Track History
The current oval and infield road course were built in 1996 on the site of a drag strip and road course facility which had been in operation for almost thirty years. The original tracks were built on swampland which emerged from Mississippi River bottom in the Great Earthquake of 1811.
St. Louis Raceway Park was an 1/8 mile drag strip built in 1967 by Wayne Meinert. In 1971 Meinert acquired more land, extended the strip to a quarter mile, and renamed it St. Louis International Speedway.
A 2.6-mile road course was constructed in 1985. The circuit was largely flat, with only a few small elevation changes, but the layout was unique; parts of the drag strip served as straights in two separate sections of the road course. The road course also crossed the drag strip deceleration zone at two points. The new circuit hosted a Trans Am Series race in 1985, Can-Am races in 1985 and 1986, and assorted SCCA regional and national events.
A 1/20 mile dirt oval also began operation in 1985. The name was changed to Gateway International Raceway in 1988.
In 1995 Chris Pook, promoter of the Formula 1 and CART races at Long Beach, with financial support from the state of Illinois, purchased the facility, demolished the old tracks, and began construction of the new oval, a new infield road course, and a new drag strip. The owner of Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis said it would cease all operations at the track on November 3, 2010.
Dover Motorsports Inc. said on their website that the track could no longer be operated with "an acceptable return."
The company previously announced that it would not seek to run any NASCAR Series events at the facility in 2011. The track ran its final NASCAR Nationwide Series event on Oct. 23, 2010.
The announcement was made Sept. 8, 2011, that the track would re-open in 2012, hosting an NHRA Full Throttle Series event under the leadership of St. Louis businessman and former professional racecar driver Curtis Francois.
See also the track history page at the official site, Closed Tracks at Midwest Motorsports Museum and track maps of the old and new facilities at North American Motorsports.
Read more about this topic: Gateway Motorsports Park
Famous quotes containing the words track and/or history:
“What is the use of going right over the old track again? There is an adder in the path which your own feet have worn. You must make tracks into the Unknown.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of medicine is the history of the unusual.”
—Robert M. Fresco, and Jack Arnold. Prof. Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll)