NASCAR's Abandoned Street Racing Plans: The Left-Right Series
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- Опубліковано 13 сер 2020
- For 1987, NASCAR had a plan to be racing on street courses in specially built cars. What went wrong? We trace the idea, context, and downfall of NASCAR's highly ambitious L-R Series.
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Narrated by Brock Beard
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The original Pontiac LR car is no longer a mystery. It was turned into a Winston show car and lengthened to 110" by JKS and currently wears a 95 Monte Carlo body!
Wow, great info!
I would love to know what happened to the Laughlin racing product prototype that Bobby Allison commissioned to have built
"Street racing" in the purest sense of the word (racing on actual streets) is, as many said in this video, an absolute headache to schedule and divert traffic. I have instead preferred the "street races" that use massive parking lots around arenas and airport run ways. More room, you can be more creative with track layout, and you don't piss off the entire city by being there because you're out of the way.
Monaco seems to pull it off yearly.
@@WALTERBROADDUS because their residents aren't the typical 9-to-5ers who's in hurry all the time, plus the Monaco GP is already established long before Monaco become a tourist spot / millionaire's playground.
@@WALTERBROADDUS Monaco has been doing it for decades and the local government treats it as their crown jewel sports event. The layout itself hasn't changed for decades and the local population loves the event both for the money it brings in and for the prestige having the crown jewel of F1.
Here in Australia we have five street circuits (adelade, New Castle, townsvile, Melbourne gp and gold Coast, well and bathurst too if you want to include it) and they are some of the marquee events of our much loved supercars series. It's a shame that nascar never had a street race (well technically they did here in Australia at the gold coast's indy event in the 90s but it was just an exhibition race) because I think it would've been really cool.
@@basingold3651 Even then, Adelaide, Townsville and Melbourne are 90% purpose built, even the Gold Coast is mostly purpose built.
I mean... That weight, near-perfect weight distribution, 600 horsepower, this thing would have been an absolute weapon on track!
Wouldn't have been far from IMSA/GTO cars of the time either. I feel like outside the South, there would have been competition for that kind of racing. They would have stepped out of their niche and would be competing with bigger race series. If NASCAR had smaller payouts vs IMSA/GTO, it wouldve been hard to retain talented drivers if their skillset easily translated to IMSA. Purely from a car aspect though, these LR cars wouldve been absolutely badass.
That Buick was visibly faster.
@@RidinDirtyRollinBurnouts When Allison took the L-R car to the Daytona 24 it qualified pretty decently in class, about 5 seconds off the GTO pole sitting time of the Merkur XR4Ti
Forget NASCAR, I want one just for a track toy, haha.
I wouldnt call it a weapon but it would be pretty quick. I understand that this is the 80s we are talking about but there is no downforce.
That's so crazy that back in the 80's we almost had the Roval and Street courses on the schedule.
Just imagine if Riverside was not taken off the schedule, and everyone in Moreno Valley decided to accept the raceway and not build a shopping mall on top of its remains
And then only a few years later realized they needed a track and wanted to build a copy-paste Riverside only a few miles out lol
Ha. “That’s the corporations taking over the sport, you don’t want that...” yeah. Look where you are now.
I laughed when Squier said that ...that fox was well in the henhouse when he said that
Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal had a good run with the Busch/Nationwide/Xfinity series races. Although I guess that track might only be technically a street circuit.
Yes we need Canada back. Completely agree
Nascar tried to bring cup series to Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. But Circuit Gilles Villeneuve wanted the cup series to race the same as F1 & start racing @ 9am.
I still say Robby Gordon got dicked out of a win there.
@Ethan Weeter It's not just a fun F1 track. It's the best track on schedule (aside from maybe Spa).
It's what you'd call a "parkland circuit" 70 years ago. Like the Melbourne F1 track, or the old Crystal Palace circuit. It's streets, but streets with grass and trees and open areas around them.
