http://speedtv.com/articles/auto/autoindustry/7674/

A New Home for Road Racing in California?
Written by: RACER staff
Atwater, Calif. – 8/15/2003
Riverside Motorsports Park has been conceived as both a racing and a family recreaton destination.

Permanent road racing facilities have been a tough sell in recent years, particularly in land-hungry California, but a new consortium is bucking that trend with an ambitious plan to construct a new state-of-the-art facility with a name that evokes powerful memories of American road racing's past.

Riverside Motorsports Park, LLC (RMP) has announced that it has secured 1200 acres adjacent to Castle Airport (formerly Castle Air Force Base) in California’s Merced County for the purpose of constructing a multi-use motorsports facility. With plans to feature eight different racetracks in one landscaped, fully equipped, park-like setting, Riverside Motorsports Park intends to offer a complete package of racing events to West Coast race fans and to support club-based and professional motorsports sanctioning organizations across the United States.

Complementing the racing facilities will be picnic grounds, family and themed restaurants, and other amenities such as RV facilities, with the aim of creating a recreation destination for the more than nine million Northern California residents who live within a 100-mile radius of the park’s Merced County location.

“There isn’t a motorsports facility like this anywhere in the country,” says RMP CEO John Condren. “We’ve invested two and a half years of market research, design, engineering, and planning in this project, and we’re gratified by the reception we’re receiving from Merced County; from local city and district officials, residents and business owners; and, especially, from the local, national and international motorsports communities. With a diverse and growing motorsports base in California, and with the rich racing heritage of the Central Valley, the Merced County location for Riverside Motorsports Park is most appropriate.

In pleasant contrast with other recent attempts to create road racing facilities, RMP appears to enjoy enthusiastic support from local authorities. “The Riverside Motorsports Park project could have the potential for meaningful job creation, offer opportunities for Castle Airport’s continued development, and it might spearhead a boost in our overall county economy,” said John Fowler, director of Merced County Department of Business Economic Opportunities.

The president of the City of Atwater’s Chamber of Commerce, Roy Torres, added, “We anticipate that Riverside Motorsports Park will bring tremendous value and recognition to our community. We’re very excited about this project, and we’ve told Riverside Motorsports Park that they can count on the support of Atwater’s business community. We’ve been looking for the right focal point to help Atwater grow, and with the automobile and motorcycle races, a summer concert series and the other family entertainment and recreational activities that Riverside Motorsports Park will provide, we see nothing but generous benefits for Atwater’s local businesses, our residents, our youth and the business community throughout the entire region.”

RMP’s multi-track format is intended to enable the facility to support virtually all types of world-class professional and amateur motorsports. The planned layouts including:
· 3.0-mile road course for sports cars, endurance and open-wheel racing
· 7/8-mile oval speedway (Northern California’s first) for stock car and open-wheel racing
· 1/4-mile (5,000-foot total length) drag strip
· Integrated 1/3- and 1/2-mile, banked paved oval tracks for stock cars and sprint cars
· 3/8-mile dirt oval track for motorcycle, stock car, sprint and midget racing
· 3/4-mile karting courses (sprint and shifter karts)
· Motocross and BMX courses

RMP is currently undergoing a comprehensive Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to study and develop mitigation plans for environmental sensitivities, including traffic and noise. The company's development schedule calls for the completion of the EIR and entitlement process so that groundbreaking can begin during the first half of 2004.

 

ooooh Sounds like fun! Also sounds like it is 3-4 years away! *sigh*

 

pout.... i heard it's not in riverside, ca but over in northen california, it's jsut called riverside park.. sucks...

i have to drive about 2 hours to get to willow spirngs raceyway from where i am...