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Raysox's Racetrack Restoration


raysox

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A while ago, of all places, North Wilkesboro Speedway was trending on facebook. It was because this video of a guy flying his drone over the dilapidated speedway surfaced.
The track was one of those good ol' tracks in the south that hosted NASCAR events since the beginning, but got pushed out of the sport due to not being in a major market. My dad went to the last Winston Cup race there, in 1996. The track would probably need millions put into it to even host anything, let alone the top racing series in the country.
But I'm coming to the rescue! The track lies pretty close to the other true short tracks of Bristol and Martinsville. My thinking is that nostalgia would be the driving force into restoration. Many drivers think that more tracks like this should be put on the schedule, so here's my attempt to make it.
So North Wilkesboro is outside a small town of the same name. There isn't much of a population, but neither does Bristol and Martinsville. The track lies right next to some houses and a highway. There isn't much parking, so that would be the biggest thing. There is space, so a ramp from the highway and pedestrian bridges from a massive parking lot on the other side of the highway would be two things that would help the track.
The track itself may need to be scrapped. It needs new stands, to be weeded, and paved. But the somewhat flat track still remains. My plans is to keep the track the same, and build around it. The walls are old, and would need to be replaced. Since the incident at Daytona with Kyle Busch, I made sure every inch of wall that could be hit from the track was protected. The walls would also be painted like the old days, red and white stripes to add to the nostalgia. The infield would be completely paved and have a garage for teams, a media building, and a tunnel leading outside, where the haulers would be. My thinking was to make the inner buildings one story for sight lines. The tunnel would be somewhat shallow, since only cars, and emergency vehicles would have to go through. The haulers take up a lot of space, and would have more space for 3 series to run at in a weekend. The tunnel would also make the stands go completely around, and no wall would have to be temporary. Outside the track, they would repave over all the empty areas for easy walking capability.

Now to the stands. I designed this after a football stadium. The current covers about 3/4ths of the bottom bowl. I would raise it up, then complete it around. Raising it helps the fans get out through tunnels under the stands leading to the outside. There would also be a walkway on top of the stands that more people could walk around, or head up to their 2nd deck seats. There would be ramps to the ground level near the press boxes that tower over the stands. I put a big video board on the end zone, so there wouldn't need to be several. There would be advertisements behind the end zones to keep the sound in for the surrounding area too, and for highway advertisement for tickets. Finally, I put a lot of solar panels because I think renewable energy should be put into any new stadium built.

I made the initial plans a month ago, but I finally finished the master plan, and thought everyone would love to see just how this turned out.
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The track would need to be torn down and completely reconstructed.

But, if you build it; will they come? I mean all Rockingham needed was SAFER barriers, but they had a brief stint on the Camping World Truck Series.

I feel like North Wilkesboro would be comfortable either right after the Martinsville race in April or right after the Bristol Day race (now in April) and before the race weekend in Richmond.

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Well done! Anyone who brings up the argument that this track is in the middle of nowhere has no argument at all. As it's been mentioned before, Martinsville, Bristol, hell even Talladega are in the boonies. Upgrade the facilities, which with this track, means everything from the parking to the grandstands as everything is falling apart, and you have a place they could go back to. It's already owned by Bruton Smith, so it's not like it's a track that has outside owners that NASCAR is used to. I've said many times before, if somehow I was able to win the lottery, I'd pay for the repairs myself and get the track back to functioning status again, but lord knows that won't happen. I'd love to see you do some other tracks, maybe a reinvisioned version of Riverside in California.

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Thanks for the comments! The thing that got me about this track that it's still there but covered in weeds and dust. Tracks like Ontario and Riverside are like, malls by now. I did make a super speedway a few months ago if anyone wants to search Oklahoma Speedway.

But it hard to believe that no one has been able to really make any improvements since 1996. Even then, make a Saturday night racing series, or get ARCA and Whelen Modified series to race there.

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Very nice, raysox. I like the football stadium feel of it. Bristol offers that somewhat, but not quite like this concept.

