Last Year For Nazareth Speedway

[Dov]

http://dbserver.iscmotorsports.com/N...dway/index.cfm

Speedway to Discontinue Operations in 2005

"Earlier today our parent company, International Speedway Corporation, announced that it intends to realign Nazareth Speedway's NASCAR Busch and IRL IndyCar series events and will discontinue all spectator motorsports events at the end of the 2004 season.

"As President of Nazareth Speedway since 2000, I have strong personal ties with the surrounding communities. And, while we've been able to do some great things at the speedway, we haven't been able to achieve the level of support that is necessary to grow our business. I would like to recognize some local companies that have been wonderful partners of Nazareth Speedway over the years, including Air Products, Key Pontiac, Lehigh Valley Hospital, Martin Guitar, Pepsi and Service Electric. We certainly appreciate their endless support and for standing behind us over the years. Each of these companies is truly a leader in the Lehigh Valley business community. In addition, I would like to extend a special thank you to our other partners - Firestone, Goulds Pumps ITT Industries and General Motors - for being a part of the Nazareth Speedway family."

"Finally, I would like to thank the group of loyal fans that have stuck by Nazareth Speedway through the years as events have come and gone, through the snow and the sunshine. I hope that we will see you out at the Speedway for our two events in 2004, which will continue as planned - the NASCAR Busch Series Goulds Pumps ITT Industries 200 on May 22-23 and the Firestone Indy 225 IRL IndyCar Series weekend, August 27-29."

[macdaddy]

If I were a rich man, I'd buy the track and rent it to ChampCars for $1. They could use the rest of the money to promote the stink out of it.

[Snrub]

Yeah it produced some good races. It was a shame when CART stopped racing there and its a shame that it will no longer have any kind of racing.

[Liz]

It's too small and too far off the beaten track. But it's going to live on in our family as a metaphor: a long time ago is "when Nazareth was a dirt track." Lots of people don't know it ever was a dirt track. It actually made a good one.

[Jordi]

I did know it was a dirt track... it did produce some nice racing as an asphalted one as well. A shame that Nazareth is going and that clone 1'5 mile ovals are appearing everywhere.

[Omega99]

'Twas a good oval indeed.

[Amar7605]

Don't forget one other historical note about Nazareth: Mario and Aldo Andretti started their racing careers on the dirt track.

And we all know the rest of the story!

[BootsOntheSide]

This still doens't have much to do with ChampCars does it? This has been an IRL venue for several years now. All the same, a very sad loss it is, which has witnessed some great races.

[Liz]

AND a great snowstorm once ...

[macdaddy]

Ah yes... How could I have forgotten?
It would have been quite the interesting race, if they brought snowtires!

Boots... I don't think that this topic is necessarily in the wrong forum. Nazareth was host to fifteen CART events, as compared to two IRL. I too must be guilty, for how often I bring up MIS on this board...

[enemy-ace]

Slightly off-topic, but there is a great song by Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits fame called "Speedway at Nazareth"
Fictional but very CART!
Sad to see the end of Nazareth. This topic I think would have a home in this forum as well as the IRL and NASCAR ones. This isn't political just sad!

[macdaddy]

Thanks for the tip, enemy-ace. I've just listened to it.
From Mark Knopfler...

After two thousand came two thousand and one.
To be the new champions, we were there for to run.
From springtime in Arizona, ’til the fall in Monterey,
And the raceways were the battlefields and we fought ’em all the way.

Was at Phoenix in the morning, I had a wake-up call.
She went around without a warning, put me in the wall.
I drove Long Beach, California with three cracked vertebrae,
And we went on to Indianapolis Indiana in May.

Well the Brickyard’s there to crucify anyone who will not learn.
I climbed a mountain to qualify, I went flat throught the turns.
But I was down in the might-have-beens and an old pal good as died.
And I sat down in Gasoline Alley and I cried.

Well we were in at the kill again on the Milwaukee Mile.
And in June up in Michigan we were robbed at Belle Isle.
Then it was on to Portland Oregon for the G.I. Joe.
And I’d blown off almost everyone when I my motor let go.

New England, Ontario, we died in the dirt.
Those walls from Mid-Ohio to Toronto, they hurt.
So we came to Road America where we burned up at the lake.
But at the speedway at Nazareth I made no mistake.