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Pitt-aRace facility, formerly BeaveRun https://www.jalopnik.com/2196744/raceways-around-country-closing-what-can-save-them/

Can Anything Be Done To Save The Raceways Closing Around The Country?
BY-aBRAD BROWNELL JUNE 24, 2026 12:25 PM EST

Wikimedia Commons
Western Pennsylvania's famed Pitt-aRace facility, formerly BeaveRun, was
a fixture of professional and amateur motorsports calendars for 24
years, right up until it closed to the public last October. This is just
one recent track closure that exemplifies decades of legendary
automotive temples of speed shutting down. America invented hot rodding,
and revolutionized motorsport, but we're losing some of the most
important sites of technological innovation and enthusiastic diversion
at a rapid pace over the last few years.

In a $50 million deal to buy Pitt Race, Wampum I, LLC became the new
owner of the facility and presumes to convert the track into yet another massive data center. What once was a paragon of humanity, a playground
built purely for the emotional dedication to the temple of go-fast, has
been deconstructed for the purposes of moving around ones and zeroes. Motorsport is about more than just setting a fast lap time or winning races;-ait's about human-to-human interaction, camaraderie, and community building. Race tracks are also safe places for maniacs like me to get
our fill of vroom vroom in a safe, controlled environment.

Race tracks around the country are closing, largely because the real
estate they sit on is growing exponentially in value, and developers are looking to cash in on new commercial and residential projects. Unchecked American suburban sprawl, politically-bent zoning practices, and perhaps
most ironically, a forced car-dependent social structure is
speed-running the collapse of American motorsport.

With some serious collective effort, we enthusiasts could come together
to at least stem the tide of dying tracks. We need to support our
tracks, support politicians who disincentivize these large corporate developments, organize political and legal battles against them, and more.

What can we do about it?

Jeff Gross/Getty Images

Race tracks require cash, land, and passion in equal measure.-aTo save
your local track, you're going to have to invite your friends along, or
make new ones along the wayrCowhich is the point of having hobbies in the first place. The best way to ensure your nearest track sticks around is
to support it. Get your project car finished and sign up for a track
day, buy a ticket for the next race on the calendar, and order some merch.-aPush the oil, tire, and parts companies you buy from to support
the tracks through sponsorship.

When the fight comes to you, however, you need to fight back. These billionaire-backed developments require local quelling efforts.
Automotive enthusiasts who want to keep tracks alive need to support down-ballot political candidates who fight against the likes of data
centers and suburbia hell. The other side of that coin is-apromoting
urban housing density, multi-family and mixed-use zoning, and public
transit in cities as the best way to help keep our race tracks around.

It's a stretch, but if the track owners are-aset on selling, maybe you
can convince the regular track rats and event-goers to come together
with a creative buyout, with potential collective ownership. The easiest
thing to do might be to convince a local rich guy that the safe place he
uses to exercise his hypercars is in jeopardy, and he needs to save it
for himself and others.

This isn't a new problem

Morse Collection/gado/Getty Images

Unfortunately, the Pitt Race closure isn't a new problem, as
internationally famed racing facilities have been closing across America
for decades now. Some of the greatest tracks in America, like
Continental Divide Raceways, Ontario Motor Speedway, Riverside
International, and Bridgehampton Race Circuit (above), met their demise
at the intersection of encroaching residential sprawl and exponential
growth of real estate demand. Each of these tracks hosted pro-category
events from NASCAR and Can-Am to USAC and Formula 1, not to mention the thousands of amateurs who set their sights (and wallets) on glory and a
cheap plastic trophy every year.

It is a fact of life that the hobby of motorsport requires a lot of wide
open space to operate, particularly road course racing. Many of the
greatest racing facilities in the country are situated on huge tracts of
land, and developers are looking for their next big paycheck. Combined
with the destruction of the working middle-class and the explosive
nature of inflation and a growing housing crisis, these issues all link together.

It isn't just road courses affected, either. Drag racing tracks are
getting closed by the dozens as the sport becomes increasingly out of
reach (culturally and economically) for most of America's youth. Small grassroots tracks can't survive if they can't attract more people.
Decreasing ticket sales, pressure from municipalities, and encroaching developments threaten the livelihoods-aof American racers.

Changing national priorities

Alexander Scheuber/Getty Images

This is a cataclysmic situation for American motorsport, as our fender-to-fender, adrenaline-fueled combat fields are turned into office
parks and little boxes. The loss is more than just an issue of real
estate and money rCo it's a shift in priorities. Americans are
increasingly moving their lives inside and online, shirking their
cultural responsibilities to participate.

Homes are fashioned in an effort to avoid leaving, building home bars,
large home theaters, and bowling alleys as those cultural touchstones
and important third spaces face ruin. Once totemic shopping malls and
grocery stores have been hamstrung by Amazon delivery and using an app
to do your shopping for you. If you can't be bothered to leave your
house to buy dinner, why would you want to go to all the effort to build
a race car? Why race it against other real-life, in-person humans when
you could just hop on iRacing and compete in a dozen different races
tonight?

Aaron Robinson for Hagerty had this to say about it

"Once upon a time, a bolder America accepted and even celebrated these facilities as proof that the world's greatest economy produced vital and thrilling pursuits that enriched our lives and supplied a creative
outlet to our energy and industry. Now, a more flaccid nation that
prefers to sit at home streaming and shopping foreign-made junk online
sees nothing in these venues but noise, pollution, and risk. They are unwittingly being stoked by gimlet-eyed developers who are salivating
over the land and willing to fund legal teams and sympathetic council candidates."

Can the Willow Springs method work?

Christopher Polk/Getty Images
One legendary California racing facility, Willow Springs, may have found
the best way to stay alive in these changing times. The track, located
in Rosamond, California, among the deserts north of Los Angeles, was
facing all the same issues we've covered, even after decades of
operation as an icon of racing. The long-time owners, the Huth family,
listed the facility for sale, and it was purchased outright by private
equity firm CrossHarbor Capital Partners in a partnership with Singer
Vehicle Design. CrossHarbor specializes in "property turnarounds,"-aand
the result, just over a year later, has been impressive.

Once home to SoCal's on-track cheap thrills, Willow Springs is being transformed into a high-end world-class automotive country club, car
condo, and rental facility for wealthy enthusiasts. Cheap weekend track
days couldn't keep the track alive forever, but with the move to service
a richer demographic, the owners clearly want to turn a large profit
instead of maximizing access for all enthusiasts.

The track, which has been open since 1953, is a fixture of Southern
California motorsport history, and it would be an absolute travesty to
lose it. Having it change hands and be operated by wealthy venture
capitalists is certainly a better outcome than never having Willow
Springs again, but for many enthusiasts the increased cost of entry is
pushing them out anyway, so the resulting loss of access is basically
the same story, told a different way. It's difficult to say for certain
how expensive a weekend at Big Willow will get in the near future, but
costs have risen significantly in 2026, and local enthusiasts are
bracing for impact as rumors of the track's daily rental rate tripling
settle in.

Is this the end?

Bernard Cahier/Getty Images

Concludes Robinson, "But the relentless demand for more housing drives
cities to flatten anything in their path that appeals only to a
minority. And like it or not, we are a minority. Unless we fight, unless
we write letters and go to council meetings and support candidates who
believe there should be recreational room for everyone, we will end up
like the misfits in medieval times, hounded out the city gates and
banished to the countryside so that we can continue enjoying activities
that were once popular in an earlier, more energetic age."

As car and track enthusiasts, we need to restructure, reconnect, and
rebuild. So much of this industry is based around a me-versus-the-world mentality of personal improvement, but in order for it to survive, we're
going to need to band together. We need to be as open and welcoming as possible at the track, which means providing inclusive spaces for women,
LGBTQ enthusiasts, and minorities. The more enthusiasts push others
away, the quicker this hobby will die off. If we all come together to
support our race tracks and welcome everyone into the fold, race tracks
might not have an incentive to sell their land for development.

Even if you don't have the capacity or financial capability to save a
race track all on your own, you can still make a difference. Talk to
your local track owners and get involved in keeping it running; maybe
start a volunteer campaign to help maintain the facilities you use. None
of this is easy, but you have to show up, get involved, help promote
events, bring friends along for the ride, and get them hooked on it too.
These places are important to us, and we need to treat them like they are.

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