Looks like another track has bit the dust! I've been going to Capitol Raceway for the last 25-30 years, it's only about 20-25 minutes from my house. Yesterday, it was 66 degrees here and I started wondering when Capitol would be opening this year. It can't hurt to know even if I'm not quite ready! So I called their Raceline to listen to the recording so I would know when to try to be ready. I got the "The number you are calling is no longer in service" message! What?!?! Well, I thought...maybe they haven't picked a start date yet so the Raceline isn't in operation yet. Seemed reasonable enough to me but I was curious. So I went to their website and found this message that they had posted on Facebook about a month ago! (I don't do FB) This didn't completely convince me so I made a call to a close friend who works there. She confirmed it for me. They're done! It wasn't because of environmental concerns or noise problems. It wasn't because of complaining neighbors. It wasn't because the county had shut them down for a zoning or code violation either. It was all about MONEY!! I'm still kind of in shock... Here's a link to the website where I found the message posted above: http://capitolraceway.com
Hate to hear about things like this, we ate loosing 1 bear us to, I never went here much as it was getting pretty run down, but has been open 60 years or so.........they had other issue from their location.......they were outside ofvthe town, and then the town grew around them......but they were not able to put up any new buildings or bathroom in even if they wanted too. And the actual track owner wasnt willing to put money into it, they wanted the renters to put all the money into it with no guarantee of lease extensions.......no one in their right minds would do that https://mountvernonnews.com/local-news/2019/10/11/pacemakers-closing-its-gates/
Say it ain't so Phil!!! I've been going there on and off for 40 years! Sounds like it is in a coma but not dead yet....maybe new management will come in and revive it make it better than it was....
You're right Bruce, it's not dead yet. At least it hasn't been sold and set to go under the bulldozer. From what I understand it's the same old argument. The track owner wants more money from the operation and the manager wants the owner to spend more fixing up the track. If a new manager does come in it likely won't happen this year. Guess I'll spend more time at Cecil, Mason Dixon and MIR.
That's a bummer. I used to live down the road from 75-80 Dragway before that one closed. I'd get home from work on Fridays and hear the OPS cars running down there so I'd have to get my GTO and head down there and run it too. We'd hit Capitol sometimes too. I guess there's still MIR and Cecil - and Mason-Dixon too. Capitol seemed like it was a pretty consistent track - I always ran best times at Cecil though.
When did Capital open ? I remember racing there in the early 60's with my 56 Buick and my 50 chevy with a 56 322 Nailhead . I think Cecil County open 1964 , I raced my 65 Riviera GS and my 67 GS 400 there for years . Bill
If its a viable option, and enough people were interested, form a Track Owners Association LLC. and just buy the place. That would take a lot of dedication and personal cash and involvement, but hell, you can make yer own rules. Stranger things have happened. Got 500 local guys that would invest 1000.00 each? https://www.google.com/maps/place/C...d0bd12dd5aeb0bc6!8m2!3d39.0297319!4d-76.69959
Cecil is just over an hour away, but probably $30-40 in tolls dragging a trailer. No tolls heading to MIR but it's a little farther; probably make it in 90 minutes. I haven't checked the distance to US 13 but it's usually almost 2 hours for me to get just about anywhere in Delaware. Mason Dixon is probably about 90 minutes too.... None of them are really that far but definitely farther than Capitol.
Yeah I grew up racing a capital. Then I moved to Phoenix and then move back east again and was looking forward to running down there once or twice. But I will be spending most my time at Mason Dixon since that’s only about 40 minutes away for me
