The Speedway currently provides a home to Disney World's version of the Richard Petty Driving Experience, where visitors can drive or ride in professional racing stock cars and exotic sports cars, including Ferraris and Lamborghinis. The Richard Petty Driving Experience has been the primary tenant at the Speedway since 1997.
But the Speedway opened a year earlier, when it hosted the first race in the split that nearly destroyed IndyCar-style open wheel racing. The 1996 Indy 200 at Walt Disney World was the first race of the Indy Racing League, a breakaway series from the Championship Auto Racing Teams [CART] series that ran all IndyCar racing in the world, outside of the Indianapolis 500 itself. The owners of Indianapolis Motor Speedway decided to form the IRL to take control of the sport, but only managed to cripple it, as sponsors and fans soon fled to NASCAR and Formula 1 during the years when no-name drivers filled the field at Indianapolis and other IRL events.
For several years, the Tomorrowland Speedway at the Magic Kingdom was named the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway, with a small-scale replica of the scoring pylon from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, as part of the resort's deal with the owners of the IMS.
FWIW, Buzz Calkins won that first race in Orlando. No, no one remembers him. But the runner-up, a rookie named Tony Stewart, went on to do pretty well. The IRL ran four more races at the WDW Speedway, which fans nicknamed "The Mickyard," as a play on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway's nickname of "The Brickyard." CART eventually evolved into Champ Car, which merged back with the IRL in 2008 to form what is today's Verizon IndyCar Series. Its first race of the season will be in St. Petersburg next month.
According to the Disney resort, the Speedway grounds will be used for "transportation improvements." Could a parking lot expansion be on the way?
Update: Here's the statement from Petty:
Petty Holdings, operator of Richard Petty Driving Experience and Exotic Driving Experience, confirmed that starting July 1, they will no longer operate their experiences out of the Walt Disney World Speedway. Walt Disney World has plans to use the land to make transportation improvements.Tweet“Our main focus at this moment is taking care of our staff and preparing them for the upcoming transition,” said Petty Holdings Vice President Bill Scott. “Any reserved guests prior to July 1 will have the same fantastic experience that we have delivered since 1997 at Walt Disney World Speedway.”
Anyone booked after June 30 for Richard Petty Driving Experience or Exotic Driving Experience can call 1.800.237.3889 to reschedule their experience at any of their 14 locations nationwide – including the location at Daytona International Speedway. Petty Holdings currently has plans in process for exotics and stock car programs in Orlando.
KEEP FANTASYLAND OUT OF TOMORROWLAND!
I ran the WDW Marathon last year and the course went around the racetrack before connecting back to one of the backstage roads toward Animal Kingdom. It was a cool experience. There were locals with their classic cars parked on the track cheering the runners on. The only missed opportunity for Disney was to have a photo-op with Lightning McQueen along the track.
With the speedway going away, the changes coming to Disney Hollywood Studios park, and the construction of Avatar-land at AK, Rundisney's courses are definitely going to have some major course changes in the next couple of years.
Also worth mentioning, this speedway is also where Sam Schmidt had his testing accident that left him paralyzed. He has since gone on to be one of the most successful team owners in Indy Lights and quickly growing in success in VICS, and last year lapped IMS at 100 mph in a Corvette modified to be controlled by head movements. However, that remains another black mark upon WDW Speedway.
Though with Indycar trying to start its season earlier, and the international series not panning out, having a non-ISC or otherwise NASCAR-affiliated oval in Florida might have been nice.
Edit: just realized it was never upgraded with safer barriers. Upgrading the safety equipment and the infrastructure, not to mention he parking issues, wouldn't make it worth it.
One wonders if the WDW Speedway could have continued if it were located down by the Wide World of Sports complex. But having to devote the MK parking lot to raceday spectators instead of MK visitors pretty much doomed the speedway, as there just aren't any weekends anymore when almost no one visits the MK.
The track was built at a time when Disney Sports was looking to shape WDW as a sporting destination. By forming an alliance with the Indy Racing League (now IndyCar), Disney Sports could assist WDW resorts by helping sell hotel rooms during the traditional value season slump in late January.
Most of the drivers in the IRL at the time (1996-2000) were former CART drivers, and they enjoyed the WDW oval (which has bricks from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, aka "the Brickyard", embedded in the track, as the IMS was founder/promoter of the Indy 200).
Tony Stewart told me many times he thought the WDW oval was one of the toughest to drive: Turn 1 has a slight elevation drop to the apex, requiring a heavy load of downforce at the end of the main straight, leading to a tricky double-apex at Turn 2, then a short shot to a straightforward Turn 3. Some drivers, like Formula 1 veteran and Indy 500 champion Eddie Cheever, were big fans of the track, saying it drove like a road course.
I finally got a chance to drive the track myself in an Indy Racing Experience Indy car nine years after the last Indy car race there, and loved it. Also got to lap it, at speed, in the two-seater Indy car with IndyCar veteran and team owner Davey Hamilton. What an outstanding track.
I loved working that race. Stayed at the Poly and walked to the track every morning. The leisurely walks back to the Poly (and drinks at O'hana) in the evenings are cherished memories. The track will be missed by a lot of IndyCar fans.
Regarding the history of the sport as you report it, well, writing as someone who covered the IRL, also covered CART, I'll agree that the IRL/CART split was hard on the sport. But it can easily be argued it was necessary. CART failed in 2003, and CART's successor, the ChampCar World Series (CCWS), failed three years later - both victims of shoddy business models. The CCWS assets were acquired by the Indy Racing League in 2007 (often mistakenly termed a "merger" - CCWS teams had nowhere else to go). Had the IRL/IndyCar not been created, the flawed business models of the road racing-oriented CART/CCWS would predictably have ended open-wheel racing in North America for good by 2005. Having seen the financials, this is a sad truth.
For CART fans, the Walt Disney World oval was the Fort Sumter of the Indy car civil war. For IRL fans, it was the home of many treasured race and vacation memories, and will be remembered with great fondness.
Tom Beeler
RIS/Indianapolis
Alas, I would love to see them reroute traffic at the very least. My little dream scenario would be that they'd build a second Ticket & Transportation Center for a monorail that would go to DHS. I figure by the time that is built, along with the new monorail tracks, they might finally start building Star Wars Land. Ha!
My dreams of a monorail extension or addition will never come to pass, I'm guessing.
Rick Daniel
World wide, racing fans know that open wheel cars don't belong on ovals. The Indy 500 was always the only exception to that rule (from a world wide perspective). The only time ever that an oval race counted toward the F1 world championship was when the Indy 500 was included. American style sprint car racing is a completely different animal. It isn't and never really was a way to develop top level (CART/F1) open wheel talent. There hasn't been a genuine open wheel star the came out of American sprint car racing since the A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti era. Significantly, there hasn't been one since the split that was supposed to produce one either. So, the split did not need to happen and was the primary driver in destroying open wheel racing in America. The new league has not delivered improvements on even one of the "problems" it was proposed to "fix".
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