New Jersey Motorsports Park – Thunderbolt Raceway

[Nick]

I’m happy to see so much enthusiasm.



Two Points:



1. The ceremony has not been publicly announced and it is currently planned to be invitation only.



2. There isn’t much more to see than the pictures that I posted. Once there is more substantial progress, I can put together a private tour for anyone interested.


dmano wrote:

Nick wrote:

The earthmovers are busy. You can see Light Bulb turn and today they are cutting out the straight away. In the next few weeks, a ground breaking ceremony will be announced and held on 9/19/07. Current plan is to begin laying pavement in Oct or Nov provided it doesn't snow on Halloween and a Native American burial ground isn’t uncovered at start/finish. With a mild winter and a 6 month cure time, the entire track can be open in the summer of 2008.

We are in the process of selecting and securing the RTR dates!

How about the club doing a trip down to the ceremony to show our support of the track and the town. Would be good PR for the club and the track.

What do you think father Minkin

[Nick]

This afternoon, I did 3/4 of a lap on the Southern Road Circuit at New Jersey Motorsports Park; Thunderbolt Raceway.  This will be a 2.25 mile course, with 14 challenging turns and a one half mile straightway].

[Nick]

I took this pic to give you an idea of the elevation changes.

[Phokaioglaukos]

On an ATV? Dirt bike?

Seriously, I'm very excited to see dirt being moved. Any word on the paving material they plan to use? I trust they will not crown the road as Bill Scott did at Shenandoah, but will they use the trick new paving material for tracks as they did at Calabogie? How about the cool stuff they use on the Autobahn that lets water drain through the paving material?

[Nick]

When an earth mover gets stuck, 2 are hooked together in tandem using one as a pusher and the other as a puller.

[Tony356993]

Great shots Nick. If you can save all your shots, I would like to use them after the track is done as a photo time-line.

[Nick]

ATV??? Dirt bike???

RUF Porsche Twin Turbo CTR C4 with a lift kit

Phokaioglaukos wrote: [/b]

On an ATV? Dirt bike?

Seriously, I'm very excited to see dirt being moved. Any word on the paving material they plan to use? I trust they will not crown the road as Bill Scott did at Shenandoah, but will they use the trick new paving material for tracks as they did at Calabogie? How about the cool stuff they use on the Autobahn that lets water drain through the paving material?

[catchacab]

Nick,

Thanks for all the updates and pics.   I can't wait to have a great track in my back yard.

 

[Nick]

No problem, Tony. I go to the track regularly and save all my pictures.

I just tried to get on Thunderbolt but my wife still wants to baby our X5.

The focus is on Thunderbolt with Lightening lagging 2 months behind.

The progress is very impressive. There is so much heavy equipment, they are almost causing traffic jams! I saw 4 earth movers in line waiting to unload.

This dust bowl is a wide sweeping 180 degree turn with 15 degrees of banking.

Tony356993 wrote:

Great shots Nick. If you can save all your shots, I would like to use them after the track is done as a photo time-line.

[Phokaioglaukos]

Attached is a copy of the new track layout, shoing that the two courses will not initally be connected. It also appears that it would be hard to connect them at a later date. I wonder what that means for spectator events and also how popular the courses will be for club racing.