As I understood the situation, MIR was part of a package deal being sold with Palm Beach International Raceway. When the locals in West Palm fought the sale and tried to keep it open, the buyer backed out of purchasing both. The company that owned the tracks sold off everything that wasn’t a permanent fixture, so if someone wanted to buy it to run it as a race track, they would have to spend a whole lot more money to make it operable. As I understand, the property is still for sale.
You're the first person to mention this as both a Memphian and NASCAR/NHRA fanatic, this hurts and sucks to learn about. Hell I've volunteered to drawn up plans for saving or resurrecting the racing grounds because it was needed to feel one at home and two like the other tracks in schedules like the rock is coming back after it's last race in 2004, north wilksboro in the all-star feature holder and with enough time Chicagoland could be back on the circuit - no pun intended 😂. I need to chat with REAL investors, track owners and car enthusiasts to get this and bring REAL racing back to the south. I love my city (from a distance) yet this allured me the most for racing is my favorite sport 😢😢😢...
Been in mempho all my life . . That place has had many changes !!! It has had 3 diff sizes of dirt tracks , and the drag strip was great for a while . . I ran my car on test n tune back in 90s , and went to all the dirt tracks , plus the 3/4 mile asphalt track . . . Thats sad to see , but now its too exspensive to have toys anymore , a testament to how the country as a whole has changed
Just became your 1000th subscriber. Great footage. totally heartbreaking to see all the broken windows and general disrepair. I've spent many mile on that dragstrip and I hate to see it like this.
I did an SCCA driver's school on the road course in 1986. I recall that it was perhaps the first event because even the instructors were still learning the course. That was a private event so it could be that the facility was not deemed "open to the public" until 1987. That year SCCA ran a Trans Am race but there was not much of a turnout. "Spectator" events on the road course were a bust because neither SCCA, the track, nor local sponsors had much of a marketing budget.
I truly don’t think this track has to be dead. The track itself is in fine condition. Yes you’d have to level off the surrounding areas but the market it’s in is worth the investment considering the current spends on these street races. I would really love to see NASCAR, Speedway Motorsports, Track Enterprises, Penske, Gateway or someone invest in this place. If North Wilkesboro can come back then Memphis surely can.
I use to race at the dirt track before they made it a parking lot and also instructed at the race on driving experience that was once based there and I have to say there is really not a market for it anymore, North Wilkesboro works because they have the support of all of the county and it’s in nascar country. The people that care about nascar are very few in Memphis by comparison. There’s really not much to do in Memphis to make it an attraction other than go to the bass pro shop Pyramid and Memphis in general is horribly crime infested. So not much to do in the downtime of a race weekend. The drag strip did have the test n tunes and such, but the folks that do the street races and takeovers are never coming to a real track because they want to drink, smoke weed, gamble on the races and have guns with them, in general act foolish. It’s night and day difference between Memphis and North Wilkesboro which is a shame because the oval track is really awesome. Probably the best we can hope for is iRacing comes and scans it before it disappears for good.
I have so many memories of this place. Miss it dearly. The youth in Memphis will never get to experience all the good this track brought to our city. Great vid! Hopefully it gets the attention of someone who can revitalize it into a racetrack again! We need good, clean fun back in this city.
Memphis Motorsports Park opened in 1987 by Ed Gatlin. Sold to Grand Prix of Longbeach, later to be acquired by Dover Motorsports (also owned Dover International Raceway, Nashville Super Speedway and Gateway International Raceway). Peak operation around 2006 with well over 300 events per year including NHRA Regional and National events, Super Chevy Show, NASCAR Craftsman Trucks and Xfinity (then Busch and Nationwide) just to name a few. Ceased operation in November of 2009. Sold at auction in December of 2010 for $1.9 million by Moroso Investment (also owned Palm Beach International Raceway and Cordova International Raceway). Operation resumed in 2011 under the new name of Memphis International Raceway, and it was later acquired by IRG Sports and Entertainment who operated it to its current state. There was a deal with a warehouse developer, but that has since fallen through. There is currently rumor of another pending sale...
Great info! Thanks for sharing. Also, I'm assuming you serve or served with Bartlett Fire (judging by your YT handle). Appreciate you looking out for us residents of Bartlett.
This pisses me off because we have such a car culture in the US but almost nowhere to inexpensively drive sports cars. I hate takeovers, street races, and reckless driving but then I see perfectly good racetracks like this just abandoned by private owners...we need a public racetrack or "unlimited road" in each state.
If this track was "just abandoned" it would still be in redeemable condition. Trashy humans have destroyed it to what it is today. Fix your blame target.