Based on this and your other video:
80s: Street course boom
90s: Cookie cutter oval boom
Every car you mentioned--especially the Sunbird--sent a shiver up my spine. I was a manager at a rental car agency when those were were new and keeping them together and running was a freaking nightmare...
I had a Chevy Corsica of the same era and it was plagued with gremlins smh
@@jerwatson79, pronounced "Course I Can't". GM was just embarking on the path to post-warranty major failure at the time; they are now experts. Ford and Fiat(gag)/Chrysler have long since caught up...of course, Fiat was ahead of the game to begin with.
I want a road course on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland. It's such a cool place to hold a race.
Caitlyn jenner winnning the 12 hours of sebring is not the timeline crossover i expected, pretty damn cool.
Careful, he/she might run you over...
I actually caught that but paid no heed to it. Could've been someone else of the same name, idk.
Before the days of Kardashians and transitioning to a female, Bruce was a known professional race car driver around the 1980s.
Won't be surprised if she would ever return to the Mustang IMSA GTO car.
@@mahiru20ten Wow I did not know that, that's crazy.
@@AlanNadeauIII Believe it or not, there were actually 2 drivers racing under the name Bruce Jenner in sports car racing in 1986 here in the United States. Thankfully, they all but never competed against each other (the other one was from South Africa and primarily did Trans-Am in a turbocharged Porsche 944). The Jenner with Roush Racing was Caitlyn.
The Australian Supercars series is run partially on street courses, but it's pretty NASCAR-esque.
EDIT: Added “partially” because they still mainly run on permanent tracks.
@@tintin5428 Adelaide, Melbourne, Newcastle, Townsville, Gold Coast and technically Bathurst are street courses. that's nearly half of the schedule
Same phenomenon applies - for every circuit that lasts and creates an institution, there are multiple failures. Ironically the two that have lasted decades - Adelaide and Surfers Paradise - were actually created as open-wheel events and then taken over by V8 Supercars. They also had the advantage of established markets - Adelaide and Surfers had both recently lost permanent circuits, so the fans were hungry. Take out those two and the only track that looks like it's bucking the trend is Townsville; Newcastle is too early to call; and as for Hamilton, Canberra and Homebush... except for that wild finale in 2010, does anyone even remember them?
@@danesorensen1775 Hamilton was great, it just didn't have the established market, Canberra was more of a fault for it's own design than not having a market, and Homebush just wasn't a good track.
Newcastle is a great designed track and is here to stay.
Love Supercars. In my mind it is the direction that NASCAR should've gone in. Like a fatter touring car but monstrously v8 powered.
The PS2 Nascar Games Have Street Courses
Ideal street courses:
Long Beach (California)
The Gold Coast (Australia)
Exhibition Place, Toronto (Canada)
Adelaide (Australia)
Burke-Lakefront Airport, Cleveland (Ohio)
Cleveland is the most likely here.
NASCAR machines are too heavy and their brakes and cornering aren't good enough, as is shown at the Roval.
Stick the Aussie V8s round any of them, however...
@@Ramtamtama Gen 7 could solve that
Can we get a History video on the NASCAR Pintys Series? I’d loved that
I hadn't seen that clip of the Buick that Bobby tested before - he was absolutely throwing that thing into the turns! Would've been great to see a full field of them.
NASCAR had many good ideas over the years, but always chose the bad ones to implement
I want to argue, but I can’t 😂
Like the cring, super fake, obviously scripted Jussie Wallace car pushing and crybaby theatrics at Talladega.
@Elite Soulfly "They think higher speed=better racing"
Dude, have you been paying attention to NASCAR at all the past two years? They've been lowering the horsepower all to hell at the 1.5 mile tracks. And as for a strictly stock series, I think it'd be a cool novelty, but as a replacement to the current cup series? Nah. Maybe it could become what the truck series was originally intended to be, but there is no way that NASCAR is going to or should replace the Cup Series cars with strictly stock ones. It would piss off the newer fans, and while you may say that the majority of NASCAR's fans are old diehards, what about when those diehards are all gone? Then what? Strictly stock cars would be awesome to see in a sanctioned NASCAR race, but it should never, EVER replace the Cup series. I just think that it wouldn't be that good of an investment.
