Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, originally known as Madison Township Raceway Park, is an American auto racing facility located in Old Bridge Township, in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States (with an Englishtown ZIP code).
Raceway Park was founded in 1965 by Vincent Napoliello and Louis Napoliello. [1] The site was originally 308 acres on 230 Pension Road, just off of County Route 527 (now Englishtown Road). Since then it has grown to 500+ acres with multiple motorsports activities. The track opened with a single 1/4 mile dragstrip. Raceway Park offered two dragstrips, three motocross tracks, a 1.3-mile (2.1 km) road course track, competition go kart racing track, autocross track, ride and drive site and adjacent Old Bridge Airport.
Their radio and television commercials featured the slogan: "Ah ha ha ha ha ha Raceway Park!" and "Rrrrrrrrraceway Park! ... Be there!". [2] [3] Raceway Park "is one of the most fabled drag strips in America, and it ranked among the country's top five tracks". [2]
Raceway Park previously hosted the SuperNationals (later Summernationals) of the National Hot Rod Association for Funny Car and Top Fuel competitions, as well as other drag racing events. In January 2018, NHRA and Raceway Park officials announced that the venue will cease hosting all drag racing events due to rising costs. Areas specific to drag racing will be converted to outdoor concert space. All other areas of the facility will remain operational, such as the drift track, go karts, motocross, etc. [4]
On September 3, 1977, the Grateful Dead performed for a crowd of 107,019 at Raceway Park, becoming the largest ticketed concert in the United States to date. [5] The show was recorded and released in album form as Volume 15 of "Dick's Picks", a series of live albums, in 1999. [6] The concert was the largest in the state's history. In 2017, Rolling Stone named the Raceway Park concert as part of the tour listed as one of the greatest of all time. [7] The concert is celebrated and remembered fondly by band members and music enthusiasts alike. "I grew up in Englishtown, New Jersey, and as a child played in the green field where the concert took place. It was a blessing to join some 150,000 colorful people who attended the memorable show that summer day," said Jerry Garcia's wife, Manasha Garcia, president and co-founder of the Jerry Garcia Foundation." [8] The Marshall Tucker Band and the New Riders of the Purple Sage performed as opening acts. [9] In May 2018, the Englishtown Project, a New Jersey touring band was formed to the celebrate the legendary concert. The group was formed by guitarist and singer Michael Falzarano, formerly of the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and Hot Tuna. [10]
As of 2022, the two drag strips on the property are closed. Raceway Park no longer hosts drag racing events of any type.
The 1/8-mile track was the host of junior dragsters and "trophy" classes. The 1/4-mile track was the host of everything from street-driven vehicles to the quickest in the sport, the top fuel dragsters.
| Year | Date(s) | Event | Category | Winning Driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | July 10−14 | 17th NHRA Budweiser Summernationals | Top Fuel | Darrell Gwynn |
| Funny Car | Kenny Bernstein | |||
| Pro Stock | Warren Johnson | |||
| 1990 | July 5−8 | 21st NHRA Budweiser Summernationals | Top Fuel | Gary Ormsby |
| Funny Car | Chuck Etchells | |||
| Pro Stock | Darrell Alderman | |||
| 2006 | June 15–18 | K&N Filters SuperNationals [11] | Top Fuel | Rod Fuller |
| 2007 | June 21−24 | 38th ProCare Rx NHRA SuperNationals | Top Fuel | Larry Dixon |
| Funny Car | Tommy Johnson Jr. | |||
| Pro Stock | Greg Anderson | |||
| Pro Stock Motorcycle | Craig Treble | |||
| 2011 | June 2−5 | 42nd NHRA SuperNationals | Top Fuel | Spencer Massey |
| Funny Car | Mike Neff | |||
| Pro Stock | Allen Johnson | |||
| Pro Stock Motorcycle | Matt Smith | |||
| 2016 | June 9−12 | 47th NHRA Summernationals | Top Fuel | Steve Torrance |
| Funny Car | Ron Capps | |||
| Pro Stock | Greg Anderson | |||
| Pro Stock Motorcycle | Angelle Sampey | |||
| 2017 | June 8–11 | 48th E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Summernationals | Top Fuel | Steve Torrance |
| Funny Car | Jack Beckman | |||
| Pro Stock | Greg Anderson | |||
| Pro Stock Motorcycle | Jerry Savoie |
The riding surfaces on the practice motocross tracks are mostly soft loam, which is known to be one of the best surfaces for a nice ride, and are slightly angled to allow for drainage. The tracks are also regularly maintained to keep the jump faces, bowls, and whoops from rutting and cupping out. The tracks provide both long, straight paths for speed and challenging obstacles such as off cambers, banks, ledges, and ditches.
