Turner Field is dead
Moderators: charlie, andysapp, CodyW, Rhoad Racing
Turner Field is dead
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
Tires, Smoke em if you got em!
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Re: Turner Field is dead
Sorry to hear that, Howard. I have faith that you and your team will find a suitable replacement for Turner, though it will never be the same without it.
f00tography
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In our minds. In our reality. In our world we are QUEEN DUCHESS TEAPOT HABERDASHERY!! RULER OF ALL!! PARTY OF ONE!!!
fooschnicks: totally oawesome
fooschnicks: whatever that means
gregthore: oaseome
gregthore: without me it's just oaweso
gregthore: Eugene has a meagan muff
Re: Turner Field is dead
Onward and upward! Put those memories in the bank and make some new ones.
Tires, Smoke em if you got em!
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Re: Turner Field is dead
throw thomson in the mix too Howard.
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Re: Turner Field is dead
Talking with them today.down_shift wrote:throw thomson in the mix too Howard.
Tires, Smoke em if you got em!
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Re: Turner Field is dead
We've drifted at Atlanta Dragway once. The pavement started to come up. That was a long time ago and maybe they have fixed it since then.
You're doing a great job Howard!! We are lucky to have you working hard to keep us driving
You're doing a great job Howard!! We are lucky to have you working hard to keep us driving
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Re: Turner Field is dead
Byron and I were talking about locations and I brought up Gwinnett Fairgrounds, I know there was an event there before and they didn't like the tire marks on the pavement, but Byron mentioned that it's been repaved and the Fairgrounds is under new management. might be worth a shot.
Bikes, Meat, Drama, Meat, Gossip, Meat, Metal, Meat, Buttsex, Meat, Family and some Drifting.
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Turner Field is dead
Sorry to hear. I always wanted to drift turner field one day - you can literally feel the fun from the videos;)
All the best for a new venue. Hopefully you guys will find something soon!
Martin
All the best for a new venue. Hopefully you guys will find something soon!
Martin
Re: Turner Field is dead
Sad day but it's our own fault. We will improve our future events or suffer the same fate. Thanks for all your hard work Howard and I look forward to the next event in the Atlanta area.
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Re: Turner Field is dead
There's a neighborhood that's right there. Sucks cause I liked it thereGreg wrote:Byron and I were talking about locations and I brought up Gwinnett Fairgrounds, I know there was an event there before and they didn't like the tire marks on the pavement, but Byron mentioned that it's been repaved and the Fairgrounds is under new management. might be worth a shot.
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Re: Turner Field is dead
Well is that new bullshit bill amendment only for the city of Atlanta or all of GA? If only for "City of Atlanta" then there is a chance so worth a call to the new management at the least.
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Re: Turner Field is dead
just Atlantarevel wrote:Well is that new bullshit bill amendment only for the city of Atlanta or all of GA? If only for "City of Atlanta" then there is a chance so worth a call to the new management at the least.
unhinged......no, not really.
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Re: Turner Field is dead
We would get noise complaints. The houses are too close.
It would be better to find a venue where we don't need to worry about noise.
It would be better to find a venue where we don't need to worry about noise.
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Re: Turner Field is dead
If I remember right they used to hold autox there but got booted for noise from that same neighborhood.
f00tography
In our minds. In our reality. In our world we are QUEEN DUCHESS TEAPOT HABERDASHERY!! RULER OF ALL!! PARTY OF ONE!!!
fooschnicks: totally oawesome
fooschnicks: whatever that means
gregthore: oaseome
gregthore: without me it's just oaweso
gregthore: Eugene has a meagan muff
In our minds. In our reality. In our world we are QUEEN DUCHESS TEAPOT HABERDASHERY!! RULER OF ALL!! PARTY OF ONE!!!
fooschnicks: totally oawesome
fooschnicks: whatever that means
gregthore: oaseome
gregthore: without me it's just oaweso
gregthore: Eugene has a meagan muff
- revel
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- Joined: Wed Jul 28, 2004 6:00 pm
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Re: Turner Field is dead
why am i not suprised