I used to race a Yamaha FZR 600 at Memphis Motorsports Park in 90, 91. Sad to see. Good memories of that track. I live in Madison, MS. So it was a local track for us.
I have so many memories from there and wanting those video makes me want to go up there just to get a bunch of video for my RUclips channel and pictures and whatnot else
It was never Memphis International Speedway. Originally Memphis Motorsports Park. Then after Dover bought it, it renamed to Memphis International Raceway.
If I had a dollar for every time in my life I've gotten that wrong...I'd have quite a few dollars. Thanks for sorting that. I even had the name sitting in my face the whole time and KEPT calling it speedway 🤦♂
Nice video of a sad topic. The drag strip track itself was pretty good. Lots of fast times run there and of course a lot of historic happenings. I attended the drag strip, dirt track and 3/4 mile asphalt track for years. When there were racing events there, it wasn't promoted locally, the real fans knew, but not the "Average Joe" spectator. It sits in a bad location as far as amenities go with no motels, restaurants, etc close by. Going to that area from the south (Memphis) isn't the best neighborhood.. All that helped kill the facility. As they say "It's a Memphis Thang...."
The big oval was last to be put in. It’s budget killed the dragstip and road course. They were never able to put enough stands in to make it profitable. It would have survived if the big oval wasn’t there and they kept the dirt track. They just weren’t going to make NASCAR money without the stands. That’s why NASCAR pulled their races.
NASCAR didn't pull the races. That was a decision made by Dover Motorsports to cease operation, who owned it at the time. What you said does hold a lot of truth in the fact that the Oval just didn't support itself. I do blame NASCAR for a lot of it in what it costs to operate a stand alone race. The Drag Strip and Road Course made money, the Oval did not. The Dirt Track basically just broke even.
This track was a good part of my childhood growing up going here to watch truck and busch races in the mid 2000s. Did you have to get any special permissions to go out and film here?
I didn't but because I flew most of it I was able to stay in a very open and obvious spot. There was an officer out there patrolling but he never approached us and no gates were closed anywhere.
This track was about a mile from my house. I spent just about every Thursday of my teens and 20s there for test and tune. Really hated to see it go. The closet track we have now is Holley springs ms and I don’t really care to go there
So Sad! I attended all of the NHRA Drag races! Now the closest track is Madison, IL. across the river from St. Louis. I have pictures from John Forces crash & burn the day he saw Elvis! Please someone purchase and MMRGA Make Memphis Racing Great Again!🏁🏁🏁
At one point in the early 2000s, the NASCAR Busch (now Xfinity) Grand National Series ran here, as well as in Nashville (Fairgrounds, then Superspeedway), AND Bristol (if I'm not mistaken, the Trucks ran at all three tracks, too). Hate to see Memphis Motorsports Park (as it was once known) in that bad of shape.
As both a Memphian and NASCAR/NHRA fanatic, this hurts and sucks to learn about. Hell I've volunteered to drawn up plans for saving or resurrecting the racing grounds because it was needed to feel one at home and two like the other tracks in schedules like the rock is coming back after it's last race in 2004, north wilksboro in the all-star feature holder and with enough time Chicagoland could be back on thecircuit - no pun intended 😂. I need to chat with REAL investors, track owners and car enthusiasts to get this and bring REAL racing back to the south. I love my city (from a distance) yet this allured me the most for racing is my favorite sport 😢😢😢...
Well I believe the new IHRA president took a picture at the Memphis track the other day and supposedly the new IHRA has some major plans coming so it might be interesting to see.
@@AmericanAbandonedif youre from that area we should rip some packs sometime. I live 2 hours away but come thru millington sometimes. My friend I fly with lives 10 minutes from that racetrack
@@rogerchristeson Really?! Chances are I know that person, lol. I race, and am a part of 901FPV. Our track is just north of the Raceway location in Millington!
@@AmericanAbandoned damn thats cool. His name is Larry Cook. We're both on FPV Life. I seen youre on there too. Neither of us race. Not yet anyway. I had no idea there was a track around there. Im gonna let him know about you because we're always lookin for people to fly with
NASCAR has got to start jumping on these 1/2-5/8-3/4 mile tracks that are just being forced to close and turning to ruins. There’s gotta be something done, I keep suggesting a mini summer season, on top of the season itself, 8-12 races, all more local tracks, 10-20k seating is fine, drivers/teams can opt to skip them but make it more of a Monday-Wednesday race day thing across the country where the purses are decent and they can reach back out to the fan group they’ve abandoned by going bigger and bigger, give back to the grassroots. They make excuse that they wouldn’t have enough seating, look at the stands at a lot of cup races it’s pitiful. It was better this season than it has been for a while, but still that’s after most tracks have 50-70% less seats and the remainders a fifth usually covered with corporate banners so the races can be considered “sold out” if they did something with this track like they did wilksboro, make it look nostalgic that is what’s in right now, do so with a few more tracks, I guarantee you drivers/teams will want to do a summer heat racing series on top of the regular season for additional income and bring back to the grassroots fans who continue to pack local tracks everywhere while slowly losing the ones that even they are doing great.