@Evan Price yikes
@@brendanyoung4041 I don't GAF if I'm banned from Big Tech. wouldn't be the first time, so I don't hold back telling the truth. I was glad when that usual 20th at best pansy wrecked out with his hate group sponsor, BLM. He belongs in the Cup series about as much as Quin Houff.
Very cool video! Thank you for the upload! My dad started taking me to Riverside in 1973 when I was 7. That track was perfect-very fast turns 1 and 2, perfectly shaped "esses," a bitchen uphill right handed turn 6, an off-camber turn 8, an almost one mile straightaway, and a big sweeping right handed turn 9. It got me hooked on the good old boys leaning back and forth through the esses. Petty's Charger, Allison's Coca Cola 12 Chevelle, Pearson's (Wood's) 21 Mercury, Yarborough's (Junior's) 11, Waltrip's 88, and Parson's 72. Jimmy Insolo from out here. You could walk wherever and see them at different parts of the track. The only other time you saw them on TV back then, was on Wide World of sports in short segments at Daytona and Darlington. As I got older, I realized that it was Riverside that made the experience so AWESOME! Riverside's closing was so sad for me (at 23) that I didn't follow NASCAR as closely. I am proud Sonoma was assigned it's spot in June on the calendar-keeping that spot in California, but it isn't as fast a track as Riverside was. There are many great American road courses that NASCAR could visit-Road America, Mid Ohio, VIR, Brainerd, Atlanta and others, as well as Bowmanville (Canada). They should give each track ONE date only (except for maybe Daytona) and mix in some road courses. Bring back North Wilkesboro and Rockingham and try and do a third each-super speedways, short tracks, and road courses. The money grubbing speedway conglomerates will stand in the way, but hey, I can dream. Street races are too "forced." Long Beach is an exception because of its awesome location. God I miss Riverside. Nice bit of history, thank you!
I always wondered what nascar would be like at Laguna Seca
Lot and lots of crashes, those heavy cars are not meant for high-speed hairpin turns.
Id still watch it
It’s a blast in project cars 2
A lot like NASCAR at Sears Point, only with a lot of yokals complaining about the noise.
I'm going to guess that street course logistics are a lot harder now than they were then. Higher populations in your desirable metro areas, more people/events displaced, more permits, more money needed, and that inconvenience factor creeps higher and higher with every turn. And, frankly...there are enough purpose-built road courses with good racer and fan accommodations that you don't need to be considering novel street-circuit options. The street circuits that endure are the ones with significant historical value (St. Pete, Exhibition Place in Toronto).
Look at the trouble they went through trying to get a street race in Boston. Even in a largely-industrial area that wasn't going to be a massive disruption, and ignoring the financial mismanagement that spelled the event's doom, you still had the issues of track design and fan access, plus the NIMBY factors like the person who petitioned against it saying the race would "endorse illegal street racing" (wish I were making that up). I still wish they'd have done it, because that would have been a cool experience.
Jeff Brown , if they're going to do street racing , let's make sure BLM and ANTIFA are out there protesting first .
1995: It would ruin the sport. 2021: Good, for green energy with hybrids.
@Jeff Kopis If Biden, Kamala Harris wins NASCAR will go green and autonomous. Think robots. Domi argiato Mr. Roboto.
Street races require undeveloped lots for the paddock, grandstands, hospitality tents, and such. American cities had plenty of those in the aftermath of post-WWII suburban flight; today, they’ve all been replaced with high-rises.
@@fishflake1209Airport runways and stadium parking lots seem likely.
The Gen 7 with the even bodies and 6 gears will be a perfect fit for road racing. I say yes
Wait, they’re gonna be a 6 speed? I knew they were going seq., but I didn’t know it was a 6...
