Official: Firebird International Raceway closing april 2013

[BobOrme]

Originally Posted by aspen7709

Just got E-mail from Stepahanie at Firebird. The National WILL be held Feb 22-24 2013. This will be the last one in the current facility til further notice. I have also heard 2 different rumors on the tracks future. One being leveled and turned into a Grand Hotel and resort to compliment the casino. The other is that the tribe may renovate it and reopen it as their own. (They want ALL the revenue not just lease money). More updates to follow as I get them. My work place is a major program sponsor so they want us in the loop. I got the national event poster but I cant resize it to post it yet.

Kenny Newsome 7709 ?/sa stock eliminator

The tribe taking over the track and running it as their own would be an interesting twist and something I'd think the tribe has taken or should take into consideration. The drag strip is not the only revenue source on that large piece of property. Firebird Lake is used for boat racing and Bondurant has their road course racing school there too. I think hotel/casino expansion could be accomplished on existing tribal land close to the current casino without leveling or closing any of the racing facilities.

There are always risks involved when building and operating a business on leased land. I know of three national event drag strips that are on leased land - Firebird, Pomona and Heartland Park Topeka. Heartland Park is probably the safest of the three as far as longevity of use is concerned. The land is owned by the city of Topeka and they know how much residual revenue is generated by racing through racers and fans spending money in their city. I've read that the Topeka NHRA national event alone injects somewhere around $8 million into the city. The local businesses love that, and the city really likes their cut collected in sales taxes

[Albert Lee]

Does anyone have a factual update on racing in Lake Havasu City, AZ?

Al

[Tim Kish]

Originally Posted by Albert Lee

Does anyone have a factual update on racing in Lake Havasu City, AZ?

Al

My grandmother lives in Havasu and continually gives me updates from whats in the paper there. She said the site for the potential track has moved from Sara Park out to the other side of town near the airport. Said that there has been activity in that area with earth moving equipment leveling the site.

[Jeff Lee]

1st I've heard of this...any more info?

[Greg Barsamian]

They were running ASA trucks & Bondurant Road Course cars there on Saturday using the 1/4 mile as a straightaway.

There was construction equipment in the area around the Casino on I-10!
I asked a few spectators about the closure, no-one there had heard anything?

Cars, Boats, Bikes, You name it, the facility is AWESOME!
Hopefully it will remain a racing complex

[z28kid]

I'm in an organization that hosts the ASA speedtruck races and we are waiting just like everyone else on the news.

only people that really know whats going on are people who are working on it directly. I see everything else are rumors and gossip.

P.s I was at the event in Oct. we ran "mondo" configuration. First time for ASA to run that configuration.
Just last weekend an Off Road group was running over on the east track area. NASA was running main, Proauto was running West and this weekend Drag boats

If you guys would like more details check out proautosports. Lets hope FIR stays open

[Philip Saran]

My first house was one offramp away from OCIR in Irvine, CA back in the late 70's.

Yes I could hear the funny cars coming off the line on a Saturday night, but I enjoyed
it. Was sad to see it go and have business's built on the land.

The track was seperated from the Marine Base by a chain link fence and a set of
railroad tracks.

[Stock726]

Official press release from Team Firebird site:

http://www.teamfirebird.com/News.aspx?a=154