The next installmet of ABANDONED AMERICA is live: ruclips.net/video/9oJeu_HPrxo/видео.htmlsi=nD2q6TmElB0Oe43m
As I understood the situation, MIR was part of a package deal being sold with Palm Beach International Raceway. When the locals in West Palm fought the sale and tried to keep it open, the buyer backed out of purchasing both. The company that owned the tracks sold off everything that wasn’t a permanent fixture, so if someone wanted to buy it to run it as a race track, they would have to spend a whole lot more money to make it operable. As I understand, the property is still for sale.
We need another rich car RUclipsr to buy this up and bring it back.
You're the first person to mention this as both a Memphian and NASCAR/NHRA fanatic, this hurts and sucks to learn about. Hell I've volunteered to drawn up plans for saving or resurrecting the racing grounds because it was needed to feel one at home and two like the other tracks in schedules like the rock is coming back after it's last race in 2004, north wilksboro in the all-star feature holder and with enough time Chicagoland could be back on the circuit - no pun intended 😂. I need to chat with REAL investors, track owners and car enthusiasts to get this and bring REAL racing back to the south. I love my city (from a distance) yet this allured me the most for racing is my favorite sport 😢😢😢...
@@aaronburratwood.6957well the new IHRA president took a picture of Memphis the other day so it might be an interesting story.
It felt like a funeral the last race I ran here.. I will always cherish every moment I had here & forever feel heartbroken it’s gone.. 😢💔
Many years of seeing you, Cliff, Clay and MANY others make laps up and down that dragstrip!
@@BFDT1LT soooo sad to see it like that now
Been in mempho all my life . . That place has had many changes !!! It has had 3 diff sizes of dirt tracks , and the drag strip was great for a while . . I ran my car on test n tune back in 90s , and went to all the dirt tracks , plus the 3/4 mile asphalt track . . . Thats sad to see , but now its too exspensive to have toys anymore , a testament to how the country as a whole has changed
Just became your 1000th subscriber. Great footage. totally heartbreaking to see all the broken windows and general disrepair. I've spent many mile on that dragstrip and I hate to see it like this.
Great production. Excellent filming. Great narration. Lots of information. Good Job.
Attended Test n Tune, The Midsouth Nationals, and Super Chevy many many times over the years. So sad that its gone.
I did an SCCA driver's school on the road course in 1986. I recall that it was perhaps the first event because even the instructors were still learning the course. That was a private event so it could be that the facility was not deemed "open to the public" until 1987. That year SCCA ran a Trans Am race but there was not much of a turnout. "Spectator" events on the road course were a bust because neither SCCA, the track, nor local sponsors had much of a marketing budget.
I grew up in the pits of that dirt track. My uncle raced stock cars. Great memories made there & the drag strip. So sad to see it go
I truly don’t think this track has to be dead. The track itself is in fine condition. Yes you’d have to level off the surrounding areas but the market it’s in is worth the investment considering the current spends on these street races. I would really love to see NASCAR, Speedway Motorsports, Track Enterprises, Penske, Gateway or someone invest in this place. If North Wilkesboro can come back then Memphis surely can.
I use to race at the dirt track before they made it a parking lot and also instructed at the race on driving experience that was once based there and I have to say there is really not a market for it anymore, North Wilkesboro works because they have the support of all of the county and it’s in nascar country. The people that care about nascar are very few in Memphis by comparison. There’s really not much to do in Memphis to make it an attraction other than go to the bass pro shop Pyramid and Memphis in general is horribly crime infested. So not much to do in the downtime of a race weekend. The drag strip did have the test n tunes and such, but the folks that do the street races and takeovers are never coming to a real track because they want to drink, smoke weed, gamble on the races and have guns with them, in general act foolish. It’s night and day difference between Memphis and North Wilkesboro which is a shame because the oval track is really awesome. Probably the best we can hope for is iRacing comes and scans it before it disappears for good.
@@driver8703 it has already been scanned.
John Force saw Elvis at a 1000 foot on fire at Memphis Dragway.
I have so many memories of this place. Miss it dearly. The youth in Memphis will never get to experience all the good this track brought to our city.