@@lukebreadstick6562 They are heavily based on the Australian Supercars, so Road Course Races will be basically insanely good.
Not sure about the ovals though.
@@Dexter037S4 They've done extensive testing for oval racing with the gen 7.
They are still too heavy.
So I finally get to see this and im like blown away at how little I know the history of nascar and I been watching nascar racing since 1987...always glad to dig up more history and appreciate this video you put together...ironically, on this (today) Iracing made an announcement to do a virtual street race in Chicago on June 2nd. SO, is this the prelude to actual future events??? ...its amazing how things come to full circle. Only time will tell...
Honestly, I would love more road courses. Sometimes it gets boring to see the same cars go around an oval...
We need more road courses and street courses!!
No
Man Ned Jarret looked good back then
Steve Byrnes (RIP) looked super young there too
I adore Road Course races! I believe I heard that NASCAR is trying to do a street race in the future.
But how about Airport Racing? Those are extremely underrated!
THIS TOO!
Absolutely endless space, huge straights to stretch the cars' legs, room for sweeping corners, and the ring roads of airports have long been known of by the British to produce some absolutely amazing racing (see: Goodwood Motor Circuit, Silverstone). It is long past time for us Americans to get in on this.
Mitchell-Wallis Force Cleveland Airport comes to mind ;)
@@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT What a marvelous idea...
Mitchell-Wallis Force I’m sure there are other airports they are racetrack worthy
@@IanTheMotorsportsMan_YT Sebring already exists, just putting that out there.
Passed by Scott Pruett and w h o m s t?
That's something I didn't know lmao
I had to listen to that part again too! I had no idea
I frantically started googling to make sure I wasnt hearing it wrong.
Yep, watch the Willy T Ribbs documentary.
Jenner was a pretty handy driver in endurance races, usually run by Jack Roush.
@@canon1753 Seen more than a few people hoping for Jenner to give it a shot again. It'd be amazing to see....and it might piss off a bunch of people.
I'd love to see them run on street courses. The problem is the cars don't turn sharp like Indy, F1, touring series etc.
The best would be to see Cleveland airport circuit with NASCAR.
No the are just like Australian Super Cars only with lower tech and they turn left and right on all their circuits. NASCAR could of saved itself by embracing Super Car style of racing and also meant their cars would of been closer to actual street cars, and not scratch built go carts.
I always liked the Indy race on the old Cleveland airport
Anyone here from the Chicago Street Circuit iRacing announcement?
Also EA actually toyed with the idea of street tracks in their NASCAR games, like the Walmart Raceway.
I've seen the Winston/ All-Star field do a "lap" behind the pace car in uptown (downtown) Charlotte, NC and the sound, echoing off the buildings, was pretty awesome even at the slow speed they were doing. .... For anyone who knows Charlotte, they used to come south down Tryon St, left on to Stonewall, and then left and up College St.
Wish they did this instead of the 1.5 cookie cutters
Yeah, see if there's any skill amongst these yahoos. Any idiot can drive a 1.5 mile oval course.
The tracks aren't the problem. The cars are the problem.
Thanks for posting this. I was watching the 86 cup race from Watkins Glen and they were mentioning the LR series. As a side note, I've been to Watkins Glen several times for the cup race and watching those cars on a road course is really fun. It's great to see those heavy cars thrown around.
Hell yeah!! Would love to see street racing in NASCAR..
I agree with Ken Squire... I have been to the street race in Detroit both as an F1 and Indycar race in downtown and Bel Isle.. you cannot see anything but roof tops and roof hoops going by and yes, it does resemble a minimum security prison with the walls, fencing and barbed wire.
I love the content and style of video! Keep up the good work!
Imagine a nascar race in time square during the lock down. Citys already shutdown, the engines screaming and bouncing off the buildings, people watching from their windows. Would be quite the sight, but that ship has sailed.
