Unfortunately Speedworld is long gone and will never come back. The reason they closed was the county revoked the lease of the land due to a technicality. As much as I would love for Tucson to hold a national event I just dont know if they have the room to expand the pits, In it's current state I dont believe there is enough open land. Another problem would be traffic. If you thought traffic getting in and out of Firebird was a problem Tucson would be way worse because you only have Houghton Rd.
While I don’t know much about the track, they at least seem to think it could be a viable option. Of course it would take a few million dollars or more to make it work. They would need more pavement in the pits, more grandstands and probably a new tower with the needed the luxury suites.
My wife and I drove by the new Tucson Dragway after we had gone to this year’s Arizona Nationals. I was surprised by how small the facility seemed. The other thing I noticed was how close a subdivision just to the east of Houghton is to the track.
Alan, I agree! Doesn't make no difference whom owns what when NIMBY (not in my back yard) folks get going, and/or corporations who buy the property - feel they make more money leasing the land to storage units or whatever! It is a shame! All the tracks mentioned here would take $$$$$ to bring up to standards.
Luke, this seems to be happening in Australia. Am reading about T/F going to smaller tracks, even 1/8 mile, and it seems to be working out. It's been posted on Mater that NHRA should run both 1/4 mile & 1/8 mile (like NASCAR) and that could be a good way to grow drag racing. By the way, what are your thoughts about current Aussie T/F? the way they are running the show is like "round robin", with 2 low ET cars in the final. The thing I like about that format is that the spectators get to see all the cars every round. Not a new idea but it's a good show.
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