Great vid! Hopefully it gets the attention of someone who can revitalize it into a racetrack again! We need good, clean fun back in this city.
Memphis Motorsports Park opened in 1987 by Ed Gatlin. Sold to Grand Prix of Longbeach, later to be acquired by Dover Motorsports (also owned Dover International Raceway, Nashville Super Speedway and Gateway International Raceway). Peak operation around 2006 with well over 300 events per year including NHRA Regional and National events, Super Chevy Show, NASCAR Craftsman Trucks and Xfinity (then Busch and Nationwide) just to name a few. Ceased operation in November of 2009. Sold at auction in December of 2010 for $1.9 million by Moroso Investment (also owned Palm Beach International Raceway and Cordova International Raceway). Operation resumed in 2011 under the new name of Memphis International Raceway, and it was later acquired by IRG Sports and Entertainment who operated it to its current state. There was a deal with a warehouse developer, but that has since fallen through. There is currently rumor of another pending sale...
Great info! Thanks for sharing. Also, I'm assuming you serve or served with Bartlett Fire (judging by your YT handle). Appreciate you looking out for us residents of Bartlett.
This pisses me off because we have such a car culture in the US but almost nowhere to inexpensively drive sports cars. I hate takeovers, street races, and reckless driving but then I see perfectly good racetracks like this just abandoned by private owners...we need a public racetrack or "unlimited road" in each state.
If this track was "just abandoned" it would still be in redeemable condition. Trashy humans have destroyed it to what it is today. Fix your blame target.
Its gotten too exspensive to do anything out of eat and watch utube ☹️ degradation of america !!!
Too many lawsuits. I miss the silent service days
I used to race a Yamaha FZR 600 at Memphis Motorsports Park in 90, 91. Sad to see. Good memories of that track. I live in Madison, MS. So it was a local track for us.
I worked an ARCA race there in 2017. Harrison Burton won and our team finished 2nd. I enjoyed the facility and the track had some good racing!
Many Great Memories of the Drag Strip and Dirt Track even the Oval track
I worked the infield care center several times for truck and Busch races
I have so many memories from there and wanting those video makes me want to go up there just to get a bunch of video for my RUclips channel and pictures and whatnot else
I was there for the 1st night race for the truck series,fun night, and saw a few busch series races there as well. Looked like Richmond
Great footage! Grew up going to the dirt track, drag strip and the the paved track. Hate that this track went to crap.
Awesome footage. It's really sad to see the track just get left to rot out there
That's not rot.That is human destuction.
It was never Memphis International Speedway. Originally Memphis Motorsports Park. Then after Dover bought it, it renamed to Memphis International Raceway.
If I had a dollar for every time in my life I've gotten that wrong...I'd have quite a few dollars. Thanks for sorting that. I even had the name sitting in my face the whole time and KEPT calling it speedway 🤦♂
Close. Wasn't renamed MIR until Moroso Investment Partners acquired it at auction.
Nice video of a sad topic.
The drag strip track itself was pretty good. Lots of fast times run there and of course a lot of historic happenings. I attended the drag strip, dirt track and 3/4 mile asphalt track for years.
When there were racing events there, it wasn't promoted locally, the real fans knew, but not the "Average Joe" spectator. It sits in a bad location as far as amenities go with no motels, restaurants, etc close by.
Going to that area from the south (Memphis) isn't the best neighborhood.. All that helped kill the facility. As they say "It's a Memphis Thang...."
I started my professional drone journey at this venue. It will be missed by many
The big oval was last to be put in. It’s budget killed the dragstip and road course. They were never able to put enough stands in to make it profitable. It would have survived if the big oval wasn’t there and they kept the dirt track. They just weren’t going to make NASCAR money without the stands. That’s why NASCAR pulled their races.
NASCAR didn't pull the races. That was a decision made by Dover Motorsports to cease operation, who owned it at the time. What you said does hold a lot of truth in the fact that the Oval just didn't support itself. I do blame NASCAR for a lot of it in what it costs to operate a stand alone race. The Drag Strip and Road Course made money, the Oval did not. The Dirt Track basically just broke even.
Fond memories.. will hope for a comeback!
That place was my summer job when I was in high school. So sad to see it in that state.
dang, that is sad :(
I went to 2 races at the oval track with the teams. It was HOT at the time of year we raced,
It’s amazing to me
“JUST HOW MANY”
Race Tracks have been
“CLOSED” or “DEMOLISHED”
In the last 10 years…..
it's pretty sad :(
It hosted some good tractor and truck pulls with Monster trucks too.