Here after the first ever NASCAR Street Course race in Chicago maybe they were on to something in the 80s we will see what comes of it in the future
If NASCAR wants to race in temporary tracks, they should consider large areas like stadium parking lots and airport runways like the one in Cleveland. You can hold a race in Houston and race set a circuit up in NRG park. Indycar used to race there but NASCAR might to make some adjustments to accommodate their cars.
My dream street course race would go right by my house so I wouldn’t have to buy a ticket
I love the idea of NASCAR runing more road courses and maybe a street course. With todays car technology and that next gen car almost finshed being developed. I dont think that there would be a need for a "Purpose Built" race car. This new car will fo well Im sure. Great video
If only they hadn't scrapped the idea, it would've been so cool to see NASCAR stock cars racing on the street!
Check out pinty series.its Canadian and dodge participates
@@headsetlucky13 Dodge only participates due to the fact that it's run by it's Canadian division, not the company itself.
Cup cars at Laguna Seca would be amazing
I'd love to see NASCAR Race at Belle isle in Detroit
Racing on Belle Isle is absurd. They take *months* to setup and tear down the track, doing so in a season when you get to experience the first warm days in spring after living through six months of cold, grey weather. They shut down sections of the island, not to mention the noise and air pollution affecting what is a highly popular spot for migratory wildlife.
Move that shit back downtown or (before Amazon announced their plans) put it at the old State Fairgrounds at 8 Mile and Woodward. Racing on Belle Isle shows nothing of the "rebirth" of downtown Detroit. Downtown has plenty of varied turns, wide-ass streets (Fort, Michigan, Woodward, Grand River, Gratiot) and you could even close off sections of freeways to allow for some high-speed racing.
I love the look of those L-R cars. If someone would make an actual “street legal” version, that would be awesome.
Check out old Trans-Am and IMSA GTO
Run at the circuit of the Americas. Beautiful track great access for fans. it's a permanent track won't upset locals by turning their town into a temporary track. And we get some L/R racing.
Honestly Laguna Sega wouldn't be a bad choice either
5 road Courses per year seem likes a good number - Sears Point, Road America, Watkins Glen, Charlotte Roval, Daytona RC
Hard to believe that was 35 years ago today. 2 astronauts from North Carolina died on that space shuttle.
Firstly: That Allison car looks tremendous.
I generally don't like the idea of street races. I feel like there are too many good purpose-built courses that Cup doesn't run at to justify setting up street races.
Mid-Ohio, Road America are 2 that should really get added
This too. Off the top of my head, there's Road Atlanta, VIR, the extremely underrated Homestead road course, and some-fucking-how, Circuit of the Americas.
Until they're well on their way to making it so that 1/4 of the schedule is road courses, street tracks shouldn't be on the radar.
@@mitchell-wallisforce7859 I'm not sure COTA would make a good stock car course. Even the shortened layout has too many turns that are greater than 90 degrees. Looking at the layout there would be around 5, I think, on the shortened and 6 on the regular. I'm not sure that stock cars would particularly work on that style of track. I'm not saying it can't work but I feel like that course was pretty much designed as a high downforce track (since it was for F1) and won't play well with stock cars.
I'd like to see a race on Laguna Seca but that is just because I think it'd be interesting to watch them do the corkscrew. Realistically I'd like to see the Pocono weekend be one on the triangle and one on a road course variant. But I'd really just like to see more variety in any schedule because I feel like too many tracks are the same basic layout. I like the Charlotte Roval because it is different and this weekend's Daytona Road Course fascinates me. However, if you brought back North Wilkesboro and did a Bristol Night Race on a Friday and then over to North Wilkesboro on a Sunday I'd be all for that as well.
I think that, of the road course circuits on lower schedules, I'd choose Road America to be brought up to cup first. I would say Mid-Ohio (being my home track and all) but I think that Road America would be the best choice, as it has provided a lot of decent races and it probably has the historical value of any lower series road course (excluding the Indy road course, maybe).
