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Merry Christmas to all the good Mopar folks out there!
Well it's official, the IHRA closed on the purchase of the old Memphis International Raceway yesterday, so we're one huge step closer to having racing without having a 1 - 1 1/2 hour drive to Jackson or Holly Springs! The new name as of right now is Darana Motorsports Park, a sort of nod to its original name of Memphis International Motorsports Park. If their plans are successful they're going to resurrect the paved oval too as they have plans for a nascrap style stock car division, so huge things on the horizon!
Bring it on! Like Tom Bodett says in the Motel 6 commercials, "We'll leave the light on for you". Best thing is there's no vehicle inspections or state income tax!
IHRA had a groundbreaking ceremony today at the Motorsports Park, I heard one rumor that they intend on putting $60 million into it, including a new pavilion for other than car events along with the complete redo of the dragstrip and paved oval and the return of a dirt track too. I don't know how many have been following the IHRA recently but it looks like they're trying to put the NHRA out to pasture and go toe to toe with Nascrap; they've bought Brainerd and I saw today that they've also purchased the track at Rockingham. To ice the cake, they donated $10 mil to St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital, I just can't get enough of this!
IT is awesome !!!! IHRA is involved with a lot of motor sports.... I do hope all goes well.... I have been keeping up with some of it.... Thanks much for the info and keeping us all in the know !!!!!!
AS for NHRA.... I have no idea why they have over priced themselves, But people still pay and go.... However IHRA has more Classes in my opinion, for people to get into...
Yeah they'll still go, a hardcore fan is a hardcore fan. I went through my ticket stub box and found these for comparison. It doubled in 19 years, I hate to even imagine what it would be today, 19 more years later. BTW, the latest is that they're essentially going to demolish all of the buildings onsite due to mold and rebuild everything from the ground up. It's a shame it got so bad, I always thought the timing tower and VIP suites were nice looking buildings.
I did see this weekend that IHRA has bought the track in Topeka so there's one more former NHRA track that's switched.
Cool old tickets !!!!!
IHRA has really got things moving.... I wish them well.... Its not cheap to build and run these tracks.... But it is great to see them bring some back....
Its a great way to get out of the house and do something and meet people of the same interest !!!!! Just my 2 cents
IMHO a huge part of why the track closed in 2022 was their complete reliance on social media for advertising. Back when it was an NHRA sanctioned track - and owned by a local group, you'd see or hear advertising in the newspaper, on tv and radio for literally everything that went on out there; national and regional events, Super Chevy, the Hot Rod Power Tour etc. Even test-n-tune was advertised on the radio. The local news would cover the national events. After it got sold to Dover Motorsports and later IRG, it was switched to IHRA sanctioning – I'm sure the sanctioning switch had nothing to do with anything - but the new owners advertised absolutely nothing except on their social media pages. Too many folks never knew about anything except by word of mouth, usually after the fact. I attended the Mopar Action events there each year that they held them and there were never more than maybe 25-30 cars in the show, and barely enough cars in the race portion to justify holding it. I am hoping that since it's now owned by IHRA outright they'll put something into an advertising budget; social media alone won't cut it. Otherwise we'll be back in the same boat in a few years.
We had our annual “Ski Freeze” on New Years Day, for those not familiar it's a fund raiser for the Dream Factory, similar to the Make A Wish Foundation. Each January 1st people with bigger hearts than brains go and ski in the 33° - 34° Mississippi River, they have a surprisingly large turnout. Clay Millican is the spokesman and usually comes out with Dentley, there are usually a large number of cars and motorcycles on display too. Last I heard this year they raised over $30,000.
I've been itching to ride out to check on what's been done at the racetrack since they made the big announcement so I headed out this morning. They've done some demo, taken down most of the poles, the ticket office, snack bar and oddly enough they appear to have removed the retaining walls; maybe to make repaving the track surface easier? The offices, timing tower and VIP suites are still standing. Looks like they've got a lot to do to get it in race trim by September. See what I did there? They also bushogged the parking lot / field, I guess so people who drive by can see what's going on.
