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phantomlord
03-06-2006, 05:11 AM
any updates on the yaphank proposal.

phantomlord
03-06-2006, 05:16 AM
I would like to know if the proposal is still possible.
I haven't read any news lately.

W. J.
03-06-2006, 11:16 AM
There is another proposal which might interest Go-Karters. It's about a company which wants to build a 2 go kart tracks in Calverton. Here's the link to the Newsday story.

www.newsday.com/business/local/newyork/ny-offlead4646643mar02,0,1122310.story

It looks interesting, to say the least. Let's hope this happens, too! :)

CIN
03-06-2006, 02:23 PM
JUST RECEIVED THIS EMAIL THIS MORNING:

Isle's on fast track
NASCAR & kart racing in the works

BY MICHAEL WHITE

DAILY NEWS WRITER


Bring back Long Island's auto racing past, say motor racing fans like Marty Himes (below), who runs the Himes Museum of Motor Racing Nostalgia.

The storied Vanderbilt Motor Parkway that weaves through Long Island begat dozens of racetracks in Nassau and Suffolk counties - venues that have since disappeared.

But the area's affinity for auto racing never faded. More than 20 years since tracks such as Freeport Stadium, Islip Speedway and Center Moriches' New York National Dragway made way for housing and development, a new undercurrent of motor sports is creeping across the island.

"What's going on now is definitely needed," said Marty Himes, 66, who runs the Himes Museum of Motor Racing Nostalgia. "In its heyday, 10,000 people at Islip Speedway on any given night was nothing. The place was mobbed."

A Massachussetts-based company believes it could start construction on a F1-style high-speed motorized kart racing complex in Calverton by late spring.

An indoor go-kart race track is in the works for Islip.

And the granddaddy, a sprawling NASCAR racetrack and entertainment complex, might soon be considered for some 250 acres of county land in Yaphank near the Long Island Expressway.

"Any type of racing is good," said Himes, who was a Freeport Stadium regular as a youngster. "You gotta get the kids off the street and give them something to do. Housing and rising property values killed everything here."

Top Gun Sports and Entertainment Inc., a local company behind the NASCAR in Yaphank idea, would like to see Long Island surpass its former glory in the auto-racing world.

"For NASCAR, there's a huge fan base, nationally and locally," said Bill Corbitt, spokesman for Top Gun Sports. "Long Island has a long and distinguished history in motor sports and we would like to make it part of the future for Long Island as well.

"The goal is to bring nationally recognized events here - something along the lines of the Belmont Stakes."

In the meantime, F1 Long Island hopes to start racing high-speed karts in August. Company officials said the karts reach speeds of up to 75 mph, and races on the 1-mile track would last up to an hour, with pit stops and pit crews.

Marc Leibowitz, F1 Long Island's chief executive, said the high-speed kart racing adds a new dimension to family fun.

"As a soccer dad, I could take my kids to watch them play, but with this, I could actually participate in the sport," he said, adding that karting is a great family hobby.

Guy Frost, 72, considered the F1 track as an extension of Long Island's auto racing past."This is going to be a new venue and a new approach to motor sports. And it will attract the same kind of people."

Frost said Vanderbilt introduced international racing to the U.S. in the early 20th century, and it is only fitting that a motor sports presence be felt here again.

Speaking from his Bay Shore museum, Himes was giddy as he recalled Long Island's golden years of auto racing in the 1950s and 1960s, when there were 40 tracks in operation.

"If you showed up at Islip for the 8 p.m. races on a Saturday night later than 6 p.m - forget about it, you were standing. And we had four major raceways operating at once.

"Anyone who was anyone came through Long Island," he said

Weatherwd
03-25-2006, 09:11 AM
F1 Long Island has a website up and running : http://www.f1longisland.com/

The proposed go kart racing facility is to be on Edwards Avenue in Calverton
Show your support for kart racing on Long Island by filling out the petition.

I recently spoke to one of the principals of the project and there is a very good possibility of incorporating a 1/5th mile Oval Track into their design if there is enough interest!! Remember the "Good Old Days" of Westhampton and Medford Raceways? Poughkeepsie on Long Island, perhaps?

Be sure to mention an oval track in the Comment box on the petition
Thanks,
Bob Petersen