@@johnsmithton292 It isn't very good. The V-8 Supercars have run there in the past and it wasn't much fun to watch.
Houston needs a street race. We have two to choose from or come up with another. Houston is the largest US city without a Nascar track nearby
As a Houstonian, I suggest either the runways at Ellington Airfield near the Space Center or the NRG Stadium/Astrodome parking area.
ainahko16 Ellington would be bad ass but limited
@@demented_cycles The Johnson Space Center 500. They can use mission control to give the command to start the engines. And the winner of the race will win a moon rock or an astronaut's helmet.
Dream street race?... I guess the only one that I'd love to see is probably Interstate 127 from the Michigan Ohio Border all the way to 75 to the Bride but thats not even a real good idea in practice its just a dream
The Indy cars were supposed to do a street race in Boston a few years back. I'm pretty sure the entire thing was an investment scam but the track they proposed around the WTC and convention centers looked pretty awesome.
Yea thankfully Watkins Glen got a race out of that situation
Investment scam?! I want to know more about that, did the city pre pay for the race or something and the race league took off with the money?
@@youngrobinx6156 I don't have a lot of information around it, but a guy I work with apparently had a monetary interest in getting that race to Boston, and he felt screwed by the whole thing. Might be a cool story to look into.
The Saint Petersburg street course has always been a favorite but I wish the Tampa Bay Grand Prix street course at the Florida State Fairgrounds was still around. I'd like to see some L-R cars on that course in the 80s.
What a great video and I never heard of this L R program. Yes bring Nascar steert race in my home town. I know that would never happen but it would be cool
As usual, Ken Squire got it right!
Good stuff!
My dream is for a race at Cleveland Airport
This is a cool history I knew nothing about! Would be nice to see them run a couple of street courses. Even if just exhibition races. Pinty's Series does a couple of street courses and they are always a blast to watch.
With the Music City Grand Prix this year, I think if NASCAR was to ever do a Street circuit, they’d ride off the coattails of Indy, if the race proves successful. Which, considering it’s sold well, as may be the only hope.
Dream street track.... Send them down under to bathurst. The ultimate street track. Fast, committed and makes Senoma look like its flat.
If nascar were to ever run a street course they need to talk to Aussie supercars. If any championship makes street tracks work its them. They have a good record of making them work and being profitable.
We need a whole Aussie month where they do Bathurst, Albert Park, Adelaide, and Phillip Island
@@Greenslime300 Calder Park
There’s is rumor we could see street racing in 2021. I love to see a NASCAR street race
But with Corona and noone knowing if and where they can race in front of fans next year, i doubt it to happen.
If there are gonna be street races, I don't think it's gonna be 2021. With the nightmare of preparations and rerouting traffic, plus the worries about the coronavirus and the late planning-time, I don't think there's gonna be any street races next year. If there is, it would've had to begun in planning months ago and the public just hasn't been told yet.
Besides, I don't know if I really want a street course. The problems with the track being too narrow and being impossible to pass is bad enough with F1 and Indycar. I don't think it's gonna be any better, if not worse with 1 3/4 ton stock cars. Unless they went back to Circuit Gilles Villinueve. That would be awesome.
GP3R is really the perfect track to test a new car on, it's tight, fast has elevation changes, etc.
Great video love the odd history of american motorsport!!! Keep up with the content
Ive followed NASCAR since about '88 and never even heard of the L+R series until now. Hindsight and all, they would of been better off buying out or commandeering the Winston West series or similar and maybe slightly modifying those cars instead.
Street circuits are good IF they're designed right.
If you look at Formula E, that has good racing. The tracks are primarily too narrow for NASCAR, but they fit the Formula E cars perfectly.
For NASCAR, you'd need a circuit in a city with wide roads. It'd also need to have a variety of corners as opposed to just 90 degree ones. The grid layout of many American cities doesn't particularly lend itself to that.
They'd most likely have to take place in cities that already have annual races in other series, and have NASCAR there either the week before or after to minimise disruption.
