©1998 SpeedCenter Internet Publishing, Inc.
By Ed Svoboda, with photos by the author
The worst kept secret in Chicago became official today as officials from Sportman's Park, Target/Chip Ganassi Racing, and Andrew Craig of Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) announced the Chicago Motor Speedway at Sportman's Park. The renovated Sportman's Park will be the second dual purpose auto and horse racing facility in the country with the other being Dover Downs in Delaware. Ed Duffy, chief operating officer of the National Jockey Club (which owns Sportman's Park) said that he felt that the renovation "Presented the opportunity of creating something that would take the burden off of maintaining this facility with only horse racing". The renovation of Sportsman's will cost approximately $54.3 million dollars according to a study conducted by Coppers & Lybrand. The project will be funded totally with private dollars. The new facility will grow from it's present 11,000 seats to 67,000 seats during phase one of the project. The finished project will include a one mile oval and associated garages for auto racing, a 7/8 mile horse track, and new stables.
CART and the Sportman's entered into a five year agreement with the first race to be run on the one mile oval during the fall of 1999 and sponsored by Target Stores. Andrew Craig, CEO of CART, called Chicago "a great sports city" and said that he felt the track would be "fan friendly without a bad seat in the house". He went on to say that he was very glad CART is the "first to be in Chicago as the market hasn't received the attention it deserves." The Chicago area has seen many potential motorsports facilities never make it beyond the drawing board stage. Present initiatives in Plano, Kankakee, and an unknown location near the city appear to be at best stalled. Chicago Motor Speedway was built "especially for our cars", according to Craig. The track also hopes to host events from the NASCAR Busch Grand National and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Additionally, the track could be used for other motorsports related events including driving schools, auto fairs, vehicle testing, settings for television commercials, print advertisements, motion pictures, and car shows which could account for another 100 days of usage. The track is estimated to generate as much as $93.2 million dollars in total economic output annually.
Chip Ganassi, promoter/co-manager of the Chicago Motor Speedway, said this was an "exciting day" for him and for his team. Target/Chip Ganassi Racing has won the last two CART PPG Cups with drivers Jimmy Vasser in 1996 and Alex Zanardi in 1997. Ganassi speculated that the race distance would be between 200 and 225 miles in length in order to provide for a two hour television event. The track surface will be quite wide and have five degrees of banking in the turns. Vasser expects that "the track should allow for at least two distinct racing groves" which should provide for exciting side by side action. The qualifying times are expected to be in the twenty one second range with speeds approaching 190 miles an hour on the straightaway.
The track will be among the first in the U.S. to incorporate a "revolution in walls - energy absorbing walls", according to Vasser. The walls will consist of an outer layer that will be a hard plastic like material that upon impact of a car flexes so that the layer behind the plastic can absorb the energy of the impact without "grabbing the car". Behind that layer will be a somewhat traditional concrete barrier. "As drivers we are very pleased to see this", said Vasser. CART drivers have been very vocal over the last couple of seasons concerning the safety of traditional concrete walls. A variation of energy absorbing barriers have been in use at facilities such as Rio in Brazil and at many road courses. These barriers typically consist of multiple rows of tires cabled together and encased in nylon. The new walls would be the first to be a permanent part of the racing facility.
Construction on the Chicago Motor Speedway will begin July 1 and will be competed in August 1999. The renovation of the facility and the addition of auto racing will allow the track to upgrade it's horse racing facilities and to increase the quality of it's horse racing. Sportman's Park has plans to expand the seating to over 90,000 during phase II of the project. This would be the largest auto racing facility in the state of Illinois upon completion of phase II of development. Chicago Motorsports Speedway will be the third major motorsports complex to be completed in the state of Illinois in the last four years.
Source: All Things Svoboda
