Sad day in NJ with the closing of Englishtown Raceway park
 

So sad this had to happen.

Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, the Napp family owned and operated business
announced today a reorganization of the company’s business operations. To achieve this
goal, Raceway Park will no longer conduct quarter mile or eighth mile drag racing events
effective immediately. Raceway Park will retain and use the “stadium” portion of the
facility including the VIP hospitality tower and grandstands and continue most of its
operations including the spring and fall auto swap meets, numerous car shows, both
motocross racing and practice, kart racing, as well as drifting, a full schedule of road
course activities, mud runs, monster truck shows, musical concerts, & festival events and
more. The long standing Old Bridge Township Airport, owned and operated by Raceway
Park will also continue to operate as normal.

Terrible. I wish they'd change the name. It will never be Raceway Park again.

Wonder what the real deal is. They already had the summer nationals on the schedule for this year.
Seems strange to do this now. Why not wait until the scheduled dates are over. Alot of heritage at that place. What a shame. Glad to hear they are going to have festivals and concerts though. NOT!!

So they're dumping the quarter mile track for something else?

Bet the noise complaints from houses that were built after the strip did them in. What a shame.

Quick update from the day: the owners allegedly signed a USD 75M, 15 year lease with Copart. The track will become home to wholesale car sales/junkyard.

what a shame i used to take my cars there to run. I was even thinking about taking the new SS this spring. I always liked it a lot better than Atco.

When I would read articles from tests at E-town, didn't they require certain decibel limits in the burn out box, so every one had to run mufflers? Except at big NHRA events. The noise deal seems like it's been an issue there for last 10-15 years it seems. That's what killed KCIR, houses went up around the track.

Gonna miss Raceway Park!

Yea this is a shame. My dad raced here in the late 60's and I wanted to take my Camaro here this summer.

Now its going to be a rental yard for storage and crap.

At least we can go and drift our Camaro's if we wanted too

I for one rarely went there for racing or events... Ultimately their issues were pretty simple.

1. The neighbors were fed up with the noise, traffic and people.
2. The city was under pressure from the neighbors, the county and state to do something with the noise and traffic.
3. The funds to keep fighting fines, lawsuits and legislation got to the point that it made no sense

They wisely found a compromise that allows them to use the road course, motocross and event features. I suspect they will be able to have private track days but no more drag nights and NHRA type events. The question is can they pack a schedule thats financially viable at this point. Frankly it seems inevitable that they will have to close and sell the land, developers will pay handsomely for the property. Too many expensive homes and land surround them. They're literally in folks backyards, who wants to have a weekend cookout and deal with the traffic/noise. Or on some random week night hear cars racing till 10 or 11pm? Sucks but the residential development around them was what created this issue.

I have fond memories from back in the 1980’s. Had my 1985 IROC-Z automatic. Used to do the Wednesday nights time trials, followed up with some good ol drag racing on sundays. Drove all the way down to the track, down the GSP from Rockland County. The rule was “nothing under 90”. How I never got a ticket, never broke down...what a skillful and lucky time! Still ha e trophies in my Dads attic ive been meaning to snag. Fast forward 30 years to now, and the situation with Raceway Park seems not to be isolated. They closed down so many dragsteip out here in California, I’d have to drive 100 miles to find one. BIG SIGH...

Next year on local New Jersey news station they will be crying about all the street racing going on.

Idiots.

Ughh no. While the residential complaints sucked that's not what closed the strip. A huge $75 million lease from Copart for the land did it....so all of this BS about the local residents winning, the township putting pressure on the track is exactly that...BS. It was all about the $$$.