But I don't think you could use a Cup car on those circuits. Just by looking at the Roval 400, you can see that they don't lend themselves well to corners. Because of the weight of the cars, and the wheelbase, the braking zones are too long and the cornering speeds too low. You'd need to bring in regulations similar to the Aussie Supercars which, thankfully (for NASCAR), are all Ford Mustangs and Holden Commodores (Buick Regals in the US, but I'm sure they could be rebadged as a Chevvy).
I wouldn't mind seeing an Aussie V8 at Long Beach if I'm honest
I've mapped out an I375 I 75 street course in down town Detroit. I still think it would be awesome to see.
What was then called Winston West ran the same full size cars & rules as Winston Cup. They ran a number of road courses including street races. One of them in Spokane, Washington, included a tunnel & bridge crossing which they ran without problem.
The Nascar races on the street circuit at Surfers Paradise in the 90's were Awesome. They run as a support category for IndyCar (cart).
Long Beach Grand Prix? That would be awesome.
@@SamnissArandeen . Australia
Have you ever looked at the period when they tried the V6 engine formula in the Busch series?
I love this channel.
A short Winston-issued VHS actually prided on NASCAR not having street courses (although it does say "Left turn only" at one point, ignoring road courses).
Awesome video liked 👍🏁🏆
Wow! I can't believe I never knew this!? I say get rid of the Xfinity series and replace it with a street series. That way everyone would be happy. Have a street series for street fans, still have the trucks for fans of dirt and short tracks if trucks could get more dirt tracks and then of course the Nascar series for fans of pit strategy and long runs. How perfect would htat be in today's market. It would bring fans of all racing together. Unfortunately Nascar will only do things for their corporate sponsers, however Nascar has been shaking things up this year despite the lockdown double headers would've still taken place along with mid week races so I give them props for that. I think Nascar would grow fast in a street racing market
One correction: the 2002 ALMS race in Washington, DC was not a street course. IMSA built a road course in the outer parking lots of RFK Stadium hoping it would become a thing, but the course was right next to a residential neighborhood. Complete disaster. The course is now a training area for the DC Police Department.
We raced Street courses in the Australian NASCAR Championship in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1999, as the support for the Indy Car Grand Prix on the Gold Coast in Queensland Australia.
I’m from the South and have NASCAR in my blood, but as a young person the internet let me transition that into a love of virtually all racing. What NASCAR needs to do is create a formula for something the manufacturers could make, and sell, to the public ATTAINABLY. The equivalent of a RWD Focus ST. I’d race primarily on purpose built road courses and maybe a few good street tracks, whatever. They could have a more “open” rule book to encourage experimentation with hybrids and turbo motors. Just cap the price.
I want NASCAR to come back to Spokane. To run on the street, I mean. I was born in '89 and I hear stories of when the West Series ran here, and I think it would be cool! It would be a nice addition to Hoopfest and Bloomsday. We need to somehow rekindle pride in this town.
I still remember the TransAm race in Minneapolis. It was actually a fundraiser for a Children’s charity. Possibly the Children’s Hospital itself.
I would like a road course like in Cleveland with the airport runways
Nascar needs to get their head out of the sand. I wanna watch some exhibition races. Let's go to laguna seca. Let's go to Sebring. Pay the drivers 20k to show up and insure the cars for the teams and throw it on espn
American Stock Car racing needs to ramp it up with more actual tracks, and maybe save the Super Speedways for big events, like Daytona, Talladega, and Brickyard.
Can you even imagine racing a Pontiac sunbird with a v8 stuffed down into it? Thing would be a rocket. Itd make the heavy rule laden stock cars seem like boats.
'78 and '79 had a 305 V8 as an option.
my dream street course would be something like Seaside Street Galaxy , with its diverse range of scenery ranging from built up metropolitan areas to open countryside to port docks, iconic landmarks such as the suspension bridge, as well as a mix of technical turns and elevation changes
The SCCA did this with Trans Am back in 1980 and IMSA did it with the Kelly cars as well. Tube frame, lighter weight, bit less power and more tire. They SHOULD have called the companies that built cars for said series at the time. Peerless, Dillon, R&S, etc..