This track was a good part of my childhood growing up going here to watch truck and busch races in the mid 2000s. Did you have to get any special permissions to go out and film here?
I didn't but because I flew most of it I was able to stay in a very open and obvious spot. There was an officer out there patrolling but he never approached us and no gates were closed anywhere.
This track was about a mile from my house. I spent just about every Thursday of my teens and 20s there for test and tune. Really hated to see it go. The closet track we have now is Holley springs ms and I don’t really care to go there
not a fan of the Holly Springs track...or the antics around it myself. Only been a few times.
So Sad! I attended all of the NHRA Drag races! Now the closest track is Madison, IL. across the river from St. Louis. I have pictures from John Forces crash & burn the day he saw Elvis! Please someone purchase and MMRGA Make Memphis Racing Great Again!🏁🏁🏁
Does anybody know why this track has a weird grandstand formation?
lots of passes there.
started out in junior dragsters and moved up to big cars...
Man this my local track growing up. Once they shut the dirt track it started losing money fast.
At one point in the early 2000s, the NASCAR Busch (now Xfinity) Grand National Series ran here, as well as in Nashville (Fairgrounds, then Superspeedway), AND Bristol (if I'm not mistaken, the Trucks ran at all three tracks, too).
Hate to see Memphis Motorsports Park (as it was once known) in that bad of shape.
it is now was not abandoned until this last year
It's sad watching all these raceways become nothing more than a memory.
It's really sad :(
As both a Memphian and NASCAR/NHRA fanatic, this hurts and sucks to learn about. Hell I've volunteered to drawn up plans for saving or resurrecting the racing grounds because it was needed to feel one at home and two like the other tracks in schedules like the rock is coming back after it's last race in 2004, north wilksboro in the all-star feature holder and with enough time Chicagoland could be back on thecircuit - no pun intended 😂. I need to chat with REAL investors, track owners and car enthusiasts to get this and bring REAL racing back to the south. I love my city (from a distance) yet this allured me the most for racing is my favorite sport 😢😢😢...
Well I believe the new IHRA president took a picture at the Memphis track the other day and supposedly the new IHRA has some major plans coming so it might be interesting to see.
I will def be keeping an eye on that! Exciting to hear!
If only they had a basketball court🤔
The same track David Reutimann scored his singular Busch Series win? Darn
Is this the one on Fite rd?
it sure is :)
@@AmericanAbandonedif youre from that area we should rip some packs sometime. I live 2 hours away but come thru millington sometimes. My friend I fly with lives 10 minutes from that racetrack
@@rogerchristeson Really?! Chances are I know that person, lol. I race, and am a part of 901FPV. Our track is just north of the Raceway location in Millington!
@@AmericanAbandoned damn thats cool. His name is Larry Cook. We're both on FPV Life. I seen youre on there too. Neither of us race. Not yet anyway. I had no idea there was a track around there. Im gonna let him know about you because we're always lookin for people to fly with
@@rogerchristeson y'all should hit us up in the 901fpv discord, I'm one of the race directors but also coordinate freestyle meetups pretty regularly!
does SMI still own this track? because they will probably not do anything about it...already 3 other tracks in Tennessee
SMI never owned this facility.
@@BFDT1LT didn't Dover motorsports own it?
@@jabber1990 yes, much prior to SMI purchasing Dover Motorsports. Dover sold it at auction in 2010.
@@BFDT1LT explains why they stopped racing there
NASCAR Craftsman Truck you mean?
yep, :/
What a shame!
NASCAR has got to start jumping on these 1/2-5/8-3/4 mile tracks that are just being forced to close and turning to ruins. There’s gotta be something done, I keep suggesting a mini summer season, on top of the season itself, 8-12 races, all more local tracks, 10-20k seating is fine, drivers/teams can opt to skip them but make it more of a Monday-Wednesday race day thing across the country where the purses are decent and they can reach back out to the fan group they’ve abandoned by going bigger and bigger, give back to the grassroots. They make excuse that they wouldn’t have enough seating, look at the stands at a lot of cup races it’s pitiful. It was better this season than it has been for a while, but still that’s after most tracks have 50-70% less seats and the remainders a fifth usually covered with corporate banners so the races can be considered “sold out” if they did something with this track like they did wilksboro, make it look nostalgic that is what’s in right now, do so with a few more tracks, I guarantee you drivers/teams will want to do a summer heat racing series on top of the regular season for additional income and bring back to the grassroots fans who continue to pack local tracks everywhere while slowly losing the ones that even they are doing great.
The days of back pocket money , going somewhere without getting shot , and eating food you can afford is gone . . . 😢
man, it's sad.