**Followup - Did some digging, apparently the county shut them down, supposedly because they didn't file a demolition permit. This is the same health department that gave elon musk a free pass for operating non permitted gas turbine generators at his xai facility that just opened here. It's all about the money...
Thats Great News... I think the County should move a little faster on getting those permits out to keep things moving along.... I'm sure Memphis can us the revinews.
I’ve always thought demo permits were on the goofy side of things, when I first bought my house I wanted to tear down
an old garage and the town made me buy a permit. I can’t remember what it cost me but I never did take it down.
I'm not even going to try and figure out the methodology of government but I can say that the location of the track is zoned heavy industrial, the ground is contaminated which is why they were never able to sell it when it closed in '22; Amazon was going to buy it but the soil was to toxic. So my guess is that's why they were insisting on a demo permit.
I'm not even going to try and figure out the methodology of government but I can say that the location of the track is zoned heavy industrial, the ground is contaminated which is why they were never able to sell it when it closed in '22; Amazon was going to buy it but the soil was to toxic. So my guess is that's why they were insisting on a demo permit.
Well I hope they don't have to go through a bunch of crap like corong, impact studies, eviro study crap like here in our part of the country. Hope scene they are mostly just replacing with what was already in place that it goes smoothly... Fingers Crossed!!!
Not anything to speak of to report on the track. Word is they've gotten their permit issues squared away and are supposed to be back at work, I sure hope so, they've got less than 6 months to get it back up and in race condition since they're selling tickets to a September event on the IHRA website. I'm gonna head out there in a week or two to see what's been happening since my last visit and will post pics if there's anything new to see. Fingers crossed....
I watched a video of a news show on YouTube about the IHRA buying all these tracks and turning them into some kind of digital hubs, new buildings and infrastructure etc.. not so much drag strips. It would be nice to know what the big picture is.
I watched a video of a news show on YouTube about the IHRA buying all these tracks and turning them into some kind of digital hubs, new buildings and infrastructure etc.. not so much drag strips. It would be nice to know what the big picture is.
Like you said, racing these days has morphed into more of a multimedia type entertainment. Used to be that the racing was enough to keep fans excited, not so much anymore with this being a much less car culture world today and the new generation having the attention span of a vegetable peeler. Ironically I spotted a related post on a local facebook racing page I follow with a link to the plans they submitted to the planning department, I am attaching a pdf of the proposal. Big changes from the current footprint, probably all will benefit the facility financially. Hey, I'm for just about anything that will keep folks from having to cross into MS or AR for something to do...
Talked to a friend of mine Tuesday who's in the know. He personally knows Darryl Cuttell, IHRA's new owner and also the new owner of Memphis Motorsports Park, and after a couple months of rumors and a lack of any visible changes since they broke ground a few months ago, he called Darryl to ask about it. From his mouth, the plans are still firm, dates still firm, the delay stems from what had originally been stated which was an issue with demolition permits, and more recently the aggressive IHRA schedule. He basically to my friend that, with all of the tracks they bought in the last year or so, they just spread themselves a little too thin. My buddy owns a speed shop here in town and has people asking daily about what the deal is at the track. He's an old school racer himself and is the official track chaplain at Memphis, and has been chaplain at races around the country wherever he goes. He has a '69 Camaro with a ZL1 427, until last year it was the only one on the entire circuit with a 4-speed. He's 77 now and his knees are going so he swapped in an automatic last year. Pretty doggone impressive to stand it up on its hind end like that on 9" slicks...
Thanks for the UpDate.... Good To know someone that in in the know !!!!!
Love me some Big Block Brand-X...
Hope they get to moving on getting the track up and running....
Cheers
St. Louis is five hours Memphis is what maybe another 3 1/2? I don’t remember it’s been ten, twelve years since I’ve been that way on my way to Louisiana. And those are truck times, for a few years if I wanted to go anywhere I would have a friend find a load to where I wanted to go and deliver park the truck for a week and do what I wanted he would have a load back for me and I would get paid for my vacation. But I gave up my CDL the last time I renewed my license…