Drifting is hosted by a company called ClubLoose; they have been running events there since 2002, which started off in the parking lot, but now take places only on the road course. With different classes ranging from introductory, intermediate, and the top level which allows tandeming with other drivers on the track simultaneously. Both the car and the equipment being used by every driver get inspected prior to being allowed to participate. Rear-wheel-drive cars are the only cars that will pass ClubLoose technical inspection.
Raceway Park offers a series of car shows, concerts, mud runs, motocross and swap meet events throughout their season. In the past every Wednesday and select Friday nights they had Time Trials where the track was open for anyone who would like to race their cars, bike, etc. for practice.
Drag racing is a type of motor racing in which automobiles or motorcycles compete, usually two at a time, to be first to cross a set finish line. The race follows a short, straight course from a standing start over a measured distance, most commonly 1⁄4 mi, with a shorter, 1,000 ft distance becoming increasingly popular, as it has become the standard for Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars, where some major bracket races and other sanctioning bodies have adopted it as the standard. The 1⁄8 mi is also popular in some circles. Electronic timing and speed sensing systems have been used to record race results since the 1960s.
The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) is a governing body which sets rules in drag racing and hosts events all over the United States and Canada. With over 40,000 drivers in its rosters, the NHRA claims to be the largest motorsports sanctioning body in the world.
A dragstrip is a facility for conducting automobile and motorcycle acceleration events such as drag racing. Although a quarter mile is the best known measure for a drag track, many tracks are eighth mile (201 m) tracks, and the premiere classes will run 1,000 foot (304.8 m) races. The race is begun from a standing start which allows three factors to affect the outcome of the race: reaction time, power/weight ratio, and traction.
Pacific Raceways is a mixed-use road racing and drag racing facility near Kent, Washington. The race track was constructed in 1959 and opened in 1960. The track was originally named Kent Pacific Raceways, then became known as Seattle International Raceways in 1969. After the landowner regained control of the track in 2002, the name reverted to Pacific Raceways.
Michael Falzarano is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He has been a professional musician since the 1970s, most notably in Hot Tuna, the New Riders of the Purple Sage, and the Memphis Pilgrims, a Memphis-style rock and roll/blues band that he founded in 1986.
Route 66 Raceway is a motorsports facility located in Joliet, Illinois, United States. It consists of a 0.25-mile (0.40 km) dragstrip and a 0.375-mile (0.604 km) dirt oval racetrack. The facility is owned and operated by NASCAR and is located adjacent to Chicagoland Speedway.
Dick's Picks Volume 15 is the 15th live album in the Dick's Picks series of releases by the Grateful Dead. It features the complete show recorded on September 3, 1977, at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. Also appearing at the event were the New Riders of the Purple Sage and The Marshall Tucker Band. The band performed to a crowd estimated at between 100,000 and 150,000 attendees.
Scott D. Kalitta was an American drag racer who competed in the Funny Car and Top Fuel classes in the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. He had 17 career Top Fuel wins and one career Funny Car win. At the time of his death, due to an accident during race qualifying, he was one of 14 drivers to win in both divisions. He was the son of veteran NHRA driver and crew chief Connie Kalitta.
Eddie Krawiec is an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock Motorcycle racer. He currently pilots the #2 Buell Motorcycles Pro Stock bike for Vance & Hines as a teammate to 4-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Andrew Hines. Ed Krawiec, a former AMA Prostar racer, served as a full-time employee of Old Bridge Township Raceway Park from 1999 through 2007, and became dragstrip manager in 2001.
Mission Raceway Park, also known as MRP, is an auto racing facility located in Mission, British Columbia, Canada. The facility features a ¼ mile NHRA-sanctioned dragstrip, a 2 km (1.2 mi) 9-turn road course, and a 3 km (2 mi) motocross track. It is owned and operated by the B.C. Custom Car Association, and the BCCCA operates the drag strip directly. The road course and motocross tracks are operated independently by the Sports Car Club of British Columbia (SCCBC) and the Lower Mainland Motocross Club (LMMC) respectively. The road course was renamed in 2022, now known as the Speed-Fanatics Motorsports Circuit.
