector guy just slapped a sticker on the windshield. I asked him; " Aren't you going to get out the meter or anything to test?". The response was, "If you go over, YOU WILL know!!" LOL

I had such hopes for this track but I gave up along time ago. It would have been less than two hours from me...

Maybe it's just because I work with a bunch of civil engineers, but that track doens't look that badly damaged to me. Unles some of those drainage features that blew out are actually "waters of the US", I don't see a lot of problem with permitting for that standpoint. I hope it gets solid backers and moves forward.

I was surprised at the large amount of incorrect BS on the 502 web site.

In reply to spitfirebill:

The 502 site is pretty much BS as a whole lol.

I just get bummed thinking about it because it was going to be about an hour and a half away from me. Thankfully the corvette track is only about 70 miles south, so I could easly drive to, race, and come back in one day. Awesome.

Just watched the video of the 2002 driving around the track. Looks like it has great potential. Someone has already spent a ton of money on getting it to where it is. It would be a shame to see all of that go to waste.

I flew my drone over Bluegrass Motorsports Park on June 7 2014. Here are some photos showing the condition of the track. http://www.kydirt.com/gallery/v/Personal_001/bluegrass/