Have you ever noticed how Bristol is asymmetrical? That was one thing I really wanted to make sure was different. NWB probably couldn't host a football game, just because of the tunnel, but Bowman Gray sure could!
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Wow...great thread concept. People have made up fictional tracks but I don't recall seeing anyone rehabilitate a former track on here before.

That flyover video was cool too.

NWB probably could not host a football game, but some Monster Jam shows would work well inside and on that track. I've been to a speedway monster truck show (Hagerstown, MD) and it works.

Extra revenue...large concerts too with that "closeness" that this track offers..

Thought of another...Carolina Hurricanes host the Winter Classic in here? :D

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  • 1 month later...

Thought of another...Carolina Hurricanes host the Winter Classic in here? :D

I mean, they couldn't with the tunnel, but luckily I just got rid of it!The tunnel wason a side that didn't have too much room outside the track, so I was going to flip it completely(because you'd have to completely redo the track as it is so putting the start/finish line on the other side is no big deal), but decided to get rid of it. I felt like taking out a chunk of the seats and make a path for cars to get into the track using the flattest part.

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  • 5 weeks later...
So officially this will be part two of a new little series called Raysox's Racetrack Restorations! You've seen North Wilkesboro, and I'm gonna renovate some tracks on the computer to get some ideas done. I joke with my roommate, who is a huge NASCAR fan, that when we graduate we'll team up using his business major and my sport management major and get into the speedway business


So if you follow NASCAR, you'll know that the series schedule is packed with cookie cutter mile and a half tracks. They're decent racing, but about a third of the schedule is these tracks. Outside of Charlotte Motor Speedway, they all popped up or were renovated in the 1990s. It was a renaissance of crap, basically. In 2001, in the Nashville suburb of Lebanon, a 1.333 mile track was built. It sets itself apart from other tracks. For one, it has a concrete surface. It is also smaller than other mile and a half. The track hosted some minor league racing series over it's history, but in 2011 it shut down. Now I believe that if promoted right, any thing could be successful. So here is what I would do if/when I bought Nashville Speedway.


The track would be the same, there's nothing wrong with that. I believe NASCAR could make strides in the Nashville market, but what the track needs is some fresh buildings and tender love. Right now, the main grandstand is very small, way below expectations they had for the track when they developed it. I would make it so there's no bad seat in the house. There'd be a wide, tall grandstand stretching from turn 4 to turn 1. The infield would be completely redone. From the tunnel leading into the track, there would be exits to a camper area, and the main garage. Much like Indianapolis, this road would make a small highway in and out of the track. The RV section would mold to the area not covered by the infield roadcourse, which I did not change.


The garage area was a cool idea I had. One giant building. Stretching the length of pit road, it would have two wings of garages to house touring series a few times a week. The haulers would park on one side, and with openings on both sides, it would give cars easy access to go to the trucks, or the track. There would also be a media tower even with the start finish line, overlooking the front stretch and victory lane. To compensate for the blocked view, two giant video boards would be erected over the garages so the fans could watch from their seat. On summer weekends, these boards would double as a movie screen, a way to fill the seats and promote the track on weeks the track doesn't have events. Another addition to the track would be a small quarter mile oval in the infield. The track is probably too big to host weekly events like North Wilkesboro, so a small track that would bring fans on Friday Nights would be ideal.


Outside the track, there would be parking inside and outside the ring. On the backstretch, many fans could park and walk to their seat, or take a shuttle to the front. There would also be lights that would light up the track for those weekly races, and NASCAR events. Finally, two big welcome signs in the shape of guitars would welcome fans to the track near the tunnel.


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I don't have anything to add, but it's a little strange not to see any seating on the backstretch, just because so many tracks at the Sprint Cup level have that. Though I don't follow that close so I could be wrong.

Not a request, but it seems like PPIR in Colorado Springs is along the lines with what you've done here. It'd be interesting to see what you could do with that.

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It really just depends, they'd rather sell out the front stretch seats than have a sparse crowd on two sides. Daytona is tearing down their back stands after the race this weekend. It really just depends. Nashville originally had plans for 150k seats but it never panned out.

Also PPIR and Gateway are two I want to play with

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