Turner Field is dead
Posted: Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:50 pm
Friends and Family of S 2:
Well it's official, Drifting at Turner Field is Dead. Our efforts to save it fell on deaf ears with the City Council and the Mayor of Atlanta. We fought a tough fight. The petition had around 10,000 signatures with over 400 signatures being from city of Atlanta residents. We attended city council meetings and were given 2 minutes to speak after sitting for 2 hours while they gave awards to old people for being old and did the photo op thing. Nothing against old people ( I intend to be one some day, lol ), but they could have given us more time to speak. Kelly, John and myself did everything in our resources that we could do but we lost the battle.
Turner Field was fun, we had a good 8 years of drifting there but it's time to move on.
The new plans:
I have several things in the works to keep drifting alive in Georgia.
1) Long Term - I have talked to Donnie Clack of Lanier National Speedway. We are getting estimates on tearing down the inner walls and buildings and paving the entire infield. This will leave the banking and provide a flat surface in the middle. Watch FD events from Wall New Jersey to see what we can do with that. Multiple course layouts for beginners and advanced drivers can be laid out simply by moving cones. More on this later as it develops.
2) I have contacted Atlanta Dragway to see if their lot is available. The parking lot ( not the drag strip )is over 1/4 mile in length and over 300' wide. This is actually an upgrade from Turner's useable area of 800' x 275'. They have several open weekends on their schedule and I am trying to get some dates locked in.
3) I have also contacted Atlanta Motor Speedway to see what areas of the property can be had at an affordable cost. The media area is kind of small and the road course we used 3 years ago is OK but not great. The legends area and front stretch looks like it may be pretty good but I have never drifted it.
4) Way down south is a place called South Georgia Motor Sports Park. It's one hour past Cordele, ( Cordele is not even being considered). The SGMP lot is huge. The 3.5 hour trip from Atlanta may be worth it if we can do 4th gear entry's. The lot is over 2000' long. I would like to find a place closer to home but still do 2 events there per year.
So this is what I have so far. There are a couple of non track places I am trying to get contact information on and I will let you know what develops.
Some of you purchased season passes earlier this year. E mail me if you would like a pro rated refund or if you would like to see what venues open up for us. (howards609@att.net)
Thanks for your patience while we deal with the low blow dealt to us by the City of Atlanta ( and remember this come election time ).
Howard Smith and the S 2 Staff
Well it's official, Drifting at Turner Field is Dead. Our efforts to save it fell on deaf ears with the City Council and the Mayor of Atlanta. We fought a tough fight. The petition had around 10,000 signatures with over 400 signatures being from city of Atlanta residents. We attended city council meetings and were given 2 minutes to speak after sitting for 2 hours while they gave awards to old people for being old and did the photo op thing. Nothing against old people ( I intend to be one some day, lol ), but they could have given us more time to speak. Kelly, John and myself did everything in our resources that we could do but we lost the battle.
Turner Field was fun, we had a good 8 years of drifting there but it's time to move on.
The new plans:
I have several things in the works to keep drifting alive in Georgia.
1) Long Term - I have talked to Donnie Clack of Lanier National Speedway. We are getting estimates on tearing down the inner walls and buildings and paving the entire infield. This will leave the banking and provide a flat surface in the middle. Watch FD events from Wall New Jersey to see what we can do with that. Multiple course layouts for beginners and advanced drivers can be laid out simply by moving cones. More on this later as it develops.
2) I have contacted Atlanta Dragway to see if their lot is available. The parking lot ( not the drag strip )is over 1/4 mile in length and over 300' wide. This is actually an upgrade from Turner's useable area of 800' x 275'. They have several open weekends on their schedule and I am trying to get some dates locked in.
3) I have also contacted Atlanta Motor Speedway to see what areas of the property can be had at an affordable cost. The media area is kind of small and the road course we used 3 years ago is OK but not great. The legends area and front stretch looks like it may be pretty good but I have never drifted it.
4) Way down south is a place called South Georgia Motor Sports Park. It's one hour past Cordele, ( Cordele is not even being considered). The SGMP lot is huge. The 3.5 hour trip from Atlanta may be worth it if we can do 4th gear entry's. The lot is over 2000' long. I would like to find a place closer to home but still do 2 events there per year.
So this is what I have so far. There are a couple of non track places I am trying to get contact information on and I will let you know what develops.
Some of you purchased season passes earlier this year. E mail me if you would like a pro rated refund or if you would like to see what venues open up for us. (howards609@att.net)
Thanks for your patience while we deal with the low blow dealt to us by the City of Atlanta ( and remember this come election time ).
Howard Smith and the S 2 Staff