4:21 woah woah woah! They had a Roval before the Roval?! 🤯
Yep sure did, IMSA had races there in the 70s and 80s and a few other sports car series raced there as well I believe
I think its always existed, look at Google Earth. no idea when it was created
Marcus Smith said that he looked out the window and said "...wait a minute!"
I'd like to see Nascar do 8-10 road courses, 4 Super Speedways, 10 regular speedways, 10 short tracks, and 2-4 dirt tracks. The road courses aren't as in-person spectator-friendly as tracks, so I doubt they'll add many.
You would think that would be the major reason for NASCAR to hold off
and Bowman Gray
Ultimate street course would be around 4-9 miles long of winding country roads that start on Main Street of a small to medium sized town. Have it held in historic bootlegger locations and have it be a big throwback speed weeks festival.
"Shedding the Southern image and going national" wouldn't have sat very well with the sport's longtime core audience; however, sometimes there's just Band-Aids you need to rip off. We did it in the 90s with the cookie cutter oval boom, and now look at us.
My dream street race would be to return to the Seattle area and race around the Tacoma Dome again, if not one winding around the Space Needle. That is, if NASCAR doesn't want to go the Roadkill route and do a dirt race at DirtFish
Both pls
As someone who lives in Toronto I'd kind of like to see a Truck on the Exhibition street course but I'd prefer the Cup cars at Mosport (Canadian tire whatever)
Now over 30 years after they first proposed the idea, the Cup Series will be racing at Road America this year along with COTA in Austin.
I've always wanted to see a Nascar street race. Had no idea they were ever this serious about it. If I had the magic wand they would run a race at St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, Florida already has a thousand races a year on the Nascar calendar, so I think that would diminish the chances.
would be very nice of NASCAR raced cup cars in Tacoma,WA again !
They ran indycar and stock cars on the streets of Halifax, Canada back in the early 90s. The track was great as there's a massive hill that overlooks it, providing great viewing and it was a semi-narrow street track with decent elevation change, which makes things a little more interesting than Long Beach, CA which is quite flat.
No matter what nascar does, nascar will be nascar.
If you have a search for Australian NASCAR and AUSCAR, When those series' was around, They raced at Surfers Paradise and Bathurst
To me it's more fun to watch heavy stock cars slip and slid around a road course when they are not really designed to race on a road course. Nascar isn't a road course series so 2-3 is all they should have. Add more short tracks. BTW you should do a video about JD Stacy.
So close to getting a cup race in Portland, yet so far.
Street races or not, I’d kill for an all road course series
They gotta find a way to get the cup cars on RA, its the perfect track for big power. Sears Points my home track, and I love the rhythmic nature of it, but man would it be fun watching them out at the big track
It's also cool to hear someone else refer to the top series as the "Winston Cup Series." Some people tend to forget that it was ever called that.
There are a pair of 1987 NASCARs, a Ford and a Chevy, available on iRacing. They could run their own L-R series if they wanted to.
I think it's worth a go to do some street track races. Stock cars tend to produce good racing on road courses, and the constant wrecking mentioned at Los Angeles is the sort of thing that would be celebrated today.
I do want to stress, however, that NASCAR should try and get some events at road courses that are established and known quantities, and on the same weekend as other race series that run at that track. For example, they ought to try and strike a deal to run at Belle Isle or St. Petersburg during their events at those circuits. No sense in risking it on an unproven track layout.
Then there's also S1apSh0es's idea to build any new tracks around football stadium carparks and stuff. In addition to being able to be more creative with track layout and not pissing off the locals by getting in the way, there's also the shared fanbase - lots of NASCAR nuts are also football fans (handegg football, not ACTUAL FOOTball). There might be a reasonable turnout for the races.