Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease

[Loco Vette]

Wanna PLAY!



Neeeeomage that's not a 5 hour drive from my place would be AWESOME!

[snide]

[Mike Mercury]

that would be great !

[MrWhan]

I think it would be great. However, there is some local opposition (additional noise, traffic, etc). But that is a sparsely populated area of Oak Ridge.

If it goes the way the "downtown revitalization" is going it will either take forever or will only be a portion of what the big design is with the main track, restaurants, shopping, kids area, and outdoor park, in addition to several smaller tracks/configuration.

The area was built to attract industry with ties to Oak Ridge National Laboratory but nothing has materialized.

This would be something unique that would draw people in whether it be for the motorsports or the entertainment.

Fingers crossed. "Let's go racing boyz."

[simpleman68]

That would be killer!
Scott

[ZipZap]

Originally Posted by MrWhan

I think it would be great. However, there is some local opposition (additional noise, traffic, etc). But that is a sparsely populated area of Oak Ridge.

If it goes the way the "downtown revitalization" is going it will either take forever or will only be a portion of what the big design is with the main track, restaurants, shopping, kids area, and outdoor park, in addition to several smaller tracks/configuration.

The area was built to attract industry with ties to Oak Ridge National Laboratory but nothing has materialized.

This would be something unique that would draw people in whether it be for the motorsports or the entertainment.

Fingers crossed. "Let's go racing boyz."

NIMBY is always strong. The town where I moved from in Cali has been trying to get a Top Golf location built for over 5 years. The town where I now live in CO went from start to finish in under 1 year.

Always nice to see more racing venues, as the sport does not seem to be appealing to the younger folks. If they try it, I'm pretty sure they'd be sold...

[Loco Vette]

Originally Posted by ZipZap

NIMBY is always strong.

Our industrial development guy refers to the local NIMBYs as CAVE people - Citizens Against Virtually Everything

[Craig]

We've already got Road Atlanta and Atlanta Motorsports Park. This would make three road race tracks within fifty(?) miles of each other; is there enough demand to support another site?

[ZipZap]

Originally Posted by Craig

We've already got Road Atlanta and Atlanta Motorsports Park. This would make three road race tracks within fifty(?) miles of each other; is there enough demand to support another site?

When I lived in VA, I had more than that within 3 hours. The trick is to multi-purpose the facility. Summit Point was a central training location for the .gov in both driving and combat. Dominion moved south and now is doing concerts, oval, drags, road course. I'm hoping the business plan includes other activities than racing, and from the description, it sounds like it does

[Loco Vette]

Originally Posted by Craig

We've already got Road Atlanta and Atlanta Motorsports Park. This would make three road race tracks within fifty(?) miles of each other; is there enough demand to support another site?

Oak Ridge is a lot farther than 50 miles from either of those two.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by Loco Vette

Oak Ridge is a lot farther than 50 miles from either of those two.

It’s also a lot farther from Atlanta or any other civilization. Who’s their customer? (Other than you)?

I’m not apposed, I’m just not sure how it financially works.

[MrWhan]

Oak Ridge is near Knoxville. Roughly 3 hours to Road Atlanta and 3 hours to NCM Motorsports in Bowling Green.

More detail here:
https://www.oakridger.com/story/busi...7th4N-H4xMdnYc

"“The core business plan includes, circuit rental such as High Performance Driver Education events, Advanced Driver School, B2B Third Party Rentals and B2C Driving Experience. It also includes karting track rental, including karting school, B2C Karting Experience, B2C Third Party Rental. Another source is real estate, including garages, karting and car storage, villas and condos, trackside lots and motorcoach and paddock hookups,” according to the release.

More than 40,000 visitors are projected to use ORMP in year one and that number will reach 67,000 by year five, the news release stated. A visitor is defined as a user of the park, it does not include guests of visitors. Additionally, memberships are projected to be at 77 in year one and exceed 400 total by year five.

“The market suggests ORMP will support 170 events in year one — this includes High Performance Driving Education events like Chin Track Days, to corporate team building events, karting school, automotive OEM track rental,” the release stated. Shannon Harper, president of Harper Auto Square has confirmed he will use the ORMP for Harper’s Porsche Driver Experience events, the news release stated. In year five, ORMP is projected to host 321 events."

I remain cautiously optimistic.

[Craig]

I see on the map where it is now, about 150 miles North of AMSP. In any event, it gives North GA and TN folks another convenient choice for track time.

[Loco Vette]

Originally Posted by MrWhan

Shannon Harper, president of Harper Auto Square has confirmed he will use the ORMP for Harper’s Porsche Driver Experience events, the news release stated. In year five, ORMP is projected to host 321 events."

I know Shannon Harper and Kevin Clayton personally and they both have a lot on the ball.

Originally Posted by MrWhan

I remain cautiously optimistic.

Me too.

[MrWhan]

Oak Ridge, Tenn.-- Rusty Bittle, developer and founding partner of the Oak Ridge Motorsports Park, announced a new location for the Oak Ridge Motorsports Park (ORMP). After more than a year of discussions between the City of Oak Ridge, Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board and the U.S. Department of Energy, Bittle decided to relocate the project to another East Tennessee community that offers more attractive options for the project.

“An East Tennessee motorsports park is a legacy project for me,” said Bittle. “The State of Tennessee has a reputation for automotive excellence, we are leading the way on advanced transportation technologies like electric vehicles, lightweight composites and artificial intelligence. A motorsports park will help the state and host community build an international reputation for next generation transportation technologies and become a tourism destination for automotive enthusiasts.”

After initiating the project 18 months ago with the Oak Ridge Industrial Development Board (IDB), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) completing an Environmental Assessment of the development site at the Horizon Center, as well as the City of Oak Ridge drafting a new zoning district to accommodate the special needs of the project; the U.S. Department of Energy sent a letter to the IDB last week that outlined next steps. The letter explained if the land uses at The Horizon Center changed from the agreed upon uses in 2003 between the City of Oak Ridge and DOE (manufacturing and processing plants, research and development, warehousing and wholesaling facilities, public or semipublic uses, offices and services industries), the IDB or ultimately ORMP would be responsible for the costs associated with the required Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and mitigation. A “motorsports park” was not explicitly noted as a use, therefore an EIS would be required for the project to proceed. The additional testing could cost an excess of $7M and take an upwards of 3-4 years, with no guarantees that final approval would be received.

“I prayed about it,” said Bittle. “It was a tough decision because the thousands of people that have supported the project and wanted it to be in Oak Ridge have become my friends. I am excited about potential new locations and I think our supporters and motorsports enthusiasts from around the country will be too. I look forward to sharing specific details very soon.”

The new locations under review are “shovel ready,” meaning the host communities have zoning in place to accommodate Bittle’s motorsports park concept, and 300+ acre parcels of contiguous property unencumbered by governmental bureaucracy.

[ZipZap]

.gov FTMFW! Some GS-11 jackass no doubt

[Bill]

Bart On The Road (2 of 2) - YouTube

[Loco Vette]

#(;*´¡<|Ω`¡¥￦*/ fidjwjers!

[Dr. Jacoby]

Weird how there are new tracks being built. There is a road course going in central Missouri. Seems like a ton of tracks have gone under in the last couple years, hope these new ones stick around.

[JetMechZ16]

Biden will be doing an EO concerning these new tracks. Electric vehicles only.