Could New Jersey Motorsports Park be a suitable east coast location for Indycar?
The Road to Indy will be racing there and I don't know a whole lot about the circuit but maybe it could fill a geographical gap?
Posted Aug 27, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC
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That onboard lap shows no catch fencing so they would likely need to spend some big $$$ on safety upgrades.
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Needs a slower corner to OT
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I would want to re try the meadowlands street course instead
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I would live to see it — otherwise, just go back to Pocono or Watkins Glen
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Agreed. Watkins Glen in particular already has the infrastructure to host Indycar and has done so before. To me, it's the most logical choice if they want to add an East Coast road course.
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I wish - It's been tried and tried again, but no one show up.
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Watkins glen is too isolated. East coasters have too much to do. Add a travel day or two to race events and you start to lose people in the east real fast. Give them something close to NYC or Boston and you may get a crowd. I'd love to see the proposed F1 course used that was in Wehawkin NJ.
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I really think we are unlikely to see NASCAR play ball on road courses in the future. I’d kind of like to see Indycar start buying up tracks, tbh.
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NASCAR just isn’t going to pay Indycar a sanctioning fee to race at their tracks, but have said they are open to Indycar renting the track and handling marketing and promotion on their own (like Iowa).The business model has changed, and it will be interesting to see how Indycar adapts.
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That’s why Indy needs to buy more tracks. Sure no sanctioning fee, but you get the whole gate. Plus some really great tracks out there could use some infrastructural love.
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For Watkins Glen, why would they play ball when they had to let IndyCar out of the rental contract they had with them a year early due to how bad the first two races did?
That's really the only course they own that is viable for indycar.
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Plus the ovals. And I guess I also lump SMI in with NASCAR for Sonoma.
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Was there a month ago. Track itself is fine but rather small. Facilities are whats lacking unless you use the facilities of both tracks together. Id say no just because the tracks are small and facilities arent that good. Fun track to drive on though
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Millville NJ is the middle of nowhere and the area absolutely sucks
they also have 2 tracks, im not sure which one would be better.
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Neither track seems like it would be all that interesting for Indycars. I went there to watch an SCCA weekend on the Thunderbolt track a few years back and it was pretty cool for club racing, but I don’t think either track would lend itself to anything higher tier than club racing. I know Grand Am ran there on Thunderbolt a while ago, back when Grand Am was a thing, but I don’t remember how it was tbh.
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I race lemons there, hard to imagine Indy going around
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There’s a reason only USF 2000 and Indy Pro 2000 race there. The facility isn’t big enough from a safety or facilities perspective for bigger, faster cars like IndyCars
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It could fill a gap, the problem is that’s it’s pretty much in the middle of nowhere. I’m pretty close to it in terms of mileage but it will still take an hour to get there.
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Iowa is really in the middle of nowhere, and I don’t see people complaining about it.
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I mean, the track is on its 4th owner and was basically shut down due to it being a money pit. Not the best example.
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Are you talking about Iowa or Jersey. Iowa has been a money pit for sure, mostly because the fans didn’t show up after the second season. I don’t really know anything about this track in New Jersey.
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Iowa. its in the middle of nowhere and fans complained by not showing up after the first few.
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No
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I think it could work, but they'd probably need to upgrade the safety measures at the track, as well as potentially add seating. It would be interesting to try, for sure, but it wouldn't be #1 on my list of east-coast tracks to add.
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NJMP needs serious upgrades for it to host IndyCar safely, otherwise it's not a viable venue. What sucks is that RFK Stadium in D.C. had its own street circuit that would have been a perfect East Coast venue, but noise complaints kept it from being considered by major series after 2002 and much of it got converted into parkland and practice fields a couple years ago
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Washington DC was nice, but they totally botched the noise abatement and it was a weird feeling walking through a very poor part of DC (via Metro) to see the highest end cars race….
New Hampshire did poorly (but it can put on good Indy racing). A street course is out because of the Boston debacle…. Maybe if Penske bought into ISC or SMI and NASCAR wanted to play ball things could happen…
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It’s, for the lack of a better term, a shithole. I’ve heard drivers and spectators alike aren’t particularly fond of it. Facilities are severely lacking.
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When I was there last (about 15 years ago, lol) it was very lacking in infrastructure for a major series. It's also kind of narrow as I recall.
Wasn't it built about 15 years ago?
Around that, yes. We were there for two days of open testing and it was new then