RAD Torque Raceway, formerly known as Capital City Raceway Park, Capital Raceway, Labatt Raceway, Budweiser Motorsports Park, and Castrol Raceway, is a multi-track auto racing facility located just south of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Located on land leased from the Edmonton International Airport, the clay oval opened in 1991 and the dragstrip opened in 1992. The facility went into receivership at the end of the 1997 season. It was purchased by Rob Reeves and ten other local racers and businessmen, and re-opened in 1998. Several of the investors have opted out since 2000 but remain as advertising sponsors of the facility. Soul track owner and operator Rob Reeves have stepped aside from their duties (1997-2023), as current owner Glen Stenabaugh has recently purchased the facility from Reeves following 26 years of ownership.
There has been auto racing in Illinois for almost as long as there have been automobiles. Almost every type of motorsport found in the United States can be found in Illinois. Both modern and historic tracks exist in Illinois, including NASCAR's Chicagoland Speedway and Gateway International Speedway. Notable drivers from Illinois include Danica Patrick, Tony Bettenhausen, and Fred Lorenzen.
Maple Grove Raceway (MGR) is a quarter-mile dragstrip located near Mohnton, Pennsylvania, just outside Reading. It opened in 1962 as a 1/5-mile dragstrip. It was eventually lengthened to its current quarter-mile length in 1964. The track has been sanctioned by the National Hot Rod Association for most of its existence. It has hosted an NHRA national event since 1985. Uni-Select Auto Plus came aboard as the Nationals sponsor in 2011. Other key events include the American Drag Racing League, the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, the Geezers Reunion at The Grove, the Super Chevy Show, Mopar Action, Fun Ford Weekend and the NHRA Pennsylvania Dutch Classic.
Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP) is a 1/4 mile dragstrip in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, just outside of Petersburg. It opened in 1994 and originally hosted the NHRA's Virginia NHRA Nationals. It has a seating capacity of 23,000 spectators. After a brief time with IHRA beginning in 2010, the track returned to NHRA in 2012.
The 2008 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series consisted of 24 national events held at tracks across the U.S. The first 18 events made up the regular season, with the final events making up the "Countdown to 1". This season marked the introduction of 1000' drag racing for the nitro competitors after the death of Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta in Englishtown, N.J. John Force returned to competition after his near fatal crash in Dallas toward the end of the 2007 Season. John's daughter Ashley became the first female funny car winner beating her father John in the finals at Atlanta. This season also marked the most dominant season by a professional driver in history, as Tony Schumacher won 15 races and became the only driver in the countdown era to clinch the championship before the season finale.
Orange County International Raceway was a combined 1⁄4-mile US dragstrip and 2-mile road course, plus a motocross track, located in Irvine, California adjacent to the Interstate 5 (I-5) Santa Ana Freeway. Under a lease agreement with the Irvine Company, OCIR – as it was known in racing circles – was in operation from August 5, 1967, until its closure on October 30, 1983. The track was so named because its founders envisioned hosting sports car, motorcycle, midget, and stock car races in addition to National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) sanctioned drag racing events.
National Trail Raceway is a quarter-mile dragstrip located between Hebron and Kirkersville, Ohio, USA, off of U.S. Route 40. The race track is located about 30 minutes east of Columbus, Ohio. It is known to local residents as 'National Trails'.
The 2018 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Season was announced on June 6, 2017.
Ed McCulloch, nicknamed "The Ace", is an American dragster and funny car driver.
The NHRA Summernationals, hosted by the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA), was an annual drag racing event held from 1970 to 2018, mostly at the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in New Jersey.
Over Labor Day weekend 1977, the Grateful Dead played a one-off gig at Englishtown, New Jersey's Raceway Park that drew over 125,000 fans to the facility (in his book A Long Strange Trip, Dennis McNally estimates attendance as 'more than 150,000'). Billed as the Summer's End Concert, the performance on Saturday, September 3, 1977, was the group's first show in nearly three months, and also featured opening sets from the Marshall Tucker Band and New Riders of the Purple Sage.
Tribute bands are commonplace, but the Englishtown Project might just be one of a kind: a group that pays tribute to one particular concert. The group, formed by guitarist and singer Michael Falzarano (New Riders of the Purple Sage, former Hot Tuna), recreates the legendary Sept. 3, 1977, show in Englishtown, New Jersey, which was headlined by the Grateful Dead and also featured the New Riders and the Marshall Tucker Band.
40°19.985′N74°20.922′W / 40.333083°N 74.348700°W
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